The Beatles are widely acknowledged as one of the greatest – if not the greatest – bands to ever exist.
But for Sir Paul McCartney, the bassist, it was a long and winding road before he reached that same conclusion.
The 83-year-old previously maintained that the best in his eyes were the 1950s American pop duo The Everly Brothers.
He insisted the singers of Bye Bye Love and Cathy’s Clown had the biggest influence on him and John Lennon, saying they were “the greatest”.
But reflecting on his almost seven-decade career in music, Sir Paul has finally admitted his own group “were the greatest band ever”.
Sir Paul looked back on the long-lasting impact of his work in the band while appearing on a TikTok live on Wednesday for a question and answer session with fans.
He said: “It is phenomenal, it is really phenomenal.
“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.
“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.
“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.”
‘They were different’
Sir Paul shot to fame in the 1960s alongside Lennon, Sir Ringo Starr and George Harrison as part of the best-selling musical act of all time and one of the most influential groups in pop music.
The Beatles had a prolonged and messy breakup in the 1970s. After leaving the band, Sir Paul pursued a career in which he has won 19 Grammy awards, achieved three UK number-one singles and seven UK number-one albums.
He wrote in his 2021 book, The Lyrics, that he and Lennon had been heavily influenced by the Everly Brothers, the duo formed by brothers Don and Phil Everly that had worldwide hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
He wrote: “The biggest influence on John and me was the Everly Brothers. To this day, I just think they’re the greatest. And they were different.”
Sir Paul’s latest comments came as he reflected on the evolution of technology and the different formats of music available now compared to when he started his career.
He said he loves the ever-changing scene, and noted that consumers now have “the whole music library in your pocket and your hand”.
“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.
“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.”
The Beatles achieved 18 British number-one singles and 15 British number-one albums, and are widely regarded for their pioneering songwriting, studio experimentation and overall cultural impact.
Sir Paul has also won an Oscar, a Brit award and a Primetime Emmy, and collaborated with artists including Rihanna, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Kanye West.