The Wings Single Paul McCartney Loves Most: “I Was in a Sensuous Mood”
BY ALEX HOPPER
American Songwriter
JANUARY 17, 2026
Paul McCartney‘s immediate follow-up to his tenure with the Beatles wasn’t readily accepted. Fans weren’t so sure about the DIY, diverse sound he was peddling as a solo artist. Then, when he tried to form a second band, fans were equally as hesitant. Eventually, though, listeners got on board, thanks to McCartney’s legendary and timeless songwriting. His post-Beatles career delivered countless hits, but there was one Wings single that McCartney counted above the rest.
Paul McCartney’s Favorite Wings Single
Though the efforts of every member of Wings can’t be discounted, the sound of the group was an extension of McCartney’s solo music. The songwriting was vividly McCartney’s, giving the former Beatle a sense of freedom to explore more of his tastes.
In 1972, McCartney hit a stride, releasing what he considered the best Wings single ever: “Hi, Hi, Hi.” Though this is a beloved track, it isn’t the flashiest Wings single. Not everyone would count this track as a favorite, but McCartney’s opinion in this arena is paramount.
“I was in a sensuous mood in Spain when I wrote it,” McCartney once said. “To me, it was just a song to close our act, and since it went down well when we toured the continent, I thought it would be a good single. I think it’s the best single we’ve done as Wings.”
BBC Ban
This song became controversial when the BBC banned it for “suggestive” lyrics. According to the broadcasters, McCartney flew too close to the sun when it came to drug innuendos. McCartney tried to suggest that the single wasn’t about drugs, but about sex. Neither topic played well with the BBC.
“I thought the ‘Hi, Hi, Hi’ thing could easily be taken as a natural high, could be taken as booze high and everything,” McCartney once said. “It doesn’t have to be drugs, you know, so I’d kind of get away with it. Well, the first thing they saw was drugs, so I didn’t get away with that, and then I just had some line ‘Lie on the bed and get ready for my polygon.’”
“Hi, Hi, Hi” is certainly not the only McCartney song to deal with drugs or any other vice, but for some reason, the makeup of this track was boundary-testing enough to get it banned. Revisit this Wings single below.
4 Amazing Covers of Paul McCartney I Know You’ve Never Heard Before
BY EM CASALENA
American Songwriter
JANUARY 11, 2026
People cover Paul McCartney, Wings, and The Beatles all the time. Honestly, much of the work he’s produced is just fun to cover. However, some of those Paul McCartney covers out there come close to topping the quality of the original, though I doubt anyone can truly do Macca better than Macca. And when it comes to the following four Paul McCartney covers, I bet you’ve never heard them before. Let’s dive in!
“Band On The Run” by Foo Fighters
This is not the kind of band you’d expect Foo Fighters to cover, but they did a killer job with it. They don’t shy away from the bluesy elements, either, making this both a faithful cover of “Band On The Run” and a uniquely Foo Fighters release.
The original version of “Band On The Run” was released by Paul McCartney and Wings in 1973.
“Dear Boy” by Death Cab For Cutie
An underrated cover of an underrated song from Paul McCartney. Death Cab For Cutie did a great job with the overall instrumentation of this cover, as well as those reverb-y vocals that really do sound just like something Paul McCartney would produce.
“Dear Boy” is one of many excellent songs from the 1971 album Ram, featuring both McCartney and his then-wife, Linda McCartney.
“Coming Up” by Ginger Root
This is an incredibly underrated cover for a musician who deserves a bit more recognition. I came across this YouTube video ages ago by chance, and I was blown away by Ginger Root’s cover of Paul McCartney’s “Coming Up”, recorded from inside a car, no less. It’s got a lo-fi vibe that is perfect for this particular song.
“Coming Up” was originally released on the delightfully synthy McCartney II back in 1980.
