If you told me you could draw a Venn Diagram with Ed Sullivan and The Band, and there was any overlap, I’d think you were hallucinating. But there it is, larger than life. One of the jolliest songs ever written, delivered live on TV.

Don’t get me wrong. Ed was very lower-case “C “catholic in his tastes, but he tended to glom onto the next big thing, not guys twenty or thirty slots down on the charts. But the quickest way to stardom for entertainers used to be a slot on his show, or Carson’s. Instant notoriety, if you can keep it.

Hmm. “One of the jolliest songs ever written.” There are worse things you could mention about a fellow after he passed away.