X Factor blamed for Beatles Sales Slump

Motley Crue

From an article posted online this evening

It was announced last week that the surviving members of the group and their management firm Apple had ended a dispute stretching back to 1978 with the company of the same name to allow iTunes to get their hands on the band's glittering back catalogue. The announcement was met with many headlines and much excitement.

With negotiations finally concluded, a heavyweight advertising campaign swiftly lurched into life and, with Simon Cowell clearly also on board, the contestants on this weekend's ‘X Factor' show were deployed to rework John, Paul, George and Ringo's finest moments. Yesterday's chart was braced to reflect this landmark development.

Beyond the hype, however, there seems to be little more than universal apathy from the British public. While we awaited confirmation of The Beatles' favourite song via this newly signposted path, expecting to see top 10 domination in both albums and singles, nothing of the sort has taken place.

Based on Sunday's chart, 'Hey Jude' is the nation's number one track. But it is also the only one to make the top 40. Just. It landed at number 40 ahead of 'Let It Be' (46), ‘Twist And Shout' (48) and ‘Here Comes The Sun' (64), while ‘In My Life', ‘Come Together', ‘Yesterday', ‘I Saw Her Standing There', ‘Eleanor Rigby' and ‘Help' all broke the top 100.

To be perfectly honest, I think X Factor's disgraceful butchering of their back catalogue decidedly ruined all chances that the Beatles had of getting to No 1 in the charts (or anywhere near it, for that matter)

Last year, X Factor honoured Queen, and that band faired a little better with their latest 'Absolute Greatest' hits ending up at No 3 in the UK charts.

Aldebaran

I'd say it's more down to the fact that their entire discography has been available on torrent sites for years.