![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/The-Beatles-2025-Anthology-Bruce-McBroom-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Bruce McBroom \/ Apple Corps LTD)<\/p>\n
Tue 23 December 2025 18:57, UK <\/p>\n
Following the success of their controversial final effort, \u2018Now and Then\u2019, The Beatles<\/a> were able to close their songbook, having reached an unrivalled 21 number one singles.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s a feat that showcases the Fab Four as perhaps the most remarkable cultural force in history. Because, despite what the chart-topping pinnacle implies, they were never all that commercial as a band. Even the early tracks, before avant-garde experimentation entered the fore, still had a subversive pulse.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat people forget, I think, is that at the time, it was really rebellious, rough, mischievous and full of life, and irresistible to any young person. The Beatles were a huge influence as I was growing up,\u201d Peter Gabriel told ABC. He was one of a legion of youngsters who heard the radical edginess of \u2018I Saw Her Standing There\u2019 and made it look tame in a hurry.<\/p>\n He continued, \u201cIt was to my mind and my ears, far more of a breakthrough than, say, the Sex Pistols, which was more stylistic, I think, and not really about the music or revolution.\u201d And even if you disagree, you\u2019d have to admit that punk, and practically everything that followed for that matter, is indebted to the pioneering ways of the Fab Four.<\/p>\n But, importantly, the revolution that The Beatles were beckoning was backed by a bewildering array of tunes that wove themselves beyond the movement and into society forevermore. There is no finer sign of their transcendent yet commercial appeal than the fact that they managed to craft a song that three other performers have managed to top the charts with.<\/p>\n Which Beatles song went to number one for three separate artists?<\/p>\n \u2018With a Little Help from My Friends\u2019 was never released as a single from their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The fact that riotous applause from the album\u2019s opener segued into a Ringo Starr-sung track hampered the potential for a single release without the undertaking of a major edit. <\/p>\n However, years later, when the album was reissued in 1978, there was more time to cut a radio edition of the track, so it was finally released as a single, but sadly flagged in the charts and peaked at 63. Perhaps it was a question of timing that kept it from flourishing, with punk ruling the roost in that period and plenty of other Fab Four singles being granted reissues at the same time.<\/p>\n However, there was another huge factor. Joe Cocker had taken the song, turned it into an Aretha Franklin-inspired arrangement<\/a>, and delivered the definitive version that soon became a counterculture anthem after its performance at Woodstock. Prior to that crowning moment for the song, Cocker\u2019s version had already cracked the top spot of the charts upon release.<\/p>\n Even McCartney was full of praise. \u201cI remember [Cocker] and Denny Cordell coming round to the studio in Saville Row and playing me what they\u2019d recorded. It was just mind-blowing\u2026 he had totally turned the song into a soul anthem, and I was forever grateful for him for doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/The-Beatles-Paul-McCartney-John-Lennon-Ringo-Starr-George-Harrison-1968-Far-Out-Magazine-1024x768.jp.jpeg\")
<\/a>The Beatles\u2019 1968 press photo. (Credits: Far Out \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n