The Fab Four are a band shrouded in eternal world-defining legend. Indeed, they were more than just a band – they were phenomenons and cultural cornerstones on which the entire axis of the 1960s spun. The fact that underneath the veneer of mania they were real humans made up of the same flesh and blood as the rest of us was something often forgotten in the frenzy of society until the moments it was pulled into starkest focus.
But even still, their stardom took on an almost ethereal quality, one that reached the ends of the universe and then had the gall to stretch even further. So, in response to the question, ‘is it even possible for The Beatles to become bigger than The Beatles?’, the answer is actually yes. It just involved them reinventing the wheel to bring that original shining ‘60s spirit of the past into the modern day.
Naturally, this was rooted in the release of their first two albums in the Anthology series, arriving in 1995 and 1996, respectively. The band had been broken up for the best part of a quarter of a century, and Lennon himself had been dead for some 15 years, but still the ghost of Beatlemania proved that it never needed to be revived – it had always been there lurking in the background. This meant that, following the two anthologies hitting the shelves, combined with their regular album sales, it was expected in 1996 that the Fabs would shift in excess of 20 million records.
This was greater than anything they had ever achieved before. It also helped that Anthology 3 was on the way, meaning that despite 25 years of inactivity in terms of fresh music, the Beatle machine was still as alive as it always was. However, the most interesting thing in all of this was not just the sales figures themselves but the breakdown of them – almost half of the records purchased were by teenagers who weren’t even born yet when the band called it quits back in 1970.
It’s testament to the fact that good music never dies, but also the fact that The Beatles could have released their music at any time between 1962 and 2002 and still have whipped up just as much of a firestorm. Indeed, with the Anthology project back up on its feet as of 2025, with the fourth instalment set to arrive later this year, it would certainly make a fascinating insight to see how the sales inevitably shoot up this time. Is it even be possible that The Beatles could become even bigger than when The Beatles became bigger than The Beatles?
Before any of us breaks out in a cold sweat at the sheer meta spiralling of all of this, it’s worth remembering that this is what the Fab Four intended to create all along. Lennon didn’t say they were “bigger than Jesus” for nothing. Sure, they may never have expected the mania that ensued the first time they took to the stage at the Cavern Club, but once they had it in their hands, they were always going to keep the world under that hypnotic spell.