“Live And Let Die” by Guns N’ Roses
I have to admit, this entry on our list of Paul McCartney covers surprised me. I never expected Guns N’ Roses to take on a Wings classic. And yet, they did it in a way that didn’t betray their very early 1990s hard rock sound. It’s got an edge that the original song doesn’t quite have. Axl Rose’s vocals couldn’t sound more different from McCartney’s. And yet, it just works.
“Live And Let Die” was originally composed by Paul and Linda McCartney for the James Bond film of the same name back in 1973.
Paul McCartney in a video for Mary Had A Little Lamb.
YouTube
Happy New Year to the multitudes of Retro Roundup devotees out there. We begin 2026 with the landmark 50th instalment of Retro Roundup's look at the hits of the 1970s that did not scale the heights of the Billboard pop charts to reach top-10 status.
And since this Retro Roundup is of the landmark variety (Part 50), what better way to mark it than to delve into the 1970s output of the solo Beatles that did not match the chart status of their former group.
We begin with Paul McCartney, who I have indulged in bookwise lately much as I have been delving into Elvis Presley's more obscure studio and live recordings, the former thanks to the two volumes (so far) of The McCartney Legacy and the McCartney-authorized story of his 1971-1981 group Wings.
So we begin with Paul, to be followed by solo John, solo George and solo Ringo.
Give Ireland Back to the Irish (#21)- It's a tribute to Paul McCartney's name recognition that such a topical single, recorded after the Bloody Sunday incident in which British soldiers killed several protesters in Northern Ireland during The Troubles, charted as high as it did. It's not a bad song, but not up there with McCartney's best musically. It's been pointed out that there were similarities or links between Paul and John Lennon's solo careers in the 1970s, and this was especially the case in 1972, when Lennon went topical for record 1 of the 2-LP set, Some Time in New York City, derided by critics at the time of its release but now getting a bit of a re-evaluation due to a re-release as part of box sets assembled and curated by John's son Sean Ono Lennon.
Mary Had A Little Lamb (#28)- Some writers of McCartney lore said he made a single out of a well-known nursery rhyme in reaction to the above single being banned (no surprise there) by the BBC, in terms of airplay. But Paul says he was inspired by his daughter of the same name, the lambs on his Scottish farm and a desire to record a song for kids. Again, it's not near McCartney's best musically, but it shows how effortless he made it seem to come up with a great melody in his repurposing of an old children's favourite.
By the way, the two above singles and the next one, Hi, Hi, Hi, which will not be discussed here because it hit the top 10 on the U.S. charts, were non-LP singles. Paul, as did John and Ringo to lesser extents, continued the tradition of 1960s artists like the Beatles and other UK artists of not always plucking singles from their latest LPs. an admirable trait and a great way to fill a later greatest hits collection like Wings Greatest, which included neither of the above lower charting singles.
Sally G (#17)-The two lower charting singles were followed by a series of top-10 hits that were more befitting of a most talented Beatle, such as the timeless classic but critically derided My Love, the dynamic James Bond movie theme Live And Let Die and the singles from McCartney's best post-Beatles album Band On The Run. It's especially admirable that this very obscure song, the B-side of the top-10 non-LP Junior's Farm, which broke in the second incarnation of Wings in 1974, hit as high as it did. It's a country song inspired by the band's stay in Nashville (as was the A-side) that is little known today, but is very charming. It would have been most interesting if Paul made a whole country album as Ringo Starr did four years earlier with Beaucoups of Blues.
“That Was Terrifying”: Paul McCartney Gives Surprisingly Relatable Reasons for Why He Didn’t Go Solo Post-Beatles
BY MELANIE DAVIS
American Songwriter
JANUARY 9, 2026
The difference between being in a band and being the frontperson of a backing band might not seem like much from the audience’s perspective, but it certainly feels different to the musicians on stage. With the former, there’s a sense of creative cohesion—everyone working toward a goal that’s larger than themselves. In the latter, the musicians are still working toward a common goal. But that goal is set by whoever is at the helm of the project.
