How old were The Beatles when they scored their first number one?

At the time of writing, Sir Paul McCartney is gearing up to play his final sold-out show at the O2 Arena in London, a comparatively intimate stop on his Got Back world tour, at the grand old age of 82 years young. I’m sure there are folks of his generation, or the generation immediately after whose first exposure to popular culture was The Beatles, who still think of him and the Fabs as long-standing elder statesmen of rock. It wasn’t always like this, though.

Something that gets lost out of context is just how astonishingly young John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr were when the Beatles were in their prime. It wasn’t quite the level of youth we see on the charts now, where over a decade ago, a then-16-year-old Lorde paved the way for the likes of Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, and Benson Boone.

However, while the nascent Beatles were comparatively fossilized when their first number one single, ‘From Me To You’, hit the top of the UK charts in their early 20s, they were already veterans in music. Lennon had formed The Quarrymen, the primordial skiffle band that would later give the world The Beatles when he was 16. A year later, he welcomed Paul McCartney, two years his junior, into the band.

After a young Macca, then a budding guitarist, kept choking onstage when called upon to play lead. So, he tapped up his friend George Harrison to join them. Harrison was even younger, a year younger than Paul. By 1960, the trio had ditched the hilariously awful name of ‘Japage 3’ (John, Paul and George) to become The Beatles, with Ringo Starr finally completing the classic lineup in 1962.

By the time the band signed to Parlophone, none of the band were out of their early 20s. Ringo and John, the eldest at 22, and Harrison, still only 19 years old. The band hit the top spot the following year, but if anything, what’s even more mind-boggling is everything they did next. Because teenagers in the pop charts aren’t anything new. Helen Shapiro had hit number one in 1961 with ‘You Don’t Know’ at 14.

It’s one thing to reach the summit; it’s another thing to stay there. Sure, The Beatles released ‘From Me To You’ when their average age was 22. This means that A Hard Day’s Night came out when that average age was 23. Rubber Soul? 25. Revolver? 26. Abbey Sodding Road? The average age of the band that made that record was 28. The band split up before any of the group had turned 30. George Harrison was younger than Shaboozey is now.

That is the true miracle of The Beatles—not their youth when they started, but their youth when they ended. It was a decade of utter magic, and when it ended, they were still in their prime and a lot of the music that each of them made since their time as The Beatles ended has proved that. Sure, let’s be charitable and put Ringo’s solo work in there, too. We’re feeling nice today.