(Credits: Far Out / Top of The Pops / BBC)
Sun 11 January 2026 14:00, UK
It is difficult to imagine it now, in the age of music streaming, when we all have virtually every song ever recorded at our beck and call, but for over 40 years, the prevailing method of music consumption in the United Kingdom was Top of the Pops – at its prime, this televisual cultural institution had unparalleled cultural importance, rivalling even The Beatles.
It was on New Year’s Day 1964 that the very first edition of Top of the Pops was broadcast. From a ramshackle studio in South Manchester, the then-radio DJ and now-notorious paedophile Jimmy Savile presented the likes of Dusty Springfield, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and a deluge of other artists who made up the top 20 of the week. From those rather humble origins, it didn’t take very long for the programme to become the highlight of the week for music fans across the nation.
When the show first emerged back in 1964, the UK was experiencing the arguable peak of its pop output, having produced a wealth of the world’s most exciting, popular new artists and having the singles charts chock full of still-beloved classics week after week, of which The Beatles were an unshakable feature.
It is no surprise, then, that The Beatles appeared on Top of the Pops over 150 times over the course of the show’s tenure – often, admittedly, in the form of music videos or having their tunes played over the chart rundown. Tragically, though, the first eight years of the show’s run have been largely lost, resulting from the BBC’s policy of wiping and reusing old tapes, meaning that The Beatles’ one and only live TOTP performance, from back in 1966, no longer exists in any official capacity.
Since the Fab Four were, through no fault of their own, such regulars during the early days of the show, it is fitting that each of its members went on to feature, in some capacity, as solo artists in the days after the band succumbed to their internal struggles in 1970. Who was the first to make their solo TOTP appearance? The answer to that depends on your definition of ‘appearance’.
Technically, George Harrison was the first to feature on the programme in a truly solo capacity, when his track ‘My Sweet Lord’ was the subject of an expectedly bizarre Pan’s People dance routine during a broadcast on January 21st, 1971. Between that display and the songwriter’s death in 2002, Harrison would appear on the show a further 16 times, but mainly in the form of pre-recorded music videos, never appearing in person in the studio.
John Lennon circa 1970, sporting the new look he first introduced on Top of the Pops (Credits: Far Out / Press)
A year prior to that strange dance number, though, John Lennon appeared on the show as a member of the Plastic Ono Band, performing ‘Instant Karma!’ and effectively launching his politically-charged solo career. That performance marked the very first time since back in 1966 that any Beatle appeared on the show, and it would be a good few years before any of them did again.
In fact, like Harrison, Ringo Starr never appeared in the Top of the Pops studio. His first solo feature on the show came on April 15th, 1971, when ‘It Don’t Come Easy’ played over footage of the audience dancing, while Lennon’s music video for ‘No 9 Dream’ made an appearance on February 27th, 1975 – his first feature outside of his Plastic Ono Band days.
That just leaves Paul McCartney, whose first appearance on the show came mere weeks after Harrison’s, when the studio audience was instructed to dance to ‘Another Day’ – a track which received its own Pan’s People fever dream a few weeks later. Unlike his fellow Beatles, though, McCartney made multiple in-person appearances on the programme over the years.
First entering the TOTP studio in December 1987, for a mimed performance of ‘Once Upon A Long Ago’, Macca boasted a total of four in-person performances on the show, including two live performances – something of a rarity within the realm of the show – in the form of ‘Hope Of Deliverance’ and ‘C’mon People’, both in 1993.
Luckily, the BBC had learned its lesson since 1966, and those four performances, along with Lennon’s 1970 appearance, have yet to be wiped from the archives, unlike that lone live performance by The Beatles. Either way, though, unless Ringo Starr simultaneously resurrects Top of the Pops and releases a chart-topping solo record, it would appear that Lennon and McCartney will remain the only Beatles to appear on the legendary show in any kind of solo capacity.
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