The Paul McCartney songs rejected by The Beatles: “We had to compromise”
When The Beatles found success, that was when the real work started. Most people who write music dream of being able to make writing said music their job, with the intention of taking it around the world. The Beatles were given this opportunity, but with so much success came a great deal of work.
John Lennon once said that The Beatles had to act as subdued versions of themselves when they first became famous. He admitted that they weren’t as honest with the public as they would have liked to have been, as to do so would have meant they didn’t take off as much in the States.
“We weren’t as open and as truthful when we didn’t have the power to be; we had to take it easy. We had to shorten our hair to leave Liverpool. We had to wear suits to get on TV. We had to compromise,” Lennon said. “We had to get hooked to get in, and then get a bit of power and say, ‘This is what we’re like’ […] We had to falsify a bit, even if we didn’t realise it at the time.”
While The Beatles might have had to change the way they looked and be on their best behaviour, they were able to inject some element of honesty into their songwriting. The rhythm with which they sang was up-tempo and fit for dancing and losing yourself in. They could also touch upon various topics that might have been a struggle to talk about in interviews. For instance, John Lennon’s plea for assurance on ‘Help!’
The Beatles had ample opportunity to vent about such honesty within their music because of how much music they were expected to write. There were no days off for the band, as they were constantly putting songs together, with labels asking for the equivalent of two albums a year in material.
A lot of great tracks resulted from such an intense work schedule; however, unsurprisingly, there were also a lot of songs that didn’t quite sit right with the rest of the band. Every member brought forward some idea for a song and had it not land with everyone else, even masterful songwriters such as Paul McCartney.
A lot of these songs we will never know about because they were put on the back burner and then never revisited. However, with some tracks, even if the rest of the band weren’t too keen, the original writer was so passionate about the tune that they decided to release it as a solo artist once the band split. A lot of Paul McCartney’s solo work was made up of songs rejected by The Beatles for one reason or another.
For instance, his track ‘Every Night’ was originally put to The Beatles towards the end of the 1960s when the band were on the verge of splitting up. It eventually found a home on his solo debut in 1970 and became a live staple that highlighted his constant affinity for catchy melodies and easy to sing along to music.
Some of his other songs that were rejected by the band included ‘Junk’, ‘The Back Seat of My Car’, and ‘Another Day’, which were all eventually turned into solo records. Differences of opinion (among other things) are one of the main factors that split up The Beatles, but the fact that these songs did well, even as solo projects, shows how good a songwriter Paul McCartney truly was.
Paul McCartney songs that The Beatles rejected:
- ‘Junk’
- ‘Every Night’
- ‘Another Day’
- ‘The Back Seat of My Car’
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