The Beatles’ success isn’t just down to their musical genius; it’s also due to their enduring and unmatched cultural influence on the music world. But when words fall short, the numbers do the talking.
The four-man band is considered the most successful band of all time, with an astonishing 600 million albums sold globally. With 20 hits topping the Billboard Hot 100. The Fab Four’s revolutionary music changed the industry and rewrote the records of music history.
Without a doubt, The Beatles are one of the most influential and successful bands in existence, dominating the 1960s and shaping music folklore for all subsequent generations. However, much of the band’s success was in the era before digital streaming.
The Beatles were masters of vinyl records, cassette tapes, CDs, and radio airplay, long before new-age streaming platforms became the main way to consume music.
Despite this, and unsurprisingly, The Beatles continue to thrive in the modern streaming age, with their songs racking up hundreds of millions – and in some cases, billions – of streams.
According to Spotify – one of the world’s leading music streaming platforms – there is one Beatles song that has a staggering 1.5 billion streams, easily securing its spot as the legendary band’s most streamed song. However, the song doesn’t even feature Beatles frontman John Lennon.
(Image: Michael Ochs Archives)
With a staggering 1.549 billion streams, Here Comes The Sun has emerged as the most popular song of The Beatles. This iconic track was penned and sung by George Harrison in the garden of another music legend, Eric Clapton.
Over time, Here Comes the Sun has garnered immense praise from music critics. Alongside his other legendary track on Abbey Road, Something, it propelled George Harrison to a level of recognition as a songwriter that was once only reserved for his fellow bandmates, John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
In May 2023, it made history as the first Beatles song to surpass one billion streams on Spotify. Interestingly, the song was never released as a single in the UK, similar to Paul McCartney’s masterpiece Yesterday. The track debuted as the first song on The Beatles’ second side of their 1969 LP Abbey Road, and is one of the rare tracks by the band which doesn’t feature John Lennon at all.
In the early months of 1969, George was going through a challenging period in his life, having temporarily quit The Beatles, undergone tonsil removal surgery, and also faced arrest for marijuana possession.
In his autobiography I, Me, Mine, George Harrison disclosed the environment within The Beatles at the time that inspired him to write Here Comes the Sun: “Here Comes the Sun was written at the time when Apple was getting like school, where we had to go and be businessmen: ‘Sign this’ and ‘sign that.’ Anyway, it seems as if winter in England goes on forever, by the time spring comes you really deserve it.
“So one day I decided I was going to sag off Apple and I went over to Eric Clapton’s house. The relief of not having to go see all those dopey accountants was wonderful, and I walked around the garden with one of Eric’s acoustic guitars and wrote Here Comes the Sun.”
Speaking about his friend and his songwriting process in Martin Scorsese’s 2011 documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material World, Eric Clapton shared: “He was just a magical guy and he would show up, get out of the car with his guitar and come in and start playing … I just watched this thing come to life. I felt very proud that it was my garden that was inspiring it.”.
- Source: NEWHD MEDIA
