A 1960’s Comparison: The Beatles vs. The Rolling Stones

In 2019 Billboard, the foremost international music and entertainment magazine in the industry ranked these 2 bands in the No1 and No2 spots as Top Artists of All Time. Let’s examine why.

Both bands’ members were born during WWII in the early 1940’s. The eldest was the Stone’s Bill Wyman who was born in 1936, a year shy of Elvis Presley’s birthdate.

The Beatles were all from Liverpool and the Rolling Stones (a.k.a., the Stones) mostly grew up 230 miles south in London.

The Beatles began with different band members in 1958, but the final 4 members began their 8 year career in 1962 and disbanded in 1970. They only toured from 1962 to 1966.

The Stones were founded by Brian Jones in 1962 and continue to record and tour to this day, an improbable 62 years later. No one would EVER have bet on this run. Their original 5 member line-up was finalized in early 1963 and has grown to a much larger on-stage presence including at least 8 additional musicians.

Both bands landed in the US for the first time in 1964, with the Beatles arriving 4 months before the Stones. They both were key cogs in the success of the British Invasion which shattered American’s perceptions about popular music coming from anywhere else but the US. It had never happened before, and the…