Would There Have Been A British Invasion Without The Beatles?

If not The Beatles it would have been The Rolling Stones a few years later.

No

There had already been a UK group w/a #1 hit here: The Tornados and "Telstar". But they had zero impact otherwise.

The scruffy Stones, even the cleaned-up early Stones, would never have gotten anywhere without The Beatles establishing a beachhead for them. Unlike The Fabs, who were superstars from the moment they set foot on US soil, The Stones stumbled at first -- at one point they played in support of The Rivieras ("California Sun") at a show in Minnesota.

The Stones had their first UK hit w/a Len-Mac song. They probably wouldn't have gotten very far at home w/o the Beatles, much less gone to America.

Remember, manager Andrew Loog Oldham specifically marketed the Stones as the anti-Beatles.

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And make a legitimate case, not some vague sooner-or-later arguement.

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it was inevitable - good enough ?

While there was some original popular music here, think Beach Boys, a lot of it was formula music (by music exec's) much like today, and the Beatles were a breath(e) of fresh air(e). Even Elvis (give me a white kid that sounds black) was part of a formula. Yeah, these guys were reinventing their stuff from what had already worked, but it was without the rock-n-roll management. Helped that they were not just selling the drugs-sex angle... so yeah it was inevitable... because everyone was insatiable for something different but real. I imagine it certainly helped that they were mired in the dirt of the German club scene, so they knew what sold the hard way, instead of being told play it like this. And while they had the chops to go along with the looks, there was still this vacuum waiting be filled, a next step in musical evolution. Much like urban kids did with hip-hop, it was time for something new, they just didn't literally scratch the surface of what was there. The British took 50's rock to the next logical step the one American's could of and would have, but weren't allowed due to market share (from the industry).

Yes, the skiffle movement... Which was similar to rockabilly in the US, was huge in Britain before the Beatles broke. So there were countless young guys playing guitar and writing songs in the skiffle vernacular.... And that included the future Beatles. And that's why the British Invasion happened.... It wasn't just the Beatles, they just broke through and all those young Englishmen playing Skiffle were ready to form pop rock bands.

Could not have said it better.....

Way before my time but probably my favorite music era of all-time. What about The Kinks? I rarely hear them mentioned as one of the all-time greats but they have a lot of big hits and are somewhat similar to The Beatles.

Better question, would there have been the Beatles without American rock 'n roll?

Then again, who's to say that "Blue Velvet", "Sugar Shack", "Deep Purple" and "Dominique" aren't as musically worthy as the early Beatles recordings?

I seem to remember "Louie Louie" being out around that time as well.