More popular than Jesus
"More popular than Jesus"[nb 1] is part of a remark made by John Lennon of the Beatles in a March 1966 interview in which he argued that the public were more infatuated with the band than with Jesus, and that Christianity was declining to the extent that it might be outlasted by rock music. His opinions drew little controversy when originally published in the London newspaper The Evening Standard, but drew angry reactions from Evangelical Christian communities when republished in the United States that July.
"Bigger than Jesus" redirects here. For the album, see Bigger than Jesus (album). For other uses, see Bigger Than Jesus (disambiguation).
Lennon's comments incited protests and threats, particularly throughout the Bible Belt in the Southern United States. Some radio stations stopped playing Beatles songs, records were publicly burned, and press conferences were cancelled. The controversy coincided with the band's 1966 US tour and overshadowed press coverage of their newest album, Revolver. Lennon later repeatedly apologised and clarified at a series of press conferences that he was not comparing himself or the band to Christ.
The controversy exacerbated the band's unhappiness with touring, which they never undertook again; Lennon also refrained from touring in his solo career. In 1980, he was murdered by a fan of the Beatles, Mark David Chapman, who later cited Lennon's quote as one of his possible motives in the killing.
Escalation and radio bans[edit]
In late July, Unger sent copies of the interviews to radio stations in the Southern United States.[36] WAQY disc jockey Tommy Charles in Birmingham, Alabama, heard about Lennon's remarks from his co-presenter Doug Layton and said, "That does it for me. I am not going to play the Beatles any more."[28] During their 29 July breakfast show, Charles and Layton asked for listeners' views on Lennon's comment,[37] and the response was overwhelmingly negative.[28] The pair set about destroying Beatles vinyl LPs on-air.[38] Charles later stated, "We just felt it was so absurd and sacrilegious that something ought to be done to show them that they can't get away with this sort of thing."[39] United Press International bureau manager Al Benn heard the WAQY show and filed a news report in New York City, culminating in a major story in The New York Times on 5 August.[28] Sales of Datebook, which had never been a leading title in the youth magazine market beforehand, reached a million copies.[35]
Lennon's remarks were deemed blasphemous by some Christian conservative groups.[40] More than 30 radio stations, including some in New York and Boston, followed WAQY's lead by refusing to play the Beatles' music.[41][42] WAQY hired a tree-grinding machine and invited listeners to deliver their Beatles merchandise for destruction.[43] KCBN in Reno, Nevada, broadcast hourly editorials condemning the Beatles and announced a public bonfire for 6 August where the band's albums would be burned.[44] Several Southern stations organised demonstrations with bonfires,[42] drawing crowds of teenagers to publicly burn their Beatles records, effigies of the band, and other memorabilia.[43] Photos of teenagers eagerly participating in the bonfires were widely distributed throughout the US,[41][43] and the controversy received blanket media coverage through television reports.[42] McCartney later compared the burnings to Nazi book burnings, citing the controversy as an example of "hysterical low-grade American thinking."[45]
The furore came to be known as the "'More popular than Jesus' controversy"[46] or the "Jesus controversy".[47] It followed soon after the negative reaction from American disc jockeys and retailers to the "butcher" sleeve photo used on the Beatles' US-only LP Yesterday and Today.[43] Withdrawn and replaced within days of release in June, this LP cover showed the band members dressed as butchers and covered in dismembered plastic dolls and pieces of raw meat.[48] For some conservatives in the American South, according to Rodriguez, Lennon's comments on Christ now allowed them an opportunity to act on their grievances against the Beatles: namely, their long hair and championing of African-American musicians.[26]
Legacy[edit]
Cultural impact and validity of Lennon's claim[edit]
In 1993, Michael Medved wrote in The Sunday Times that "today, comments like Lennon's could never cause controversy; a contemptuous attitude to religion is all but expected from all mainstream pop performers."[92] In 1997, Noel Gallagher claimed that his band Oasis was "bigger than God", but reaction was minimal.[92] The following day, Melanie C of the Spice Girls responded: "If Oasis are bigger than God, what does that make the Spice Girls? Bigger than Buddha? Because we are a darn sight bigger than Oasis".[93] Writing for Mojo magazine in 2002, David Fricke credited Cleave's interview and the controversy as marking the start of modern music journalism. He said that it was "no coincidence" that Paul Williams, then a seventeen-year-old Swarthmore College student, launched Crawdaddy! magazine in 1966, given the Beatles' influence and Lennon's "sense of mission" as a spokesman for youth culture.[38]
Lennon's comments continued to be the subject of scrutiny in right-wing religious literature, particularly in the writing of David A. Noebel,[94] a longstanding critic of the Beatles' influence on American youth.[95][96] According to a 1987 article by Mark Sullivan in the journal Popular Music, a photo from WAYX's Beatles bonfire in Waycross, Georgia, which shows a child presenting the Meet the Beatles! LP for burning, became "probably the most famous photograph of the entire anti-rock movement".[1][nb 5] According to Steve Turner, the episode became "so much a part of history" that the words "More popular than Jesus" are synonymous with the controversy.[98]
The controversy was parodied in the 1978 mockumentary All You Need Is Cash, when Neil Innes, playing Ron Nasty, a Lennon parody in the fictional band the Rutles, claimed that he really said "Bigger than Rod (Stewart)".[99]
In 2012, Nathan Smith of the Houston Press compared several aspects of popular media and concluded that Jesus was more popular than the Beatles.[100] In 2015, Philippine Star contributor Edgar O. Cruz said that Lennon's statement proved to be at least half wrong, reporting that "rock 'n roll is dead but Christianity expanded with Catholicism experiencing exceptional growth through Pope Francis' lead".[101]