The 1977 song that Paul McCartney wishes he’d written: “I’d like to have written that one”
Paul McCartney‘s back catalogue, both with and without The Beatles, is the envy of the songwriting fraternity, who’d lose a limb to have written ‘Yesterday’ alone.
Most 84-year-olds are happily retired, but McCartney, despite having more money than he could ever spend, would rather use his days searching for songs in the studio than on a beach in Barbados.
Artistry is more than a job to McCartney; it’s his everything. Since he met John Lennon as a teenager, his life has revolved around his mission to master his craft. Despite having countless achievements to his name, many of which will never be beaten in the next 100 years, he refuses to rest on his laurels.
Yet McCartney didn’t become an all-time great by being happy to twiddle his thumbs and be content with his lot. Instead, he’s always on the lookout for the next song, still striving to achieve excellence, and despite his riches in the songwriting department, McCartney isn’t above getting jealous of his peers.
Like almost all great artists, McCartney has a competitive streak that runs through his veins, which has been a useful tool over the years. A positive manifestation of this came when The Beatles’ minds exploded upon hearing The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, which gave them the kick up the backside to record Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
A decade later, McCartney felt those same feelings again, thanks to Billy Joel. Little did McCartney know it at the time, but he played a pivotal role in the New Yorker’s decision to pursue a career in music. Like millions of others, Joel was seated when The Beatles made their US TV debut on The Ed O’Sullivan Show, which transformed his life in an instant.
“That one performance changed my life,” Joel once recalled. “Up to that moment, I’d never considered playing rock as a career. And when I saw four guys who didn’t look like they’d come out of the Hollywood star mill, who played their own songs and instruments, and especially because you could see this look in John Lennon’s face – and he looked like he was always saying: ‘Fuck you!’ — I said: ‘I know these guys, I can relate to these guys, I am these guys. This is what I’m going to do — play in a rock band’.”
13 years later, it was Joel who was making one of The Beatles feel that same way. He was no overnight success, either. His first four albums didn’t particularly trouble the charts, but people began to take notice of the name Billy Joel in 1977 thanks to his single, ‘Just The Way You Are‘.
The love song was penned as an ode to his first wife, Elizabeth, and struck a deep chord with McCartney, who named it one of the tracks he wished he had written.
The former Beatle said in the Club Sandwich newsletter in 1994: “I don’t really want to have written anyone else’s songs, but, as a fantasy question, I love ‘Stardust’, by Hoagy Carmichael and Mitchell Parish. It’s a beautiful song. And I remember thinking that Billy Joel’s first hit, ‘Just The Way You Are’, was a nice song, I’d like to have written that one too.”
However, McCartney did then take it upon himself to reflect on his own contributions to the world of music, admitting, “The truth is that I feel so lucky at what I’ve done.”
As much as ‘Just The Way You Are’ made Joel a star and received McCartney’s seal of approval, the singer-songwriter held mixed feelings towards the song for many years following his divorce. “Every time I wrote a song for a person I was in a relationship with, it didn’t last,” he said. “It was kind of like the curse. Here’s your song – we might as well say goodbye now.”
While it’s a difficult challenge for Joel to soberly reflect on ‘Just The Way You Are‘ without allowing sentimentality to get in the way, McCartney’s comments are further proof as to why it should be viewed as an all-time classic.
