[The Beatles] "We’re More Popular Than Jesus Now"

np: np, [ca. 1966]. Offset. Single sheet folded vertically to form pamphlet. 3 1/2 x 8 1/2 in. Very good. Item #5446

A rare anti-Beatles tract published by American evangelists following John Lennon’s infamous 1966 interview in which he claimed a higher level of popularity than Jesus. His remarks would inflame American audiences, kick off a "Ban the Beatles" campaign, and lead the South Carolina Ku Klux Klan to publicly burn Beatles records. The next Beatles tour would be their last as Beatlemania waned and the most popular band in the Western world became the subject of heated controversy and early culture wars.

"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first—rock ’n’ roll or Christianity." - John Lennon.

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