"Cleave's article mentioned that Lennon was ""reading extensively about religion"", and quoted a comment he made: Cleave's interview with Lennon was published in the ""Evening Standard"" in March 1966 and provoked no public reaction in the UK. Church attendance there was in decline and the Christian churches were making no secret of the need to transform their image into something more relevant to modern times. Music historian Jonathan Gould wrote, ""The satire comedians had had a field day with the increasingly desperate attempts of the Church to make itself seem more relevant ('Don't call me vicar, call me ""Dick"" ...')."""
"the ""Evening Standard"" that the Beatles had become ""more popular than Jesus"". The comment went unnoticed until in August the same year, the American magazine ""Datebook"" published it, inciting protests against the Beatles. The band were threatened, their records were publicly burned, and radio stations refused to play their songs. After the Beatles' 1966 US tour, Harrison broadened his interest of Indian culture to Hinduism. He and his wife Pattie Boyd went on a pilgrimage to Mumbai to meet gurus. In 1968, all four Beatles went to Rishikesh in northern India to study meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Although"
"cultural movements – including a shift from American artists' global dominance of rock and roll to British acts (British Invasion), the proliferation of young musicians in the 1960s who formed new bands, the album as the dominant form of record consumption over singles, the term ""Beatlesque"" used to describe similar-sounding artists, and several fashion trends. At the height of their popularity, Lennon controversially remarked that the group had become ""more popular than Jesus"". While dominating the sales charts for the decade, the Beatles faced competition for artistic prestige, mainly from Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys. Many"
"popularity and became associated with the radical counterculture, firmly alienating many Christians. In 1966 The Beatles, regarded as one of the most popular and influential rock bands of their era, ran into trouble with many of their American fans when John Lennon jokingly offered his opinion that Christianity was dying and that the Beatles were ""more popular than Jesus now"". The romantic, melodic rock songs of the band's early career had formerly been viewed as relatively inoffensive, but after the remark, churches nationwide organized Beatles record burnings and Lennon was forced to apologize. Subsequently, the Beatles and most rock musicians"
"women's liberation, gay liberation and environmentalism. According to Peter Lavezzoli, after the ""more popular than Jesus"" controversy in 1966, the Beatles felt considerable pressure to say the right things and ""began a concerted effort to spread a message of wisdom and higher consciousness"". Other commentators such as Mikal Gilmore and Todd Leopold have traced the inception of their socio-cultural impact earlier, interpreting even the Beatlemania period, particularly on their first visit to the United States, as a key moment in the development of generational awareness.<ref name=""Leopold (Beatlemania/CNN)""></ref> Referring to their appearance on ""the Ed Sullivan Show"" Leopold states: ""In many"
"was a Beatles fan who had idolized Lennon but turned against him after Chapman's religious conversion, He was angry about Lennon's 1966 well-publicized comment that Beatles were ""more popular than Jesus."" He later stated that he was further enraged by the songs ""God"" and ""Imagine"", even singing the latter with the altered lyric: ""Imagine John Lennon dead"". Jan Reeves, the sister of one of Chapman's friends, reported Chapman ""seemed really angry toward John Lennon and he kept saying he could not understand why John Lennon had said [the Beatles were more popular than Jesus]. According to Mark, there should be"
"Lennon compositions, as marking the start of a process whereby ""Revolver"" ""steadily climbed in public estimation"" to become recognised as the Beatles' finest work. In Britain, its supremacy over ""Sgt. Pepper"" was one of the cultural revisions established by the Britpop phenomenon in the 1990s. Writing on the BBC's website in August 2016, Greg Kot identified the ""More popular than Christ"" controversy and the attention subsequently afforded the release of ""Sgt. Pepper"" in 1967 as the two factors that had contributed to ""Revolver"" being relatively overlooked. Kot concluded that the ensuing decades had seen this impression reversed, since ""Revolver"" ""does"
