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Best and worst moments from Beatles’ 50th anniversary special

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Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr
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Sean Penn
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Stevie Wonder
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Katy Perry
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Johnny Depp
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Pharrell Williams and Brad Paisley
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Maroon 5
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Jeff Bridges
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John Mayer and Keith Urban
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Annie Lennox and David A. Stewart of The Eurythmics
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Alicia Keys, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr
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John Legend, Christine Teigen, Behati Prinsloo and Adam Levine
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Anna Kendrick and Kate Beckinsale
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Katy Perry
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Pharrell Williams
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Annie Lennox and David A. Stewart
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Sunday night’s CBS special, “The Beatles: The Night That Changed America,” celebrated the 50th anniversary of The Fab Four’s live appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” which did, indeed, “change America” and provided a seismic sociological shift in our culture.

The night featured a reunion of surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, and A-list artists (Stevie Wonder, John Mayer, Dave Grohl et al.) performing classic Beatles songs.

The night also provide many lasting images — some good, some not-so-good — that everyone’s talking about in the typical Monday-morning quarterback kind of way.

So, in that spirit, here’s my take on the night’s “Five Best” and “Five Worst” moments from Sunday’s night’s CBS special.

Five Best Moments:

1.) Ringo Starr singing onstage singing “Yellow Submarine” and “Boys.” He was vibrant and seemed to be enjoying himself, despite singing songs he’s sung thousands of times before in the past 50-plus years. He’s 73 now, but you wouldn’t know that from his energetic performance. We’ll cut him some slack in the vocal department.

2.) Ringo and Paul McCartney together on stage, performing “With A Little Help From My Friends” and, with Ringo on the drums, “Hey Jude.” Brought a tear to the eye, especially when they gave a shout-out to late Beatle brothers John Lennon and George Harrison.

3.) Glorious black-and-white clips from the Beatles Feb. 9, 1964 live appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” which reminded us of the magic. The excitement was still tangible, 50 years later.

4.) Quick-hit bios of all four Beatles — informative and illustrative, without overdoing it.

5.) Adam Levine and Maroon 5 performing “All My Loving” (who knew Levine played the guitar?). They were obviously nervous, but found their groove and delivered a dynamic performance.

Five Worst Moments:

1.) Any of the roughly 48 times the CBS cameras cut to Rita Wilson dancing and singing along. Because when people think “The Beatles,” they think Tom Hanks’ wife. WTF?

2.) Yoko Ono dancing in the aisle. That should never happen in public. Awkward, and reminiscent of Elaine’s infamous embarrassing dance moves on “Seinfeld.” And please, Yoko, take the huge sunglasses off already.

3.) Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart. Maybe the tens of people awaiting their reunion were in heaven, but they butchered “The Fool on the Hill.”

4.) Imagine Dragon and its reworking of “Revolution.” John Lennon’s snarling anthem reduced to acoustic dinner-theatre music.

5.) Katy Perry’s interpretation of “Yesterday.” Why? (Honorable mention to Ed Sheeran’s crooning of “In My Life.”)