Following The Beatles split, Paul McCartney contemplated what he should do next. After such a contentious breakup, reuniting with ex-Beatles to form a different project wasn’t necessarily at the top of his mind. Still, songwriting and playing music were like second nature to McCartney, and he didn’t want to stop just because The Beatles did. And in a 1986 appearance on Wogan, McCartney explained why he couldn’t stop, even if he wanted to.
“I thought at the time, ‘Well, if I don’t form a band, and I don’t keep in the business, then after a couple of years, I’m going to find I can’t sing,” McCartney said. “And I haven’t got that knack in front of an audience, you know. You can lose it dead easy. I did it really just to keep oiled like an athlete. To keep doing it in case I ever really want to get serious again.”
Why Paul McCartney Was Always Going to Choose a Band Over Going Solo
Television host Terry Wogan then asked Paul McCartney if he had enough confidence to go out on stage as a solo artist. The ex-Beatle replied, “I’ve never actually tried, really. The only time I ever really got out on my own was when we did Live Aid. And my mic went off. So, that was terrifying in front of 50 billion people. But I prefer to be with a band. I like the kick that other people give you.”
While it’s true that playing with other people can motivate you in ways that playing solo won’t, we also don’t blame McCartney for being wary of the stage after the debacle that was his Live Aid performance. He was modestly downplaying the entire ordeal on Wogan, even with the use of the word “terrifying.” According to Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof, McCartney was “scared stiff” leading up to the appearance.
“Paul had not played since John [Lennon had died],” Geldof said, via Gold Radio. “People forget that. He was scared stiff. The drive up to Wembley from their house in Rye, I think, he was listening to the show, and he got more and more scared on the day. He comes out on stage and sings, ‘When I find myself in trouble,’ bang, the mic goes down. He doesn’t quite realize it at first. Suddenly, the crowd start singing it. If you listen to the actual real soundtrack of Live Aid, the crowd sing it for Paul.”
Fortunately, McCartney hasn’t had any trouble keeping a band. And even if he had, he has a loyal fanbase ready to sing his songs back to him when things go awry.
What did The Beatles mean by singing “goo goo g’joob” in ‘I Am The Walrus’?
Tim Coffman
FAR OUT MAGAZINE
Thu 8 January 2026
(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Of all the great songs by The Beatles, no other track has been mulled over as much as ‘I Am The Walrus’. Although the band may have been known for going in bizarre directions over the past few albums, this was practically the springboard into psychedelia that would coat most of the band’s mid-period. Even though the song is a marvel to behold from a sonic standpoint, what the hell is John Lennon going on about in these lyrics?
Throughout the track, many of the best moments sound like absolute nonsense when put against each other. Even though it was easy to decipher songs like ‘She Loves You’, it was a bit cerebral trying to parse out the deeper meaning that Lennon was getting at when talking about yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog’s eye.
Whatever the lyrics were really about, this was much more about The Beatles making a statement than finding any hidden meaning. For as much as the ‘Walrus’ may have been a persona, hearing the band playing freeform with the conventional rock structure made for a massive head trip for another who bothered to hear it when it came on the radio.
So, when looking at the song for what might be the first, tenth, or hundredth time, let’s see what the true hidden meaning that drew Lennon to write a song like this. Is it some interesting piece of prose, or is it really that amalgamation of different images that were never supposed to be taken seriously, to begin with?
What is the meaning of ‘I Am The Walrus’?
By the time The Beatles released ‘I Am The Walrus’, fans were already having a field day trying to figure out what every one of their songs was about. From insinuating that ‘Norwegian Wood’ was about a lesbian to believing that Paul McCartney had perished in a car crash and the rest of the band were apologising to their fans in song, some of the most outlandish conspiracy theories in music history are descended from people reading what they wanted to read in the lyrics. For all of the tinfoil-hat crowd that wanted to hear any deeper meaning, Lennon designed his latest smash to deliberately mess with them.
