Paul McCartney's upcoming concert recalls the 1960s, when Israel canceled a Beatles gig.

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JERUSALEM — An upcoming concert by Paul McCartney has revived memories of the 1960s, when an Israeli official supposedly called off a Beatles concert for fear it would corrupt the nation's youth.

The episode is often fondly quoted as a relic of a long-lost Israel where the public's innocence needed protecting.

Trouble is, the story might not be true: With Israelis in a tizzy about McCartney's arrival — he'll perform in Tel Aviv Sept. 25 — the official's son is taking the opportunity to try to clear his father's name.

So pervasive is the story of the concert's cancellation 43 years ago that this year Israel's ambassador in London wrote a letter expressing regret over the matter to surviving members of the band. He told them the country would like to make it up to them: Come play during this year's celebrations marking Israel's 60th anniversary.

The Israeli official blamed for canceling the 1965 concert was Yaakov Sarid, a stern-faced man who was the Education Ministry's director.

Sarid, who died in 1976, was the father of Yossi Sarid, for years an outspoken member of Israel's parliament and now a newspaper columnist.

The younger Sarid, now 67, says his father had nothing to do with the decision.

The truth, Sarid said, involved a more mundane feud between two Israeli concert promoters.

The competition was so bitter that when one of them, Yaakov Uri, was about to bring The Beatles to the Jewish state, the other, Giora Godik, used his official connections to torpedo the government approval his rival needed to get the foreign currency to pay for the gig. Sarid said his father, who had never heard of the Beatles, was not involved.

Though Sarid wants the record set straight and his father's name cleared, he also finds the story amusing and realizes it has taken on a life of its own.

"It's a nice story, in this case much nicer than the truth," he said.