Read any online Beatle forum these days and you will notice that there is a definite split on their solo careers. It’s all subjective of course, you like John, I like Paul, who cares really, it’s a fruitless debate. But what it does tell us is that the strength of the Beatles is in their combination. 

The friendship that bound them together has been watered down over the years by the obsession with the Beatles not getting on towards the end and into the 70s, but we know now with the narrative being rewritten of late, not just from the Get Back documentary but also from interviews with Paul and Ringo that was not the case, at least not the whole time anyways.

Save the destructive introduction of Allen Klein and the negative influence of the circling vultures in the form of money men determined to take advantage of the Beatles good nature, this bond may have lasted a bit longer. 

For me it is this that draws us all back into the story time and again. These were not four individuals with a plan set on world domination and making bucket loads of cash, these were four friends who had a shared love of music and through some cosmic circumstance managed to find each other at the right time to make magic together. 

Like the journey Mary and Joseph took to get to Nazareth, we have assigned our own significance to the birth of the Beatles and the roads they travelled. It has significance in the same way because we can relate to the struggle, the ups and downs, the perils and pitfalls that had to be avoided to come out the other side and at the heart of what makes the Beatle story so great is that in it we recognise the importance of kindness and friendship and selflessness that guided them. 

The Beatles didn’t have a virtuoso, they didn’t have someone who wanted to be centre stage, they shared that stage and in doing that they showed us the meaning of friendship and brotherhood. 

As a person you can see in them your own friendships and can imagine how you might go through the same experience with the humour and gratefulness that is so evident when you see interviews with the young beatles. As a parent you wish that your children have friends like that, that they are surrounded by love and support and ultimately are having the time of their lives while doing it. 

That backing extended into the studio too, the band knew despite being locked away for days and weeks on end that the outside world expected a home run from them with every release and to that end they forced the best from each other and to my mind we’re unselfish in their support for each other’s songs. 

You don’t have to worry about egos taking over, George will happily play subtle backing if that’s what works best for a song, he is not demanding a sprawling solo to showcase his guitar works all the time. Similarly Ringo allowed space in his drumming for a song to breathe, his drum fills always enhancing and not drowning a vocal. 

Then we come to John and Paul, theirs being the first bromance we can all recall. Like brothers they pulled each other up to achieve more, to be better, putting as much work into a backing vocal or a bassline as they would to their own compositions. 

The sum was always greater than the parts. 

That I believe is where our fascination still lies, in the camaraderie. Unlike Elvis who went through it alone, these four young men took the journey together and in that sense lived out the ultimate fantasy, having outstanding success and having your friends along for the ride. 

When Ringo sings, ‘What would you do if I sang out of tune, would you stand up and walk out on me’ of course the answer is, no, we will stay until you get it right. We will stay all night if we have to. 

There is real power in that. Something we see in TV and movies, the trope of strength in numbers, the wiley gang that can overcome the odds, each bringing something special to the table and battling against the evil loner intent on bringing them down. It was there in Help! As the Beatles save Ringo from sacrifice, it is there too in the real world as the Beatles battled and won over the naysayers who rallied against their unwelcome influence and tried to stop them from shattering the class ceiling by showing that working class people can break the cycle and be successful too. 

None of this is possible without friendship and for a magical period from the moment John and Paul met at Woolton until the last note of Abbey Road, they let us look in on that exclusive club and taught us all that we are better together. 

That in itself is quite a legacy.