Taking inspiration from the surrealist sounds of avant-garde music, half of the lyrics to the song contain nonsense, with ‘goo goo g’joob’ being a placeholder piece of wordplay taken from James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake. Knowing full well that teachers would be having lessons on what every wonderful utterance came out of Lennon’s mouth, he took great pride in the words to the chorus, with biographer Hunter Davies recalling him saying, “Let the fuckers figure that one out”.
John Lennon in the 1970s. (Credits: Far Out / Press)
Who inspired ‘I Am The Walrus’?
Although the entire thesis of the song was about having no one in mind, Lennon did have more than a few inspirations behind the track. Compared to the avant-garde music that was becoming the norm, Lennon was starting to become well-versed in his personal library of literature, including various children’s stories that fueled his imagination. One such book was Lewis Carroll’s The Walrus and the Carpenter, for which Lennon pinched the title character.
A school book which belonged to the Beatle John Lennon when he was 12 years old, auctioned in London in 2006, is said to contain his thoughts, drawings and poems. Titled ‘My Anthology’, the book also contains an illustration entitled ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’, which sellers claim reveals an early inspiration behind the band’s classic song ‘I Am The Walrus’.
While the song has little in common with the book, Lennon’s surreal tie-in song is still a great way of looking at Carroll’s work, as if the listener is being transported to some sort of fantasy land. Lennon didn’t claim to be perfect, though, noting that he got the names switched and accidentally went with the antagonist of the story instead of ‘I Am the Carpenter’. The woodworker substitute doesn’t roll off the tongue as well, so we Fab fans have to live with one of the greatest unintentional villain songs of all time.
What album was ‘I Am the Walrus’ on?
The song would eventually be featured on the album Magical Mystery Tour, having already been thrown on the B-side of Paul McCartney’s latest smash, ‘Hello Goodbye’. Although Lennon would be cagey about his song not getting a fair shot, it would become a favourite amongst everyone who heard it, if only for the weirdness behind its construction. Compared to what they did with McCartney’s silly little pop song, Lennon had a surprise for those who saw the Magical Mystery Tour film.
Clad in the signature eggman garb, the unofficial music video for the song is one of the greatest pieces of psychedelia that the band had ever created. As everyone begins performing the song, the use of different lenses, along with the breathtaking music, makes it feel like the listener has been dropped into ‘Lennon’s Wonderland’, where everyone is free to be as outlandish as possible. Before MTV had truly kicked in, never had a music video better encapsulated what a song is really about.
Is it a good song?
It has been said that Lennon had intended ‘I Am The Walrus’ to be The Beatles’ next single after ‘All You Need Is Love’, but Paul McCartney and George Martin insisted on using ‘Hello, Goodbye’ as it was far more commercial. The decision ignited the first sparks of resentment that would eventually lead to the band’s split.
Like many of the songs from Magical Mystery Tour, ‘I Am The Walrus’ is clearly a product of Lennon’s increasing fascination with LSD. As he noted, “The first line was written on one acid trip one weekend, the second line on another acid trip the next weekend, and it was filled in after I met Yoko.” The song is made up of lyrical fragments, in the cut-up style pioneered by avant-garde writers and poets in the 1920s.
As Hunter Davis, one of The Beatles’ biographers, recalled, the song came together piece by piece: “He’d ([Lennon] written down another few words that day, just daft words, to put to another bit of rhythm. ‘Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the man to come.’ I thought he said ‘van to come’, which he hadn’t, but he liked it better and said he’d use it instead.”
See Vintage Photos of John Lennon and His Sons Julian and Sean — from Days Spent at Disney World to Sweet Birthday Moments
The Beatles musician, who died 45 years ago on Dec. 8, welcomed his first son, Julian, with then-wife Cynthia in 1963 and later welcomed Sean with Yoko Ono in 1975
By Alexandra Schonfeld
PEOPLE
December 8, 2025
Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon and John Lennon circa 1977.
Credit : Mediapunch/Shutterstock
While John Lennon might have been one of the most legendary musicians in history to his adoring fans around the world, to his sons Julian and Sean, he was just dad.
