The 1993 song Paul McCartney wishes he’d written: “I thought that was a nice one”
As a songwriter, there are few greater honours than receiving a compliment from Paul McCartney. Every musician of the last 60 years has likely been influenced in some way by his magical songbook, which continues to inspire new artists today.
With and without The Beatles, McCartney has penned hundreds of timeless songs which will continue to live on forever. Through his craft, McCartney, along with his partner John Lennon, sparked the birth of creations that have soundtracked the lives of millions of people all over the planet.
Apart from perhaps Bob Dylan, no songwriter has ever walked the earth that isn’t green with envy at the extraordinary catalogue that McCartney made with The Beatles. Furthermore, his chapter with the Fab Four is only the beginning of his story and doesn’t count for his many classics as a solo performer or with Wings.
Despite his illustrious career, McCartney remains committed to uncovering the perfect song within the confines of his mind. Most people his age and wealth would settle for the repertoire of music in their canon, but that’s not in McCartney’s nature.
Even today, McCartney can still hear a song on the radio and wishes he was the artist responsible for its creation. This mindset has pushed him to greatness on many occasions. The most eminent example is McCartney’s exposure to Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys, which provided ample determination to write Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band for The Beatles.
It’s part of what has always separated McCartney from his peers. Even after decades at the top, he has never approached songwriting as a finished craft, but rather as something constantly evolving. That lingering sense that a better melody might still be out there — just beyond reach — has kept him curious in a way that many legacy artists lose over time.
Rather than resting on the weight of his own catalogue, McCartney has remained an active listener, engaging with new music and finding inspiration in places others might overlook. That openness not only fuels his own creativity but also explains why he’s so generous with praise when something genuinely moves him, regardless of genre or era.
Pet Sounds is an album that almost everybody, apart from Noel Gallagher, respects as a classic, but the same can’t be said for every piece of music that McCartney adores, such as Sting’s ‘Fields of Gold’.
McCartney made the declaration of love while in conversation with Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker at The Liverpool Institute in 2018. During the Q&A section of the event, an audience member inquisitively asked if there was a song he wished he had written, which prompted McCartney to provide an unexpected answer to those in the room.
In his response, McCartney paid homage to The Police frontman’s solo effort from 1993, explaining, “There’s always a couple that I hear that I think I’d have liked (to have written). I liked Sting’s ‘Fields Of Gold’, and I thought, ‘Y’know what, I should have written that.'”
Half-jokingly, McCartney continued: “How dare he? ‘I told him: ‘You stole my song.’ I thought that was a nice one, y’know?”
Unsurprisingly, McCartney’s comments made Sting feel ten foot tall and content enough to retire. Taking to social media, Sting shared his elation and repaid the compliment: “Paul McCartney says he wishes he would have written ‘Fields Of Gold.’ There are more than a few of Paul’s that I wish I would have written. To hear this from someone I owe my life to is very special. Thank you, Paul.”
Furthermore, when he later appeared on the Sodajerker podcast, Sting again addressed McCartney’s praise and reaffirmed that the love shown was reciprocal: “Well, there are enough songs on his side of the table that I would kill for. ‘Blackbird’, that’s a perfect song.”
Significantly, the former Police frontman has always been open about how much he owes to The Beatles, previously telling Guitar World in 1996: “I recently sent Paul McCartney a letter thanking him for making it possible for us to have careers as musicians.”
Sting also reflected upon his first introduction to The Beatles as a child, a life-affirming moment that remains vivid in his memory. He recalled: “Especially those of us who have to write and sing in counterpoint to our bass lines! [‘Love Me Do’] was the first Beatles song we heard in England. It was 1962, I was about 10, and I was at the swimming baths with my mates. Suddenly this came over the sound system, and we all just stopped, mesmerised. It was a simple tune, two chords, harmonica, but there was this incredible feeling and energy. Nothing was ever the same.”
While millions have similar warm childhood memories of their first time listening to The Beatles, few have gone on to create music that has had a similar effect on a member of the Fab Four. Without the impact of The Beatles’ work on Sting, there’s a chance that he’d never have become a musician or wrote ‘Fields of Gold’. With that in mind, although McCartney didn’t pen the song in question, he still unknowingly had a small hand in its creation.
