The Beatles are widely credited with helping to usher in the dominance of the album as the dominant form of consuming media, cranking out several of the most influential records in popular music - from 1965's Rubber Soul to the final album they recorded together, 1969's Abbey Road.
But while they may still be looked at as the paragons of the album era, The Beatles still hold a monumental place in the centre of music, and as such their back catalogue has easily moved through the times; from the album era, to the time of downloads and to the present day, where streaming is king.
(It does need to be stated, however, that The Beatles' legacy estate, Apple Corps, resisted change for a long time; the band's catalogue didn't join iTunes until 2010 and their full discography was only added to streaming platforms on Christmas Day 2016).
With the Beatles' 'last' song Now And Then heading to a record-breaking jump to Number 1 in the UK, we thought it was high time that, for the first time ever, the Official Charts Company can reveal the official most-streamed songs of all time by The Beatles in the UK.
This is made all the more special by the fact that Now And Then (with just three days of tracking) is the most-streamed Beatles track, ever, in a week, gaining 3.1 million streams. With 1.5 million video streams, it's also the most-streamed official music video by the Beatles in a week too.
But before we get to the full Top 40 below, lets take a closer look at the Top 5...
Twist and Shout may have never been a big hit for the Beatles in their native UK, but it peaked at Number 2 in the US, only managing a Number 48 peak on the Official Singles Chart in 2010.
Today, it's perhaps best known for the scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off where Matthew Broderick lip-syncs to the Fab Four's version of this 60s rockabilly standard, which is a good indicator of why Twist and Shout's streams remain so high (75 million in total).
The Beatles song that, if someone put a gun to your head, anyone would probably be able to name, Hey Jude was originally written by Paul McCartney to cheer up Lennon's son, Julian (Lennon had just left his wife and Julian's mother, Cynthia, for Yoko Ono).
Notable for being the first release on The Beatles's own record label, Apple, Hey Jude also holds the distinction of being the most-streamed video by the Fab Four in the UK (more than 10 million video streams).
Originating in the hiring of Lennon by LSD advocate Timothy Leary to pen a song for a political campaign he was running at the time, Come Together eventually transformed into a brooding, strutting rock song, with Lennon declaring "come together, right now...over me."
Reaching Number 4 in the UK at the time of its original release, Come Together has accumulated 96 million streams in the UK to date, making it the Beatles's third most-streamed song here.
The final single released by the Beatles before McCartney left the band permanently (although both Let It Be, the album of the same name, and The Long And Winding Road would be issues followed Macca's departure), Let It Be serves as a potent post-script to the Beatles's career, which helped to change, shift and in some cases even create facets of pop music that still endure today.
Given how monolithic and enshrined in the cultural lexicon the dominance of the Lennon-McCartney writing partnership was, George Harrison's lyrical contributions to the band have often been overlooked. But no more, since one song written entirely by Harrison is now, officially, the most-streamed song of the Beatles's entire back catalogue in the UK.
Written by Harrison in 1969 at the home of his friend Eric Clapton, Here Comes The Sun represented a point in Harrison's life where he was undergoing massive changes; he had left The Beatles (although this proved to be short-lived, the band would still splinter and officially part ways the next year), he felt increasingly disillusioned by the commitments required to keep Apple Corps running, and was, understandably, having somewhat of a personal crisis.
Here Comes The Sun, then, represents a step into the daylight. It was the opening track for the last album the Beatles would release as a full band, Abbey Road, and in the session where the song was mixed, it actually represented the final time that all four Beatles would work in the same studio together.
It's fitting, then, to unveil Here Comes The Sun as the most-streamed Beatles track of all time in the UK; with a total of 191 million streams to its name. The dawn of a new day indeed.
Image: Apple Corps
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Brenmar
The reason Now and Then is probably The Beatles most streamed track is because it’s hard to buy. The CD single is out of stock on the Amazon and HMV websites. There are also very few, if any, record shops left. The vinyl edition of the single is north of £15 and even at that ridiculous price seems to out of stock. So all that is left is streaming.
Bengy
Now we need the combined list of streams plus downloads.