The Beatles spent years fielding sincere questions about a tongue-in-cheek origin story John Lennon invented for the band's name, which he wrote for the Liverpool magazine The Mersey Beat. The whimsical tale, later reprinted in the band's Anthology project, described a "man on a flaming pie" appearing in a vision and christening them "Beatles with an A" — a piece of absurdist British humour that some readers and interviewers took literally, forcing the band to repeatedly clarify it was a joke.

Paul McCartney later recalled that when the Anthology team encountered the story, some assumed Lennon genuinely had a mystical vision, prompting the band to explain it was satire in the vein of a "flaming chariot or phoenix" rather than a real account. The true story, according to Lennon, was far more mundane: inspired by Buddy Holly's band The Crickets, he wanted a name with a double meaning, settling on "Beatles" to evoke both insects and "beat" music. The joke version was ultimately included in Anthology anyway, McCartney said, simply "for a bit of fun."