Did JFK's assassination help The Beatles break the US?

Paul McCartney says their success may have been the US needing a lift "out of sorrow", but is he right?

British Broadcasting CorporationWatch LiveHomeNewsSportBusinessInnovationCultureArtsTravelEarthVideoLiveHomeNewsIsrael-Gaza WarWar in UkraineUS ElectionUS & CanadaUKUK PoliticsEnglandN. IrelandN. Ireland PoliticsScotlandScotland PoliticsWalesWales PoliticsAfricaAsiaChinaIndiaAustraliaEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastIn PicturesBBC InDepthBBC VerifySportBusinessExecutive LoungeTechnology of BusinessFuture of BusinessInnovationTechnologyScience & HealthArtificial IntelligenceAI v the MindCultureFilm & TVMusicArt & DesignStyleBooksEntertainment NewsArtsArts in MotionTravelDestinationsAfricaAntarcticaAsiaAustralia and PacificCaribbean & BermudaCentral AmericaEuropeMiddle EastNorth AmericaSouth AmericaWorld’s TableCulture & ExperiencesAdventuresThe SpeciaListEarthNatural WondersWeather & ScienceClimate SolutionsSustainable BusinessGreen LivingVideoLiveLive NewsLive SportHomeNewsSportBusinessInnovationCultureArtsTravelEarthVideoLiveAudioWeatherNewslettersDid JFK's assassination help The Beatles break the US?Getty ImagesBy the time The Beatles visited the US, they were already huge stars in the UKIn Beatles '64, the new documentary which charts the impact of the band's first US tour and how it catapulted them to global superstardom, Paul McCartney makes a suggestion as to why they achieved so much so quickly.

“When we came, it was quite shortly after Kennedy had been assassinated," he said.

"Maybe America needed something like The Beatles to be lifted out of sorrow."

Beatles scholars and cultural historians have long remarked upon how much of a lift the band gave to an America in mourning.

But was McCartney right? Was the rise of the world's most famous band partly down to the murder of the 35th president of the United States?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c86qx7gep86o

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