The best covers of Paul McCartney Beatles songs
Writing a song with even a fraction of the quality of Paul McCartney’s contributions to The Beatles is something most songwriters can only dream of. Although it took him a few years to refine his craft, once he found his stride, the impact was seismic and reshaped music history. The fact that, of the 71 songs McCartney wrote for the band, the majority are considered timeless classics that have been played and celebrated worldwide for decades speaks volumes about his enduring influence.
It is extraordinary that so much of what came after can be traced back to one man. Although he couldn’t have done it without his songwriting partner, John Lennon, with the pair filling each other’s creative and personal gaps, it’s arguable that McCartney’s songs have the greatest emotional pull. He might well have been adept at experimenting with genres and even invented heavy metal with ‘Helter Skelter’, too, but McCartney’s knack for effectively tapping into matters of the soul and creating universal classics is unrivalled.
Whether it be ‘Yesterday’, ‘Hey Jude’, or ‘Blackbird’, McCartney’s mastery of songwriting—from the poetic lyrics to chord structuring—top those of Lennon, with him the mind behind some of the Fab Four’s most resonant hits. We all know the ones—those that have us singing along in unison in pubs, at weddings, and even when remembering old friends. Without these compositions, the very fabric of culture would be seriously lacking.
Given his significance, over the years, many notable artists have covered Paul McCartney’s Beatles songs. Today, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to list the five best, and they are all fantastic in their own right.
The best covers of Paul McCartney Beatles songs:
5. Bill Withers – ‘Let It Be’
Bill Withers’ 1971 debut, Just as I Am, is an absolute classic of the soul genre. It effectively mixes it with folk instrumentation while being guided by the natural gravity of his voice. Memorably, it features the originals ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ and ‘Grandma’s Hands’, two staples of his, but it also features a stellar cover of Paul McCartney’s ‘Let It Be’, which is slightly neglected.
Adding a shuffling tambourine beat to the song and a potent, celestial organ, this rework of the title track of The Beatles’ final album is brilliant. Despite the song being extremely personal for the songwriter in that it came to McCartney in a dream about his long-deceased mother, Withers succeeds in putting his spin on it. There have been numerous covers of this number over the years, but this is the best by far. Withers’ voice is unmatched.
4. Siouxsie and the Banshees – ‘Helter Skelter’
They may be goth legends, but Siouxsie and the Banshees have never shied away from the fact that they are big Beatles fans. According to singer Siouxsie Sioux, she even conceived the idea of covering a song by the Fab Four way back when playing their first gig at the 100 Club Punk Special, of all places.
Taken from their influential 1978 debut, The Scream, this cover is one of the finest of McCartney’s Beatles cuts and is brimming with imagination. From her haunting vocals to the rumbling rhythm section, there’s a lot to it that honours the band’s legacy. At the time, it was majorly boundary-pushing.
The 1968 original from that year’s The White Album – credited as the first heavy metal song – was born out of jealousy. “The Who had made some track that was the loudest, the most raucous rock ‘n roll, the dirtiest thing they’d ever done,” McCartney once recalled. “It made me think, ‘Right. Got to do it.’ I like that kind of geeking up. And we decided to do the loudest, nastiest, sweatiest rock number we could.”
3. Elliott Smith – ‘Blackbird’
The Beatles are credited with an array of artists emerging, and one of those most closely related to their songwriting brilliance is Elliott Smith. The late musician was a master guitarist and composer adept at writing deeply autumnal numbers like John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and there’s no surprise about it. He took immense inspiration from them. He named 1968’s The White Album his primary inspiration for pursuing music. Throughout his career, he has covered several songs by the Liverpudlians.
Out of all of them, it has to be the tender, emotional rendition of ‘Blackbird’ that takes the crown. Hearing Smith play the classic finger-picked guitar part and add his own melancholic delivery on top of it makes for an emotionally charged listening experience, particularly when noting that the song has anti-racist messaging, intensifying the moving impact. Featuring McCartney’s poetry, the touching guitar, and a Smith that feels particularly vulnerable, it’s an excellent tribute to his heroes. It also makes you realise how indebted Smith’s playing was to McCartney’s.
2. Wilson Pickett – ‘Hey Jude’
They might have been White lads from Liverpool, but The Beatles had soul and took a lot of inspiration from the sounds of Black America, particularly the Motown and Stax labels. On 1963’s With the Beatles, they even paid respect to the soul artists that inspired them with covers of tracks by Smokey Robinson and Berry Gordy.
This expressive nature is why various soul artists have covered songs by the quartet. One of the greatest ever is the rendition of the 1968 non-album single, ‘Hey Jude’ by Wilson Pickett. Taken from his 1969 album of the same name, it adds more passion to the original, written by McCartney to comfort Lennon’s eldest son Julian, who was just a child at the time and experiencing his parents’ very public divorce.
Although it was a controversial move to cover a song by the world’s biggest band so quickly after it had been released, it proved to be a fruitful one. Featuring the masterful vocals of Pickett and the guitar work of the legendary Duane Allman, it even drew praise from Eric Clapton, a close friend of The Beatles: “To this day, I’ve never heard better rock guitar playing on an R&B record. It’s the best”. This kicked off his pivotal association with Allman.
1. Marvin Gaye – ‘Yesterday’
It’s fitting that the ‘Prince of Soul’, Marvin Gaye, should also choose to cover a classic Paul McCartney Beatles song. Beating other fantastic renditions by the likes of Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, Gaye succeeded in seamlessly making the song his own.
A highlight of his tenth album, 1970’s That’s the Way Love Is, it’s as good as covers get. Featuring swooning strings, heightened emotion due to the slow beat, and the unrivalled force of Gaye’s voice, which carried years of pain in it due to his brutal upbringing by his father – the man who ultimately murdered him – this was about as apt of a rendition as we’re likely to get.
Knowing what we do about Gaye’s upbringing and tragic end, lyrics such as the opening verse, “Yesterday / All my troubles seemed so far away / Now it looks as though they’re here to stay / Oh, I believe in yesterday”, take on a different dimension, and go to places that even the original does not. For that reason, as well as the flawless music, it takes the top spot.
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