More popular than Jesus Doug Layton, and was immediately incensed, saying, "That does it for me. I am not going to play the Beatles any more". Charles and Layton asked for listeners' views on Lennon's comment and the response was overwhelmingly negative. Charles later stated, "We just felt it was so absurd and sacrilegious that something ought to be done to show them that they can't get away with this sort of thing". Al Benn, who was the bureau manager for United Press International News, heard the WAQY show and immediately filed a news report in New York City, culminating in a major news
Fifth Beatle the "fifth Beatle", but over the years he and producer George Martin have clearly been recognised as the inner circle members who most profoundly affected the band's career. In an interview in the 1990s describing Epstein's involvement in the band's rise to fame, Martin declared "He's the fifth Beatle, if there ever was one." McCartney summarized the importance of Epstein to the Beatles when he was interviewed in 1997 for a BBC documentary about Epstein. He stated: "If anyone was the fifth Beatle, it was Brian." In 2013 Epstein was the subject of a graphic novel entitled "The Fifth Beatle"