McCartney: “The Beatles were the greatest band ever”

For years Paul McCartney he had downplayed the historical weight of the Beatles, often claiming that the title of greatest band ever belonged to The Everly Brothers, one of the main sources of inspiration for him and John Lennon. ORHowever, McCartney seems to have changed his mind. During a livestream Q&A on TikTok, organized to promote the new album “The Boys Of Dungeon Lane”, the musician declared: “I think the Beatles were the greatest band ever… I’m a fan of theirs”. McCartney also said he never imagined the band’s music would have such a lasting impact: “When we started we were just kids and rock’n’roll was just being born. We thought, ‘If we’re lucky we’ll last a couple of years’. That’s how long artists usually had.”

Then he added: “We thought maybe five years at most, then it became ten and we were still there. Then twenty, thirty… and now we are still here. It’s a wonderful feeling.” The musician also explained how much it strikes him to see new generations still approaching the Beatles’ songs today: “People tell me: ‘My children love your music’. And it’s an important thing, because you can’t indoctrinate children: either they like something or they don’t.” McCartney’s new album, “The Boys Of Dungeon Lane”, is released today, Friday 29 May (review here). The album includes “Home To Us”, the first official vocal duet between McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as collaborations with Sharleen Spiteri of Texas and Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders. The album is McCartney’s first unreleased work after 2020’s “McCartney III” and recounts his childhood in Liverpool, his relationship with his family and the first years shared with Lennon and George Harrison before the worldwide success of the Beatles.