"with a period of public relations challenges for the band, the combination of which led to their decision to retire from touring that year. In the United States, the album's release was a secondary event to the controversy surrounding the recent publication there of Cleave's interview with Lennon, in which he had remarked that the Beatles had become ""more popular than Jesus"". This episode followed the unfavourable reaction to the ""Yesterday and Today"" butcher sleeve, from the press, radio stations and retail outlets in the US. As a result, at press conferences during the North American tour, questions were typically"
"meeting Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Beatles quickly return to London and hold a press conference to denounce the Maharishi. That night, before meeting Derek Taylor, Lennon glimpses Yoko from a window. Lennon reveals to Derek that she sends him letters. While on their way to meet Bardot, Lennon tells Derek he sometimes thinks he is Jesus Christ and, nervous about his meeting with actress, takes a tablet of LSD along with Derek. The next morning, Lennon, in the midst of a drug trip and, remembering the public's reaction at his ""more popular than Jesus"" statement two years before, states that"
"had been a fan of the Beatles, but after becoming a born-again Presbyterian, was incensed by Lennon's much-publicized 1966 remark about the group being ""more popular than Jesus"". In the years leading up to the murder, he developed a series of obsessions, including artwork, music and Lennon. ""The Catcher in the Rye"" took on great personal significance for him, to the extent he reportedly wished to model his life after its protagonist, Holden Caulfield. He also contemplated killing other public figures, including Johnny Carson, Elizabeth Taylor, and then-president Ronald Reagan. At the time of the killing, he had no prior"
"Jesus is a one-man stage show that Emerson performed in Portland, Oregon. ""The Portland Mercury"" wrote that ""Bigger Than Jesus"" is ""Emerson's deeply personal love letter to rock music... a coming-of-age tribute to the music that shaped his life."" The show debuted to a standing room only audience in 2003. The title is a reference to John Lennon's infamous statement that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. The show was directed and filmed by Portland film director Joni DeRouchie. Emerson and DeRouchie produced a DVD of the show in 2005. The pair also collaborated on the short thriller film"
"drug of choice among the counterculture, during the Summer of Love, McCartney confirmed to an ITN reporter that he had taken LSD, having already admitted as much to journalists from ""Life"" magazine and the ""Sunday People"" over the previous few days. A public outcry followed McCartney's announcement, which inconvenienced the other Beatles by bringing their drug use into the spotlight. Author Ian MacDonald describes McCartney's candour as a ""careless admission"" that, as with Lennon's comment in March 1966 that the Beatles were more popular than Christianity, ""brought howls of righteous anger on their heads"". Although Harrison, Lennon and Starr appeared"
"In protest Utopia took this material on the road for a full year begging audiences to petition Bearsville Records execs to release it, even going as far as giving out the phone number and address of Bearsville Records and instructing audiences to ask for Albert Grossman. The cover photo is a retouched and tinted reproduction of a well-known photograph taken at a public burning of Beatles records, which took place in August 1966 in the town of Waycross, Georgia in response to John Lennon's controversial ""We are more popular than Jesus now"" remark. It is a photograph, distributed by UPI"
"""too Village People"", mirrors Pete Best, an early member of the Beatles who was replaced by Ringo Starr. The cover of ""Bigger Than Jesus"", the Be Sharps' second album, features the group walking on water, which is a direct parody of the art on the Beatles' album ""Abbey Road"". The name is a reference to a controversial quote made by John Lennon in 1966. Bart references this by asking, ""What did you do [to lose your popularity]? Screw up like the Beatles and say you were bigger than Jesus?"", to which Homer replies ""All the time. That was the title"
"asking them to introduce the Hare Krishna mantra, or Maha Mantra, into their songs. In October 1968, Mukunda and Shyamsundar went to the band's Apple Records offices, on Savile Row, where Peter Asher subsequently passed a recommendation on to George Harrison, the Beatle most interested in Indian philosophy and culture. The following month, the devotees' public appearances in Oxford Street received national attention in London's ""Times"" newspaper. The article carried a quote from Gurudas that read: ""Hare Krishna is a chant that sets God dancing on your tongue. Try chanting 'Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth' and see the difference."" With Harrison"
