The truth behind the five craziest theories about The Beatles

A band as culturally influential as The Beatles was bound to attract its share of wild theories, urban legends, and even bizarre-but-true stories.

Formed in Liverpool in 1960 and made up of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, The Beatles are often regarded as the most eminent band of all time.

Their music evolved dramatically over the decade following their formation – from catchy pop hits like I Want to Hold Your Hand to groundbreaking albums such as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and The White Album – and their cultural position changed along with their sound.

As psychedelia, mysticism, and countercultural movements swept the UK and US, The Beatles’ reputation became somewhat edgier and more shrouded in intrigue.

As a result, rumours swirled around the band, some of which have persisted and become part of legend.

Here are five of the craziest theories – and an honest estimation of whether there’s any truth to them.

The original drummer in The Beatles was fired for being better-looking than Paul McCartney

The Beatles’ original drummer, Pete Best, was sacked in 1962, a month before the Beatles became the biggest phenomenon in the world.

Ever since, there have been rumours that Ringo Starr replaced Pete because of concerns that Pete was too much better looking than Paul, and would therefore take away from his draw as lead singer.

As Ringo himself later recalled, he first joined the band when: ‘I was playing with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes about eighteen months, two years [before I joined the Beatles]…One morning, I was in bed, as usual. I don’t like getting up in the day because I live at night. So a knock came at the door, and [Beatles manager] Brian Epstein said, “Would you play a lunchtime session at the Cavern with the Beatles”? And I said, “Okay, okay, I’ll get out of bed,” and I went down and played. I thought the band was good, and it was great for me to play.’

He went on to say that he ended up playing with the band again because ‘Pete was sick or something.’

It would eventually come out that while George Martin was thrilled with The Beatles’ debut session for EMI, he didn’t think Pete was a good fit for their sound.

Many have since claimed that the rumour that Best was ‘too good looking’ arose when The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein asked Cavern DJ Bob Wooler if it was a good idea to get rid of Best, and Wooler told him it wasn’t because female fans loved the handsome drummer.

Other sources have claimed that the reason was much simpler, and Brian Epstein simply got tired of Best’s mother’s meddling in the group’s gigs around Liverpool.

Yesterday came to Paul in a prophetic dream

It has long been claimed that one of the most famous songs of all time, Yesterday, appeared fully formed to Paul McCartney while he was asleep.

As the legend goes, he woke up, rushed to his piano, and followed the tune in his head.

The truth of the matter isn’t quite so black-and-white. In reality, the tune for the song did come to Paul while he was asleep, but he wrote the lyrics later.

Paul lived in attic rooms at the top of the family home of his girlfriend, the English actress Jane Asher, in 1965.

He later said: ‘I woke up with a lovely tune in my head. I thought, That’s great, I wonder what that is? There was an upright piano next to me, to the right of the bed by the window. I got out of bed, sat at the piano, found G, found F sharp minor seventh – and that leads you through then to B to E minor, and finally back to G.’

While the story goes that Paul then hurrid to the studio to immediately record the song, George Martin remembers it differently.

He later said: ‘I first heard ‘Yesterday’ when it was known as ‘Scrambled Egg’ – Paul’s working title – at the George V Hotel in Paris in January 1964.’

John Lennon was under surveillance by the FBI

While this may sound far-fetched to some, it’s actually 100% true.

In 1971, shortly after John went to New York on a visa and met up with anti-war activists – something that did not sit right with Richard Nixon – the FBI began to tail him.

A year later, the Immigration and Naturalization Service even tried to deport him from the country.

The FBI originally refused to release many of the documents, saying their release would endanger national security. But historian Jon Wiener’s Freedom of Information case went all the way to the Supreme Court before the FBI agreed to settle.

Eventually, the FBI files released in 2007 revealed Lennon was followed by the Bureau for over a year.

Paul McCartney died in 1966 and was replaced by a body double

A legend has circulated among the conspiracy-minded for years that Paul McCartney actually died at the height of Beatle-mania and was replaced by a stand-in who has been pretending to be him ever since.

The wild legend is based on a story written by Fred LaBour and published in The University of Michigan’s Michigan Today in October 1969.

According to the piece, Paul McCartney was not only dead, but he’d been dead for years, killed in a 1966 car accident and susbequently replaced by a person of John Lennon’s choosing.

LaBour created around 24 ‘clues’ that many people actually believed, lending staying power to the wild idea.

In reality, Labour himself has readily admitted it was only ever intended to be a creative project.

‘I wanted to poke fun at over-zealous critics who try to find endless meaning in every nuance of an art project,’ LaBour told True West Magazine in 2008. ‘I thought then, and in fact still do, that this was funny. Almost everybody else took it seriously.’

The Beatle’s performance on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964 was the beginning of Beatle-Mania

The Beatles famously set ratings records when they performed in front of more than 70million people watching The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964.

As history remembers it, they had been relative unknowns before appearing on the evening show. In reality, they had done several other American TV spots prior to making it onto the US Billboard pop chart in April 1963 with From Me to You.

While that earlier success did not compare to April 1964, when they held the top five spots on the list of most popular singles in the country, they had been slowly growing a fan base in the US for over a year.

In fact, I Want to Hold Your Hand was already climbing the charts when the band appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. So while their appearance on the iconic program certainly cemented their stardom, they had already been on their way to the top.

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