In 1966, the Beatles sat down with the London Evening Standard to talk about their lives post-Beatlemania. There, John Lennon made his infamous quip, stating that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus now.” The rest of the interview is notably bizarre and equally controversial, but we won’t get into all that. Lennon’s comment was fairly tame for the U.K., and no one really asked for a follow up. For some reason, though, the Jesus comment stuck in America’s craw.
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Was there truth to Lennon’s statement? By what metric do we go about comparing the popularity of a religious figure to that of a 1960s rock and roll band? And what is the context for his statement in the first place? Despite praising The Beatles (and Elvis) as “the Real Thing” in the New York Times version of the article, journalist Maureen Cleave also stated that “they all abuse their snug position outrageously … by saying and doing whatever comes to their heads.” That fact has never been more obvious than in this interview.
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John Lennon’s Full Quote
“Christianity will go,” said Lennon. “It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I’ll be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first—rock ’n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.”
The quote went relatively unnoticed in the five-part series from the Standard. However, the backlash came when a condensed version of the interview appeared in the American teen magazine Datebook (of which Arthur Unger was the publisher, who allegedly used the magazine to teach teens about bigotry and intolerance and push a progressive political agenda. A little like the Teen Vogue of today, which has published articles about communism, activism, and radically fighting injustice).
In America, the quote caused riots, bonfires of Beatles records, protests, boycotts of their music, and a tumultuous final U.S. tour, according to a retrospective by Slate. The quote reads like some surface level religious philosophizing, but we’re not here to criticize John Lennon. What I really want to know, is were the Beatles really more popular than Jesus?
How Popular Was Jesus, Really?
In the stories of the Bible, Jesus was not a very popular figure for most people. At least, for people in power. Questions posed on a historian Reddit thread posit that he was more regionally known than Empire-wide. Most likely, if the stories are to be believed, he would have been known mostly as a preacher within Judaea. Allegedly, after the crucifixion, his popularity waned even more. Essentially, if we’re boiling things down to the basics, Jesus had 12 really loyal fans.
The Beatles, in comparison, were globally known in their active years and beyond. They gained legions of fans from all over the world and have retained that massive following.
The Beatles v. Jesus: The Bottom Line
According to the Pew Research Center, there are approximately 2.3 billion reported Christians in the world. In comparison, the Beatles have been streamed 1.7 billion times on Spotify. So, if we compare the Beatles’ popularity to Jesus’ in modern times, Jesus wins out with 600 million more fans. However, when comparing the Beatles to Jesus in the times of the Bible, the Beatles are arguably more popular; what’s 12 guys against 1.7 billion?
Still, in the 1960s, 93 percent of Americans labeled themselves as Christians. That’s approximately 166 million people. Additionally, in the 1960s, the Beatles sold 177 million records in the U.S. Dare I say, that it seems like John Lennon may have been onto something.
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