"in newspaper fashion pages. Boyd and Harrison were among the leading couples in the Swinging London era, when, according to a 1966 article in the ""Daily Express"", ""actors, pop singers, hairdressers, and models"" were London's new ""privileged class"". UK underground writer Barry Miles later described her as ""by far the most glamorous"" of all the Beatles' wives and girlfriends, while author Shawn Levy writes that, even more so than Jane Asher, the London-born stage actress who was Paul McCartney's girlfriend for much of the 1960s, Boyd epitomised what ""sixties stardom was meant to confer upon its chosen"". Writing in 1966,"
"The Beatles' 1966 US tour The Beatles staged their third concert tour of America in August 1966, and it was the last commercial tour they undertook. Lasting a total of 19 performances, with 17 shows in American venues and two in Canada, it was plagued with backlash regarding the controversy of John Lennon's remark about the Beatles being ""more popular than Jesus"", death threats, and the band's own dissatisfaction with the noise levels and their ability to perform live. Although it was a commercial success, ticket sales had declined since the group's previous visit, in August 1965. Late in the"
"its citizens for not visiting First Lady Imelda Marcos. The group were angry with their manager, Brian Epstein, for insisting on what they regarded as an exhausting and demoralising itinerary. The publication in the US of Lennon's remarks about the Beatles being ""more popular than Jesus"" then embroiled the band in controversy and protest in America's Bible Belt. A public apology eased tensions, but a US tour in August that was marked by reduced ticket sales, relative to the group's record attendances in 1965, and subpar performances proved to be their last. The author Nicholas Schaffner writes: On the Beatles'"
"hold of the international mass consciousness in 1964 and ... never [lost] their ability to communicate their increasingly sophisticated ideas to a mass audience. Their supremacy as rock icons remains unchallenged to this day, decades after their breakup in 1970."" Footnotes Citations Beatlemania Beatlemania was the intense fan frenzy directed towards the English rock band the Beatles in the 1960s. Their popularity started growing in the United Kingdom in late 1963. By the next year, their worldwide tours were characterised by intense levels of hysteria and high-pitched screaming by female fans, both at concerts and during the band's travels. In"
"verse: ""Dear John, who's more popular now? I´ve been listening to Paul's records. I think he really is dead."" (see Paul is dead) ""Who's more popular now?"" makes reference to John Lennon's famous claim that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. The album features King Crimson prog-rock bassist and Asia frontman, John Wetton on bass guitar. A three-LP boxed set containing the entire trilogy in their originally intended forms and titled ""The Compleat Trilogy"" (as mentioned on the insert of the Street Level reissue of ""Only Visiting This Planet"") has never been released. All tracks composed by Larry Norman"
"to be interviewed separately for a series of articles that would run in London's ""Evening Standard"" newspaper in March 1966. Cleave's observations reflected the band members' more sophisticated personalities beyond the simplistic portrayals that were commonplace at the time. Of the two principal songwriters, she found Lennon to be intuitive, lazy and dissatisfied with fame and his surroundings in the Surrey countryside, while McCartney conveyed confidence and a hunger for knowledge and new creative possibilities. In his book ""Revolver: How the Beatles Reimagined Rock 'n' Roll"", Robert Rodriguez writes that, whereas Lennon had been the Beatles' dominant creative force before"
"the band's recent tour, whereas the Beatles had neither a recent single nor had they toured the UK throughout 1966; the reporter added that ""The sensational success of the Beach Boys, however, is being taken as a portent that the popularity of the top British groups of the last three years is past its peak."" The Beach Boys ended the final quarter of 1966 as the strongest selling album act in the UK, dethroning the three-year reign of native bands such as the Beatles. In 1971, a writer in ""Cue"" magazine noted that, from mid 1966 to late 1967, the"
"there coincided with the Beatles' final concert tour, which was marred by the controversy surrounding John Lennon's remark that the band had become ""more popular than Jesus"". The record topped the UK Albums Chart for seven weeks and America's ""Billboard"" Top LPs list for six weeks. Together with the children's novelty song ""Yellow Submarine"", ""Eleanor Rigby"" became an international hit when issued as a double A-side single. The album cover was designed by Klaus Voormann, whose work combined Aubrey Beardsley-inspired line drawing with photo collage and went on to win the 1967 Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, Graphic Arts."
