{"id":700990,"date":"2026-05-29T06:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T06:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/700990\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T06:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T06:34:10","slug":"paul-mccartney-says-the-beatles-were-the-greatest-band-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/700990\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul McCartney Says The Beatles Were \u201cthe Greatest Band Ever\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

For decades, Sir Paul McCartney<\/a> resisted calling The Beatles the greatest band of all time, routinely pointing instead to The Everly Brothers as the defining musical influence on himself and John Lennon. But during a recent TikTok livestream Q&A with fans, the former Beatle appeared to finally embrace his own group\u2019s colossal legacy head-on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think The Beatles were the greatest band ever,\u201d McCartney said while reflecting on the band\u2019s enduring popularity across generations (via The Telegraph<\/a>). \u201cI\u2019m a fan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pre-order The Boys of Dungeon Lane<\/a><\/p>\n

The comments arrived as the 83-year-old icon looked back on the longevity of a band that expected its career to last only a handful of years. Speaking candidly during the livestream, McCartney marveled at how The Beatles\u2019 music continues to resonate with younger listeners nearly six decades after Beatlemania first swept the globe.<\/p>\n

Related Video<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we started out, we were just kids, and rock \u2018n\u2019 roll was just really coming in, and we thought, \u2018If we\u2019re lucky, we\u2019ve got a couple of years,\u2019\u201d McCartney said. \u201cThat\u2019s how long people normally lasted.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cWe expected maybe five years max, and then that became 10, and we were kind of still going, and the scene\u2019s still there. Then it became 20, then 30, and now it\u2019s right up there. It\u2019s great; it is a lovely feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCartney also reflected on the unique validation that comes from hearing younger generations connect with The Beatles\u2019 catalog decades after its release.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will come to me and say, \u2018My kids love your music,\u2019\u201d he shared. \u201cAnd that\u2019s something, you know, because you can\u2019t indoctrinate kids. They just either like it or they don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though McCartney now appears comfortable placing The Beatles atop the pantheon of pop music, he has long spoken about The Everly Brothers\u2019 influence on the band\u2019s early songwriting and vocal arrangements. In his 2021 memoir The Lyrics<\/a>, he described the duo as the single biggest inspiration for both himself and Lennon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest influence on John and me was the Everly Brothers,\u201d he wrote. \u201cTo this day, I just think they\u2019re the greatest. And they were different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere during the livestream, McCartney reflected on the evolution of music technology since The Beatles\u2019 inception from vinyl records and cassette tapes to streaming platforms and digital libraries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started off on a 45 record, and then LPs, vinyl albums, and went through cassettes, CDs, and then finally here we are with streaming,\u201d McCartney said. \u201cTo me, it\u2019s OK, because it\u2019s another way of getting your music out\u2026 I don\u2019t care how people choose to access it, as long as they do access it\u2026 that\u2019s all I\u2019m interested in.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCartney\u2019s latest release The Boys of Dungeon Lane<\/a>, is ready to be accessed and will drop on May 29th, 2026. The project marks McCartney\u2019s 18th solo album, featuring 14 tracks produced with Andrew Watt, including his first-ever duet with Ringo Starr titled \u201cHome to Us.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Earlier this month on his promotional tour, McCartney spoke about music\u2019s ability to transcend political division during an appearance on The Rest Is Entertainment podcast, where he pointed to live performances of \u201cHey Jude\u201d as proof that communal experiences can dissolve the cultural tensions dominating modern American life. Read more about those comments here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Buy Now from Consequence Shop<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For decades, Sir Paul McCartney resisted calling The Beatles the greatest band of all time, routinely pointing instead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":["post-700990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}