The Beatles song Paul McCartney wrote for Tom Jones before it was rejected: “It’s a rather sad song”
The Beatles strode forward once they had found their niche of presenting themselves as four individuals as well as a collective pop unit. For years, Paul McCartney carried the tag of ‘the cute one’ in The Beatles, but beneath the surface, he was the group’s true melody master. While John Lennon brought the edge—once called “The Beatles’ hard man” by Keith Richards—Macca delivered sophistication, sentimentality, and a storyteller’s touch.
Songs like ‘Here, There and Everywhere’, ‘Yesterday’, and ‘Eleanor Rigby’ showcase his ability to craft intricate narratives, while Lennon often turned his gaze inward, exposing the raw and poetic. McCartney, though, was able to write songs in a far more pragmatic way, especially as the band matured. Lennon became a pop poet, needing to deeply resonate with the material he put down on paper, while McCartney had seen the value in writing “work songs” from the very start of the band, but had now honed his craft to not only pen such tunes for the group but also for other artists.
While he may have been professional at his job, his work was still doused with sentimentality, however, and that softer side extended beyond his music. In 1966, McCartney bought a secluded farmhouse in Scotland, retreating into its rolling hills and winding roads. The peace he found there became the heartbeat of The Long and Winding Road, a song he wrote in 1969 as The Beatles began to fracture. It was the soundtrack to the band’s messy split, McCartney searching for solace in melody.
Like many songwriters, Macca often wrote with another artist’s voice in mind. In this case, he imagined the soulful tones of Ray Charles. “I just sat down at my piano in Scotland, started playing, and came up with that song, imagining it was going to be done by someone like Ray Charles,” he later recalled. But before it became a Beatles classic, he had someone else in mind—none other than the Welsh powerhouse, Tom Jones.
McCartney offered the song to Jones on the condition that it be his next single. But the timing wasn’t right, and the track sadly fell between the floorboards. Jones’ label had other plans, opting instead to push ‘Without Love’. And so, ‘The Long and Winding Road’ remained in McCartney’s hands, eventually landing on Let It Be—The Beatles’ swan song.
‘The Long and Winding Road’ is one of McCartney’s most stirring and emotionally resonant ballads, and just based on the composition of the song itself, it is easily one of the highlights of Let It Be. At least it would have been had Phil Spector not stepped in and drenched it in saccharine over-production. Years later, McCartney reflected on its mournful tone: “It’s rather a sad song. I like writing sad songs, it’s a good bag to get into because you can actually acknowledge some deeper feelings of your own and put them in it. It’s a good vehicle—it saves having to go to a psychiatrist.”
Despite the missed collaboration, McCartney and Jones remained on good terms—unlike Lennon and the Welsh singer, who nearly came to blows. During a TV rehearsal, Lennon spotted Jones in the audience and launched into a mocking parody: “It’s not a unicorn, it’s an elephant,” he sneered, referencing It’s Not Unusual. Then, in typical Lennon fashion, he followed up with a sharper jab: “How are you doing, you Welsh p**f?”
Jones, never one to back down, shot back instantly: “Come up here, you scouse p***k, and I’ll show you!” It was McCartney, along with Jones’ manager Gordon Mills, who diffused the situation before it turned physical. Ever the diplomat, Macca reassured Jones that Lennon’s teasing was actually a backhanded compliment—after all, if he didn’t like It’s Not Unusual, he wouldn’t have referenced it at all.
Years later, Jones finally got his hands on The Long and Winding Road, delivering a stunning rendition in tribute to McCartney. Listen below to his gorgeous version.
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