"have said television is more popular than Jesus; then I might have got away with it."" – John Lennon"" """"We got backstage to see Maharishi and I said to him: 'Got any mantras?'"" – George Harrison"" """"I'm really glad that most of our songs were about love, peace and understanding."" – Paul McCartney"" The Beatles Anthology (TV series) The Beatles Anthology is a documentary series on the career of The Beatles. It was broadcast on UK television in six abridged parts on ITV between 19 and 23 November 1995, while in the United States it was seen as three feature-length"
"highest certified sales of any single issued in the UK in 1966. In the United States, the single reached number 2 on the ""Billboard"" Hot 100, number 1 in ""Record World"" and in ""Cashbox"". The single was released during the controversies about the ""Butcher Cover"" (the ""Yesterday and Today"" album cover) and Lennon's remarks about Christianity, which are cited as part of the reason the song failed to reach number 1 on all US charts. It sold 1,200,000 copies in four weeks and earned the Beatles their twenty-first US Gold Record award, beating the record set by Elvis Presley. Although"
"Beatlemania Beatlemania was the intense fan frenzy directed towards the English rock band the Beatles in the 1960s. Their popularity started growing in the United Kingdom in late 1963. By the next year, their worldwide tours were characterised by intense levels of hysteria and high-pitched screaming by female fans, both at concerts and during the band's travels. In February 1964, the Beatles arrived in the US, and their televised performances on ""The Ed Sullivan Show"" were viewed by approximately 73 million people. In addition to establishing the Beatles' international stature, their arrival changed attitudes to popular music in the US,"
"and McCartney. Johnston claimed that ""Pet Sounds"" got so much publicity, ""it forced EMI to put the album out sooner."" The Beach Boys became the strongest selling album act in the UK for the final quarter of 1966, dethroning the three-year reign of native bands such as the Beatles. Derek Taylor, the Beach Boys' publicist, is widely recognized as having been instrumental in this success, due to his longstanding connections with the Beatles and other industry figures in the UK. The music press there carried advertisements saying that ""Pet Sounds"" was ""The Most Progressive Pop Album Ever!"" ""Rolling Stone"" founding"
"and ""Melody Maker"". Soon after, the Beach Boys were voted the number one band in the world in the ""NME"" readers' poll, ahead of the Beatles, the Walker Brothers, the Rolling Stones, and the Four Tops. ""Billboard"" said that this result was probably influenced by the success of ""Good Vibrations"" when the votes were cast, together with the band's recent tour, whereas the Beatles had neither a recent single nor had they toured the UK throughout 1966; the reporter added that ""The sensational success of the Beach Boys, however, is being taken as a portent that the popularity of the"
"been the Post–World War II baby boom, which gave the Beatles a larger audience of young fans than Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley ever had a decade earlier. Some commentators have argued that the Beatles' famous moptop haircuts signaled androgyny and thus presented a less threatening version of male sexuality to teenage girls, while their presentable suits meant they seemed less ""sleazy"" than Elvis to middle-class whites. With the success of their second single, ""Please Please Me"", the Beatles found themselves in demand for the whole of 1963. In the UK, the song reached number 2 on the ""Record Retailer"""
"nuts."" He signed the letter, ""The Catcher in the Rye."" Chapman had no criminal convictions prior to his trip to New York City to kill Lennon. In a letter written from prison, Chapman indicated that he believed he had been forgiven by Jesus for shooting Lennon. Chapman, a Beatles fan who had idolized Lennon, allegedly started planning to kill him three months prior to the murder. Chapman turned against Lennon after making his religious conversion; he was angry about Lennon's well-publicized 1966 comment that Beatles were ""more popular than Jesus."" Some members of Chapman's prayer group made a joke in"
"in 1966, which made them, arguably, the only American rock or pop act that could rival The Beatles. By the end of 1962 British beat groups like The Beatles were drawing on a wide range of American influences including soul music, rhythm and blues and surf music. Initially, they reinterpreted standard American tunes, playing for dancers doing the twist, for example. These groups eventually infused their original compositions with increasingly complex musical ideas and a distinctive sound. During 1963, The Beatles and other beat groups, such as The Searchers and The Hollies, achieved popularity and commercial success in Britain. British"
"the editors of ""Newsweek"" and ""Time"" magazine was indicative of those publications' recognition of the band's popularity among American intellectuals and the cultural elite. This in turn was reflected in ""The Village Voice""s appointment of Richard Goldstein, a recent graduate and New Journalism writer, to the new position of rock critic, in June 1966, and the Beatles' central role in achieving cultural legitimisation for pop music over 1966–67. Referring to the praise afforded the band, particularly the songwriting partnership of Lennon and McCartney, by ""Newsweek"" in early 1966, Michael Frontani writes: ""The Beatles had a foothold in the world of"
"by Spanish and Dutch stations and South Africa's national broadcasting service. Epstein accused ""Datebook"" of having taken Lennon's words out of context; at a press conference Lennon pointed out, ""If I'd said television was more popular than Jesus, I might have got away with it."" Lennon claimed that he was referring to how other people viewed their success, but at the prompting of reporters, he concluded: ""If you want me to apologise, if that will make you happy, then okay, I'm sorry."" As preparations were made for the US tour, the Beatles knew that their music would hardly be heard."