The Beatles musician, who died tragically 45 years ago on Dec. 8, 1980, welcomed his first son, Julian, with then-wife Cynthia Lennon in 1963. Following his divorce from Cynthia in 1968, John later welcomed son Sean with longtime love Yoko Ono in 1975.
Both boys went on to become musicians and have remained close over the years, recently reuniting at The Dakota — the New York City building where their father once lived with Ono.
Read on to see some of the brothers' cutest photos with their famous dad.
01 Rock Star Life
Yoko Ono, Julian Lennon and John Lennon.
Credit : Bettmann Archive
Julian Lennon took a seat on his dad's lap as the two watched rehearsals of the Rolling Stones Rock 'n' Roll Circus Show in the late 1960s alongside Yoko Ono.
02 Time with Dad
John and Julian Lennon.
Credit : Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty
John gave a glimpse into his son Julian's room, complete with larger than life panda and koala stuffed animals, during a photoshoot in the 1960s.
03 Happiest Place on Earth
Julian Lennon, John Lennon and May Pang.
Credit : John Rodgers/Redferns
Julian joined his dad and May Pang for a visit to Disney World in Florida in 1974.
04 Matchy, Matchy
John Lennon and Yoko Ono with their children Julian Lennon and Kyoko Chan Cox in 1969.
Credit : Daily Record/Daily Record/Mirrorpix via Getty
In coordinated fits, Julian and Kyoko Chan Cox held hands with their respective parents on either side in this sweet shot from 1969.
05 Dressed to Impress
John Lennon with his son Julian.
Credit : Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho via Getty
Julian and his dad were all dressed up to film The Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus in 1968.
06 Family of Three
John Lennon, Cynthia Lennon and their son, Julian.
Credit : Keystone Press / Alamy Stock Photo
A little Julian posed on his mom Cynthia Lennon's lap in this family portrait.
07 'Tis the Season
May Pang, John Lennon and Julian Lennon.
Credit : May Pang
Pang, who was in a relationship with John during his separation from Ono, posed with the Beatle and Julian during a Christmas celebration in West Palm Beach.
08 Strumming Along
Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon and John Lennon.
Credit : Mediapunch/Shutterstock
Following Ono and John's reconciliation — and vow renewal — they welcomed their first and only son together, Sean.
09 Celebration for Two
Sean and John Lennon.
Credit : Sean Ono Lennon/Instagram
Sean, who was born on his dad's 35th birthday, blew out the candles at a shared birthday celebration years ago.
"Happy Bday To Us...," Sean wrote alongside the photo in a 2018 post to Instagram.
10 Come Together
Yoko Ono, John Lennon and Sean Lennon.
Credit : Sean Lennon/Instagram
John sported a wide grin as he posed alongside Ono and their little boy.
The drummer Paul McCartney said was too good for Wings: “I didn’t really want heavyweights”
Reuben Cross
FAR OUT MAGAZINE
Mon 5 January 2026
(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
When The Beatles disbanded, it was evident that all of the individual members would see an increased demand to work as solo artists and continue to please fans by pursuing their own individual careers.
It was John Lennon and George Harrison who excelled especially in their own right from the getgo, with Ringo Starr struggling to keep up with his bandmates due to his limited scope as a songwriter, but that only accounts for the actions taken by three of the Fab Four.
Paul McCartney, on the other hand, had different plans to the rest of his former associates, and while he did choose to release McCartney, his debut solo album, in the immediate aftermath of the band’s dissolution, he wanted to take a slightly different approach to the rest of them, essentially choosing the hard path of starting again from square one.
With his previous project having been a success due to how collaborative it was, he wanted to start something else from scratch rather than relying solely on the weight attached to his name. Rather than continue in the same vein as the others, he sought to do something unprecedented, and something that would arguably give him the upper hand over his fellow ex-Beatles.
After his first self-titled album, he went to America to record Ram alongside his wife, Linda, and saw about putting together a cast of session musicians to back him up, and held auditions for the other roles. While the album is credited to Paul and Linda McCartney, it would be this album that triggered the formation of Wings, the name under which some of this group of people would continue to perform thereafter.
