Paul McCartney picks his two best Beatles songs
Despite what circa-1971 John Lennon might have you believe, Paul McCartney wrote swathes of utterly iconic songs during his time with The Beatles. From the pop optimism of early efforts like ‘Love Me Do’ and ‘All My Loving’ to Sgt. Pepper-era psychedelic masterpieces, Macca’s songwriting talents seemingly knew no bounds in the days of the Fab Four. Throughout his illustrious career in music, a handful of these Beatles classics have always stood out to the songwriter as notable favourites.
McCartney wrote his first songs as a teenager during the mid-1950s. While these early efforts, like ‘I Lost My Little Girl’, were nowhere near as profound or inventive as his later work with The Beatles, they did at least provide a sense of promise for the songwriter’s development. After joining The Quarrymen and eventually morphing into The Beatles, it was clear that McCartney and Lennon would be the band’s primary songwriters, owing to their unique ability to craft seemingly universal songs.
Both during the heyday of The Beatles and throughout his extensive solo career, McCartney has repeatedly proven the diversity of his songwriting skills. No other songwriter in the world could write a song as cheesy as ‘Wonderful Christmastime’, while also boasting the likes of ‘Hey Jude’ or ‘Here, There and Everywhere’, and that fact acts as a good summary of McCartney’s history as a songwriter.
With that diversity comes a distinctly unpretentious atmosphere within Macca’s work, in contrast to some of his former bandmates. Despite penning his fair share of complex, trailblazing tracks, the songwriter has always maintained a deep appreciation for some of his simpler efforts, too. For instance, he has routinely dubbed ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ as “one of the best songs I ever wrote,” notably in The Lyrics.
Recorded in 1963 as the opener on The Beatles’ debut album Please Please Me, ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ is a seminal track in Beatles history, but its simplistic lyrics and teeny-bopper atmosphere mean it is rarely in contention to be named one of the best Beatles tracks. The lyrics “She was just 17, if you know what I mean,” mean the track hasn’t aged particularly well either, but it nevertheless remains a favourite for McCartney himself.
Along with that early effort, McCartney has also highlighted ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ as a notable favourite of his. Featured on the band’s 1966 record Revolver, Macca’s track is arguably one of the greatest love songs ever written – so much so that even John Lennon, who was famously sceptical about love songs, could not deny its genius.
Asked during a 2017 Q&A for his favourite self-penned Beatles song, McCartney shared, “It’s very difficult to choose one song, because you always think of them like your babies, like your children.” Eventually, though, he admitted, “I always do choose ‘Here, There and Everywhere’. As I think it’s quite a good song and I was pleased with it when I wrote it.”
That quote might be guilty of understating the brilliance of McCartney’s song; it perfectly bridged the gap between the band’s loved-up origins and the profound psychedelic exploration of their later period. Aside from anything else, it presents McCartney’s unique brand of romanticism better than any other song, and is certainly a worthy favourite for the songwriter to pick out from his extensive repertoire.
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