Credit: Far Out / Single Covers / Bradford Timeline / Apple Corps
October 30th, 2026 · 7:00pm GMT
You say the word 1960s, and The Beatles almost fly out of your mouth before you’ve even thought about it. But have they conned us all?
Let’s just get one thing straight before we begin: there’s absolutely no denying that the Fab Four dominated that decade, so often cited as the heady pinnacle of rock music that can never be topped. The ‘60s lived and died by the very breaths of The Beatles, which stands as an ironclad fact. Yet sometimes, not everything was always as it seemed.
Sixty years on and with their songs having spent 70 weeks at number one in the UK alone over the years, it was never in the nature of the Liverpudlian legends to be sweating the small stuff. They were the dominators, the kings, and the gods. But equally, the cold, hard facts tell no lies, and in reality, The Beatles were only one small part of the ‘60s machine.
The truth of the matter was that when considering the best-selling singles from each year of the decade, the Fab Four only came out on top three times out of ten. That’s obviously still not to be sniffed at in the grand scheme of things, but when a narrative is constantly being pushed about the biggest band in the world never being beaten, the statistics don’t exactly stand up to scrutiny.
After all, it would be criminal to overlook the likes of The Rolling Stones, Cream, and the king himself, Elvis Presley, as having had no impact on the musical landscape during that time. Put simply, we know that to be blatantly untrue. It was set to rights from the beginning, with Presley scoring the top hits of both ’60 and ‘61 with ‘It’s Now or Never’ and ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’.
Thereafter, The Beatles did get even on the scoreboard with ‘Love Me Do’ and ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ in 1962 and 1963, but it wasn’t long before their reign was halted by ‘The Sound of Silence’, with Simon and Garfunkel taking the top spot in 1964. The band did manage to claw one back with ‘Yesterday’ the following year; however, this would be their very final snatch of yearly glory.
Between 1966 and 1969, there was a succession of era-defining hits that pushed the Fab Four slightly out of the equation. The Stones and Cream won the wars of 1966 and 1967, respectively, with ‘Paint It Black’ and ‘Sunshine of Your Love’, before Simon and Garfunkel stormed 1968 with ‘Mrs Robinson’ and Neil Diamond closed things out in style with ‘Sweet Caroline’.
Further reading: From The Vault
Cumulatively, it has the effect of demonstrating that The Beatles were not all they were made out to be, even at the peak of their powers. Yes, they were successful, but only a 30% hit rate in this context doesn’t make for the most desirable reading. After all, they were only ever one song or one band away from being blown out of the water.
It may sound brutal, but in the end, that’s the business they call show. John, Paul, George, and Ringo may be hailed by many as the masters of their craft, but it’s only when you see the chart statistics in the cold light of day that you realise how often the tables turned. Three out of ten isn’t bad, but The Beatles were far from being the only kids on the block.
