Martin hyllas: ”Han gjorde allt först – och bäst”

The fifth Beatle is an informal title that various commentators in the press and entertainment industry have applied to persons who were at one point a member of the Beatles, or who had a strong association with the "Fab Four" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr) during the group's existence. The "fifth Beatle" claims started appearing in the press immediately upon the band's sensational rise to global fame in 1963–64 as the most famous quartet in pop culture. At the Beatles' 1988 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Harrison at one point stated that there were only two "fifth Beatles": Derek Taylor and Neil Aspinall (referring to the Beatles' public relations manager and road manager-turned-business-executive, respectively). In a 1997 BBC interview, McCartney stated: "If anyone was the fifth Beatle, it was [Beatles' manager] Brian Epstein." Lennon was critical of individuals who claimed credit for the Beatles' success, including the individual Beatles themselves, saying in his 1970 interview with Jann Wenner, "I’m not the Beatles. I’m me. Paul isn’t the Beatles. Brian Epstein wasn’t the Beatles, neither is Dick James. The Beatles are the Beatles." Lennon was also disparaging of George Martin's importance to the Beatles. The term is not used to indicate the chronology of band members joining the group. Pete Best joined Lennon, McCartney, Stuart Sutcliffe and Harrison on the eve of their Hamburg sojourn, the five using the monikers, "The Silver Beetles" and "The Silver Beatles" (they experimented with "The Beat Brothers" and ultimately "The Beatles" while in Hamburg with Best).