Bad luck, One Direction: Paul McCartney doubts success of The Beatles will ever be matched again

'Name me another group of four chaps or chapesses who had what we had'

Paul McCartney (L) with The Beatles on 19 May 1967, just after recording ‘Sgt Pepper’ (Getty Images)

Harry Styles might have claimed that One Direction are "even bigger" than The Beatles, but Paul McCartney vehemently disagrees that any modern band will ever take his band's crown.

The British singer and former Beatle, 73, believes the "Yellow Submarine" gang rose to global fame because they wrote their own music.

"We came out of a very rich period but let's not forget, those four boys were f**king good," he told Esquire magazine. "Name me another group of four chaps or chapesses who had what The Beatles had. Lennon's skill, intelligence, acerbic wit, McCartney's melody, whatever he's got, Harrison's sprituality, Ringo's spirit of fun, great drumming.

"We all played, which is pretty hard. You don't get a lot of that these days. We wrote some pretty good stuff, our own material. We didn't have writers."

The Beatles formed in Liverpool in 1960 and went on to become one of the most iconic and influential bands in the history of music.

"Could that happen again? I don't know," McCartney said. "I wish people well but I have a feeling it couldn't."

One Direction recreate The Beatles' Abbey Road album cover

Styles said last February that his experience of touring with mega famous boy band 1D was comparable to that of The Beatles decades beforehand.

"Stepping off the plane, the girls, the madness, it was exactly the same as when we got there - just 50 years earlier," he said, before quickly adding: "But none of us think we're in the same league as them music-wise. We'd be total fools if we did. Fame-wise it's probably even bigger, but we don't stand anywhere near them in terms of music."