It is a rivalry that has rumbled on for more than half a century, but now Paul McCartney has finally agreed to let it be by collaborating with the Rolling Stones on their new album.
In an email to CNN Wednesday, a representative for the Rolling Stones confirmed that McCartney, 80, plays bass “on just one RS track.”
Denying press reports that the collaboration also includes the Beatles’ other surviving member, the spokesman said the recording featured “no Ringo Starr at all.”
No further details are available about the album, which will be the first since the Stones’ drummer, Charlie Watts, died in 2021.
In the 1960s, the Beatles and the Stones were two of the most famous groups in the world. While the Rolling Stones are still touring six decades later, the Beatles split up in 1970. John Lennon was killed in 1980 and George Harrison died in 2001.
In an interview with Howard Stern in 2020, McCartney said simply: “The Beatles were better.”
Stones frontman Mick Jagger responded, saying in another interview “there’s obviously no competition.”
A year later, in an interview to promote his book “The Lyrics,” McCartney said: “I’m not sure I should say it, but they’re a blues cover band, that’s sort of what the Stones are.
“I think our net was cast a bit wider than theirs.”
But despite the friendly jibes, this is not the first time the stars have worked together.
McCartney and Lennon actually wrote the Stones’ first hit, “I Wanna Be Your Man,” and, four years later, Jagger was in the studio when the Beatles recorded “All You Need Is Love.”
According to Rolling Stone magazine, “Jagger was a semi-regular guest of honor at Beatles sessions: He also turned up for the mixing of Revolver and the recording of the orchestral section of ‘A Day in the Life’.”
