This Tuesday, March 4th is the 59th anniversary of the day The London Evening Standard newspaper published a feature article about John Lennon, written by Maureen Cleave. It contained the infamous quote of Lennon saying to her, “We’re more popular than Jesus...”
Nothing much happened after it was published in London, but months later, a teen magazine reprinted it and all hell broke loose for The Beatles in America!
Below are six links to articles and a video of the awkward press conference where John Lennon apologized.
And below that is the MBIP Coming Attractions for what’s coming up here on the blog next week!
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Sunday Links
John Lennon: “We’re more popular than Jesus” - This is the feature article that had the quote in it and it went unnoticed when it was first published and it’s easy to gloss over it while reading the article which focused on how John Lennon was living his life in 1966.
Danny Says: How Danny Fields Changed Music Forever - This is an interesting interview with Danny Fields, who was the one who started the whole ball rolling by highlighting the quote in the teen magazine, Datebook. He addresses it in the second and third questions in the interview. This interview is about a documentary on Danny Fields called, “Danny Says” and in the documentary it’s noted that Danny Fields ended up being good friends with Linda McCartney and he tells the story of how he told Paul McCartney he was the one that started all of the controversy about this quote! It’s worth watching the documentary just to hear him tell this story!
Vatican 'forgives' Lennon for 'more popular than Jesus' remark - This piece tells how the Vatican forgave John Lennon and quotes Lennon thanking Jesus at the end in what I think was a comical quote.
50 Years After John Lennon’s “Bigger Than Jesus” Quote, We Forget How Shocking the Rest of That Interview Was - Slate points out that there were even more controversial statements made within the article that got overlooked due to the Jesus statement.
This Day In History - John Lennon sparks his first major controversy - An historical look at this controversial day in Beatles history.
The Beatles Were More Popular Than Jesus For One Week In 1966 - This article notes that The Beatles both outsold the Bible and that they were probably taller than Jesus, hence they were “bigger” than Jesus! Ha ha ha!
John Lennon / Beatles 1966 / Jesus statement - This video has The Beatles record producer, George Martin and Paul McCartney talking about the Jesus quote and the awkward press conference where John Lennon apologized and you can tell he ‘s not all that comfortable doing it!
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MBIP Coming Attractions
Monday: I had a delicious Saturday Night Cheeseburger at the Suite Fire Bar + Grille and was joined by my friends Amber and Joe. Check that out tomorrow!
Tuesday: The MBIP rib eating tour continues and this week I was joined by my friend Chip Joyce and we had some delicious ribs and sides at Dac’s Smokehouse in Morton.
Wednesday: This week MBIP Commenter, Chad Wallace and I are going to be doing the annual counting of the gumball machines at the Northwoods Mall and the results will be posted on Wednesday!
Thursday: We’ll have a photo from the MBIP World Headquarters and hopefully a book update on my forthcoming book, Confessions of a Spiteful Writer on Thursday’s Blog Buffet.
Friday: There will be a tasty snack post on Friday and I think I know of a store where we might find some unusual snacks. Tune in and find out where I’m going for snacks this Friday.
Saturday: We’ll be taking a look back at something from Peoria’s past in another Meanwhile, Back In Peoria’s Past post.
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