One of the members he brought in for the recording, who would eventually take on the role of the original drummer in Wings, was Denny Seiwell, a relative unknown to the rest of the world. However, during auditions, McCartney realised that he wasn’t after a big name.
While he could have attracted the attention of some of the elites of the music world had he wished to, according to a 2001 interview with Billboard, he thought twice about bringing the superstars into his inner circle, and the audition process really highlighted just how reluctant he was to work alongside established legends just because he could.
“I just put the word out through my office that I was in town and wanted to look at drummers,” he explained. “People like Bernard Purdie came along, but I was looking for a new band rather than the Blind Faith thing, so I didn’t really want heavyweights.”
While Purdie’s resumé would have been impressive, having worked alongside the likes of James Brown and Aretha Franklin prior to his audition, not selecting the iconic ‘Purdie Shuffle’ mastermind ultimately worked out for McCartney in a big way. While there were a number of lineup changes throughout the existence of Wings, there were never too many big names other than McCartney, and it was always an organically handpicked selection of the musicians who he knew would work best in the studio with him.
Five songs by The Beatles that will be remembered in the 2060s
Tim Coffman
FAR OUT MAGAZINE
Tue 30 December 2025
(Credits: Far Out / Apple Corps / Album Covers)
The impact of The Beatles’ music on popular culture is something that really needs to be studied to be understood.
No one quite knew what they were listening to when the Fab Four first started making their pop masterpieces, and there are subtle hints of what they did scattered throughout every generation that came afterwards. But when you look back on what they did in the 1960s, there are a few tunes that will still have the same impact if they were listened to in the 2060s.
The work of John Lennon and Paul McCartney was virtually flawless from the start, but if we’re talking about the moments that are bound to last for multiple lifetimes, it usually comes from their later years. The teenybopper phase of the band, as one of the greatest rock and roll acts ever, was bound to be fun, but there was a lot more for them to do once they embraced psychedelia and began using the studio as an instrument half the time.
Then again, it wouldn’t feel complete if we didn’t have songs from each respective songwriter in the group. While we will respectfully leave Ringo Starr absent from the writing side of things, Lennon, McCartney and George Harrison had tunes that introduced new ideas to the world, and their knack for turning the strangest ideas into hooks is something that most people are still trying to figure out.
So while many pop hopefuls might resort to cookie-cutter ways of making songs whenever they go into the studio, these Fab tracks are about more than writing a perfect melody. It’s about finding subtle layers in the production that are going to keep people coming back a century later and wonder how the hell mankind stumbled upon that kind of musical beauty.
Five Beatles songs that will be remembered in 100 years:
5
‘I Am The Walrus’
Throughout his career, John Lennon was always looking for sounds that felt a little out of place. He never wanted to be any ordinary pop songwriter, so the next best thing was trying to make songs that tested what audiences expected out of a standard rock and roll song. And while tunes like ‘Come Together’ and even ‘Help!’ were strange for the time, it’s impossible to put a finger on what ‘I Am the Walrus’ is from the moment it starts playing.
By psychedelic standards, this is the musical equivalent of falling down the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland, complete with some of the most incomprehensible lyrics that Lennon ever wrote. But the point wasn’t about making every line make sense. It was about the vibe of the music, and every single second of the tune is like getting a new musical treat, whether it’s the sweeping strings, the weird effect on Lennon’s voice, or the choir building to that rousing climax.
A lot of what turned up on the record wouldn’t be considered normal today, but it proved that The Beatles weren’t looking to fit into normal society. They wanted to challenge what a rock and roll song could be, and there’s hardly a second on the record that doesn’t feel like the most exciting fever dream anyone has ever gone on.
4
‘In My Life’
Just because John Lennon wanted things to sound weird didn’t mean he forgot how to make pop tunes. His favourite artists were the ones that kept people wanting to hear more every single time they sang, and when you listen to some of the Beatles’ finest moments, it often comes from him writing tunes that were on the same level as Paul McCartney’s whimsical ditties. But if you look at any of Macca’s best ballads, none of them can hold a candle to the honesty Lennon had on ‘In My Life’.
