John & Paul: what one friendship reveals about The Beatles

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  The Economist Hello, I'm Rosie Blore.

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  I host The Intelligence, our daily news and current affairs podcast.

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  Welcome to Editor's Picks.

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  Here's an article we've chosen from the latest edition of The Economist.

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  In 1967, Brian Magee, a British philosopher and author,

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  noted that 40-year-old songs by the likes of George Gershwin,

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  Cole Porter and Jerome Kern still had wide currency.

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  Given an indifference to melody in favor of rhythm and intriguing new sound mixtures,

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  he doubted that the songs of the 1960s would fare so well.

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  Does anyone seriously believe that Beatles music will be an unthinkingly accepted part of daily life all over the world in the 2000s?

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  He dared to ask.

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  The question now seems daft.

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  Today, Eleanor Rigby,

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  Norwegian Wood and Yesterday are widely judged to hold their own in the company of American songbook classics.

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  But there is more to the Beatles' continuing currency than the songs, and more,

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  too, than the performances and recordings,

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  those intriguing new sound mixtures that made them known.

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  In a way,

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  it would be unreasonable to blame McGee

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  for missing that the invention of teenagers as a market and television as a medium changed what it was to be famous.

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