They did a recording of Blackbird in the late 60's, included on the 4-CD box set which might be deleted by now. The notes to it say the Beatles were their favourite band. Nash came out of the British pop scene influenced by the Beatles. Ringo played drums in the early seventies for their As I Come Of Age. Their is surely a strong Beatles influence there. But, would it qualify them to rank as the equivalent 'American Beatles'?

I think The Eagles have at times been regarded as 'The American Beatles'. Their music certainly cuts across all types of American sounds. They seem to define the American sound more thoroughly than any other band, in my view. But, don't forget - The Eagles were directly influenced by CSNY!

But, which would you call 'The American Beatles'? Or, another band, perhaps? Certainly not The Monkees!!!!!  

I would say The Beach Boys or The Byrds. CSNY sing into nice harmonies, like The Beatles used to. But then again, so did The Andrews Sisters.

Though I didn't say it, I really think it's The Eagles. For what I said, about crossing over various genres of American music. Many of their songs are memorable and instantly recognisable too. The Beatles sounded and seemed British lyrically too, often. The Eagles just seem so all-American by comparison. The Eagles also seem to have split at the height of their career, at the end of their decade.

Creedence had the best run of  top ten singles than any 60's or 70's American acts (except The Eagles?) , plus a fine collection of albums, and were a great live act.
So Creedence or The Eagles would get my vote. I'm a bit young for Creedence, but there was a lot of hysteria about The Eagles - they were definately BIG.
CSNY did have a huge following - but didn't have the singles, which for me disqualifies them

Quoted from Bobber

... But then again, so did The Andrews Sisters.

Lol! ... agree with Bobber: The Beach Boys or The Byrds. There were not as many as Great Bands in America in the 60s as there were in Britain ... and among the last ones is very difficult to say 2 or 3 which were near The Guys did, so more among the american ones.
After the shock of the Beach Boys I'd said ... The Doors or Creedence Clearwater Revival (short careers and great stuff and groopies ... like The Guys)

CSNY were great, but The Eagles made their songs memorable and commercially viable. Something CSNY couldn't do. Do you mean Creedence Clearwater Revival? I thought they were a third rate band who didn't get very far. I heard only one song a long time ago, which I thought was very weak.

Quoted from GreenApple

... Do you mean Creedence Clearwater Revival? I thought they were a third rate band who didn't get very far. I heard only one song a long time ago, which I thought was very weak.

They had very good stuff (maybe not very stable)

I've always been annoyed by the fact that CSN(Y) made few albums over the years. Splitting up after Deja Vu was a bad decision artistically and commercially. The resulting Crosby/Nash albums/songs were mostly mediocre. Something was missing without Stills. I guess Stills was well into the Manassas/solo career stuff. Maybe he was doing financially nicely out of it and feeling his freedom. He made some really good stuff in his solo career. But, CSN should have been together more over the years. I was a massive fan once. To some extent, I think there was an element of united they stood, divided they fell. They didn't even get their common act together in the eighties or nineties much more. I just feel they could have made much better music if they'd stayed together more often, and perhaps gone down in music history better.

Anyway, if you're a CSNY fan, the 4-CD box set has a massive amount of alternative takes of their great songs which are just so fine - better than even the originals! And some really good previously unreleased material. For generosity of otherwise unavailable material, it ranks as truly excellent as a big compilation. Comparable to the Beatles Anthology series.

Quoted from GreenApple

Do you mean Creedence Clearwater Revival? I thought they were a third rate band who didn't get very far. I heard only one song a long time ago, which I thought was very weak.

From '69 to '72 they had eight consecutive top ten singles. Try and think of another American band that had that kind of chart success. Their albums were all huge sellers and liked by critics.
Bad Moon Rising, Who'll Stop the Rain, Run through The Jungle, Suzie Q, Have You Ever Seen the Rain...all great songs. Cosmos Factory is THE album. For 3 years they were BIG. And they invented swamp-rock.
I

Quoted from kevin_b

From '69 to '72 they had eight consecutive top ten singles. Try and think of another American band that had that kind of chart success. Their albums were all huge sellers and liked by critics.
Bad Moon Rising, Who'll Stop the Rain, Run through The Jungle, Suzie Q, Have You Ever Seen the Rain...all great songs. Cosmos Factory is THE album. For 3 years they were BIG. And they invented swamp-rock.

I've only heard of some of those songs. I heard a song called River Woman. Sounded poor to me. Hope I can check them out sometime.

Quoted from kevin_b

From '69 to '72 they had eight consecutive top ten singles. Try and think of another American band that had that kind of chart success. Their albums were all huge sellers and liked by critics.
Bad Moon Rising, Who'll Stop the Rain, Run through The Jungle, Suzie Q, Have You Ever Seen the Rain...all great songs. Cosmos Factory is THE album. For 3 years they were BIG. And they invented swamp-rock.
I

I see what your saying is true kevin, but the band never had a number 1 even though they had numerous top tens. (Sorry, I hate CCR)

To answer the question, I believe the Beach Boys were the closest thing to the Beatles (except Elvis, but he was solo) in America.

Quoted from tkitna

I see what your saying is true kevin, but the band never had a number 1 even though they had numerous top tens. (Sorry, I hate CCR)
...

They had seven (7) number 2 and one (1) number 3 in 1969 and 1970 and two (2) of their albums in the same years were number 1, ... They have got 3 albums in the List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (95th, 265th and 392nd)(the same number as Beach Boys (2nd, 270th and 380th), for example) ... not too bad knowing such a great music there was then ... there's no comparasion to 1963-1964 when there was nothing in pop-rock music world. A top ten in 1969 is almost a number 1 in 1964.
How many very good and great bands and solists there were in the 1965-1969 years (the best five-year period of music in the whole history)?


However I'm not a fan of Creedence.

I'm afraid the U.S. never create the band who could stand up to the Beatles.  Buffalo Springfield had Neil and Stills, but little commercial success.  If the Eagles were our Beatles, I need to shoot myself right now.

We had plenty of solo acts like Dylan and Springsteen and Joni Mitchell that have longevity and great albums but aren't really band acts.  The Beach Boys were Brian really--although Dennis and Carl pitched in later.  I like the Byrds in their heyday when McQuinn, Gene Clark, Hillman and David Crosby were all writing (culminating in Younger than Yesterday, but including FD and Eight Miles High) but I don't think they matched the Beatles.  Even when they were popularizing Dylan songs.  

There was no American equivalent. Though I'm not a big fan, Grand Funk set a number of records but often get overlooked. And if you are looking strictly at Number 1's, Mariah the Pyriah is only one Number 1 from tying the Beatles for #1 singles and I can't mention her and the Beatles in the same sentence without wanting to puke. Plus I think Boxcar Willie outsold the Beatles, Elvis, and The Andrew Sisters combined. CCR was mess. Wasn't much to choose from in the bleak early 70s. Take your pick CCR or the Partridge Family.