Although McCartney already had a few perfect songs in his arsenal, this was the first time the band started working on something more than the standard love song. Rubber Soul already marked their transition towards more adventurous songs, but with McCartney’s chords underneath, Lennon was able to tell the kind of story that everyone has to confront at some point: the passage of time. Nothing in the world is finite, so he figured that he would tell his other half how much he loved them when he had the chance.
This explains why the tune has become even more pertinent, especially as people get older. Not everyone may have picked up on every single detail of the lyrics here, but whether you’re singing along to it or reading deeper into the lyrics, ‘In My Life’ is the gift that keeps on giving, even for those who have become a bit more grey in the temples.
3
‘Here Comes the Sun’
George Harrison always seemed to get the short end of the stick whenever he worked on his own tunes. Anyone would have felt a little bit insecure when working opposite Lennon and McCartney, but the guitarist would always be working through his tunes and making sure that everything sounded perfect, even if his bandmates couldn’t care less. He didn’t need to rely on them by the end, and when working on Abbey Road, there was no one left to argue with him when he came up with ‘Here Comes the Sun’.
Whereas most of Harrison’s other songs have a lot of strange chords laced throughout the tune, there’s nothing that feels out of place throughout these few minutes of pop brilliance. The song could have easily been played on an acoustic guitar and still worked, but bringing in the primitive synthesiser sounds makes the whole tune feel like the sun hitting your face at the beginning of the day and melting away that early morning chill.
All Things Must Pass may have been around the corner for Harrison, but this was proof enough that he was going to be a songwriter to contend with. Lennon and McCartney may have had all the bases covered, but even with something as mundane as the sun coming up, Harrison could find the pure beauty that most songwriters may have taken for granted.
2
‘Yesterday’
Of all the Beatles, Paul McCartney seemed to be the pure embodiment of what music was supposed to be. Lennon would go off on his tangents here and there, and Harrison could hold his own in Eastern music, but there’s hardly anyone who knew the mechanics of a pop tune quite like Macca did. So, for all the countless tunes that he wrote in an attempt to make a hit, it’s almost ironic that his little slice of musical perfection is one that came to him when he wasn’t even trying to write.
Macca has said multiple times that ‘Yesterday’ came to him in a dream, but there had to be something more going on in his subconscious to make a tune like this. He had already grown up listening to some of the greatest jazz standards of the time, so having a song of his own with those complex chord changes was practically a godsend, even if it was a lot more melancholy than what McCartney usually comes up with.
Although the tune was a novelty whenever they played it live, the fact that they couldn’t figure out how to make it work in a live setting is really a testament to the song more than anything else. Of course, McCartney has the tune as a major part of his setlist to this day, but there’s something to be said about a track that’s so perfect that no one is able to properly do it justice outside the studio.
1
‘Strawberry Fields Forever’
It’s almost laughable today how much people thought The Beatles had dried up when they left the road. No other rock and roll band lasted as long as they did, and when they stopped playing, it would have been easy to assume that they would move on to get proper jobs. But when they walked back into the studio, the peak of their powers came the moment that John Lennon began strumming his acoustic guitar.
Although ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and ‘Penny Lane’ are often mentioned in tandem with one another, the former is definitely the more memorable composition. After getting immersed in the psychedelic sounds of the time, hearing them make strides like this wasn’t what anyone expected. They had made a song that existed in between standard musical keys, and from the strange Indian instruments to the orchestral backing, this was the first time the band created an entire world to play around in throughout the course of one track.
There isn’t any hierarchy over which of the songs on this list will last, but there’s no question that ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ will still be blowing minds years into the future. It’s hard enough to comprehend someone had this kind of ingenuity almost 50 years ago, so bringing that to the pop charts back in 1967 would have been like watching someone bring a piece of musical magic onto the speakers.
