Sir Paul McCartney has declared The Beatles the greatest band ever, reversing his long-held opinion that American duo The Everly Brothers deserved the title.
The 83-year-old musician made the statement during a TikTok live broadcast on Wednesday.
>>> Canada Imposes 21-Day Quarantine, Halts Visas Over Ebola Outbreak
McCartney reflected on the band's enduring global impact and discussed changes in music formats ahead of the release of his new album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, scheduled for Friday, May 29.
"It is phenomenal, it is really phenomenal," McCartney said.
He recalled that the group originally expected their popularity to fade quickly, assuming the band would last only five years at most before the rock and roll scene shifted.
"When we started out we were just kids and rock and roll was just really coming in and we thought, 'if we're lucky, we've got a couple of years' – that's how long people normally lasted.
They couldn't really sustain much more after that," he said.
The Beatles achieved 18 UK number one singles and 15 UK number one albums, becoming the best-selling music act of all time despite a messy breakup in the 1970s.
"We expected maybe five (years) max, and then that became 10, and we were kind of still going and the scene's still there.
Then it became 20, then 30, and now it's right up there. It's great, it is a lovely feeling," McCartney said.
McCartney expressed pride that younger generations continue to discover the band.
"People will come to me and say 'my kids love your music', and that's something, you know, because you can't indoctrinate (kids), they just either like it or they don't.
I think The Beatles were the greatest band ever. I'm a fan," he said.
The Liverpool native previously cited Don and Phil Everly as the primary vocal influences for himself and John Lennon during their early songwriting partnership.
"To this day, I just think they're the greatest.
>>> Garden Grove Aerospace Cooling Failure Causes Major Economic Losses
And they were different," McCartney said, adding that the duo's visual appeal and simple format set them apart from traditional harmonies.
"You'd heard barbershop quartets, you'd heard the Beverley Sisters – three girls – you'd all heard that. But just two guys, two good-looking guys?
So we idolised them. We wanted to be them," he said.
McCartney also discussed technological shifts in media distribution, supporting any format that connects artists with audiences.
"We started off on a 45 record, and then LPs, vinyl albums, and went through cassettes, CDs, and then finally here we are with streaming," he said.
He embraces the digital library model because accessibility remains his primary concern as a creator. "To me, it's OK, because it's another way of getting your music out.
I don't care how people choose to access it, as long as they do access it – that's all I'm interested in," McCartney said.
The bassist previously told the BBC that archival footage in Peter Jackson's documentary series relieved decades of personal anxiety about the band's final months.
"I had a strange view of that period," he said.
Press coverage from the 1970 breakup often blamed McCartney, a narrative he internalised for years before reviewing unedited studio interactions.
"The headline on the front of the papers was, 'Paul breaks up the Beatles', and I had to shoulder all of that stuff, even though I knew it wasn't true," he said.
McCartney concluded that the film reassured him his studio behavior was focused on creative encouragement.
"When I saw the film, I thought, 'Oh, no, I'm not like that at all. I'm trying to make a record.
>>> Netflix Documentary 'The Crash' Sparks Debate Over Ohio Teen's Fatal Car Crash
I'm trying to encourage these guys to be as great as they are'," he said.
