What is the best band ever?

The Beatles.

Velvet Undergound

Jaybo

They gave up touring because they could not recreate their studio work.

I've read that the Beatles stopped touring because the hysteria was such that they couldn't hear themselves over the screaming! They'd wind up playing like shit and the fans STILL thought they'd heard a miracle.

I could tell by these posts that many of you were not around when the Beatles were spreading their influence. As a band, they transcended the music and influenced the entire planet. They changed the way people dressed and looked and more inportantly, the way people thought and all of this without a video media. You may get a glimpse of this on some old archive film, but you could not know how much they changed the world unless you were there. Until someone surpasses that influence, they remain head and shoulders above anyone else.