When The Beatles made landfall on the shores of America in early 1964, their bass player and co-lead singer Paul McCartney spoke in interviews through a haze of cigarette smoke of how he and his writing partner John were looking to develop something that was “more of a sideline, now” for them; songwriting. Little did anyone know at the time how important that decision would be for listeners and fellow musicians alike well into the 21st Century.
It represented a shift from pure performance designed for the stage to artistic craft to help make rock and pop songwriting within a band into what it is today — an act of artful expression that stands on its own. There are so many great songs in McCartney’s catalogue, within The Beatles, but also with Wings, and in his solo catalogue. Here are 20 of them for your consideration and enjoyment.
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I Saw Her Standing There
The Beatles were primarily a live band in their earliest period, having to compete with many other bands on local scenes. There were only so many hit singles and B-sides by American R&B artists in the world for them to cover to allow them to pull away from the pack. The logical answer was to write rock ’n’ roll barn burners themselves. Of their earliest attempts at this, “I Saw Her Standing There” still does the business.
This is a song made to open a show, and in fact opened their debut album Please Please Me in 1963. It establishes their early sound and approach, infused with youthful verve, proto-punk rock energy, and with a hint of lust that slipped under the cultural radar at the time — you know what I mean? And listen to McCartney’s bass on this — a driving force to be reckoned with on the band’s records from here on out.
Listen: I Saw Her Standing There
Things We Said Today
As young artists in the eye of the Beatlemania storm by 1964, Paul and his bandmates’ awareness of fickle fame had made all the Beatles think about the future. At its heart, this song that’s dressed up as a love song reveals so much its writer’s psychology and that of his bandmates being at the center of unprecedented levels of attention on a global scale — the eye of the storm.
“Things We Said Today” from A Hard Day’s Night shows that McCartney was a reflective, thoughtful, and self-aware writer early on. He was also deft at writing melodic hooks and chord structures that are commercially appealing as well as complex enough to be true to his subject matter. Even now, the lyrical perspectives here seem too advanced for the 22-year-old man who wrote them. As famous as he’d become, he knew that nothing was certain in the biz they call show.
Listen: Things We Said Today
Yesterday
When Paul McCartney woke up with this song in his head one morning, its fully-formed quality was such that he famously played it for friends to determine whether or not they’d ever heard it before. By now, so many artists over decades and in several genres have covered it that its impact may be a bit dulled. Without all its cultural baggage though, it’s still something of a miracle; an artistic turning point for McCartney, his band, and for pop music in general.
For one, it introduced the idea that a Beatles song, or that of any rock band, didn’t have to be mere fodder for live shows requiring drums and guitars. It also introduced the idea of string arrangements on pop records that have a warm, “in the room” quality on a studio recording instead of tacked on homogeneously as an afterthought. Apart from that, “Yesterday” reveals deep levels of emotional resonance as a song of loss, and of mourning. Years later, McCartney would realize that it may have been his unconscious way of processing the loss of his mother who died when he was just 14.
Listen: Yesterday
For No One
John Lennon was a famously autobiographical writer: “In My Life”, “I’m So Tired”. George Harrison was the most polemical songwriter in the Beatles, often speaking directly to the listener: “Love you to”, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”. While this is not a hard-coded rule, McCartney seemed the one who was most interested in writing characters. Many of McCartney’s subjects are women, from “Eleanor Rigby” to the central character in “She’s Leaving Home”, and onto the heroines of “Lady Madonna” and “Another Day”.
“For No One” from 1966’s Revolver is one of his best in that vein; a tale of a relationship that has faded for reasons that depart from the teenage tales of the past. This one strays into more adult territories instead and with all of its grey areas. Instrumentally, its baroque ornamentation and varied textures reveals a stately quality that showed that the rock pop form was expanding, becoming more inclusive of all kinds of new sonic ingredients to redefine what a pop song could be, and certainly where McCartney himself would delve even more deeply hereafter.
Listen: For No One
Penny Lane
McCartney’s compositional sophistication balanced with his ability to create accessible and emotionally charged music is an incredible achievement in part because it bypassed his inability to read and write musical notation. The effects in his songs are there because of his natural musical instincts and his keen ear for what works best compositionally to suit the themes he explores in his songs. “Penny Lane”, an anthem to his idealized childhood growing up in Liverpool, is one of the greatest examples of this.
This 1967 single is marked by musical subtleties that are truly striking. The use of modulation alone instantly communicates wistful nostalgia and deep affection so necessary to the lyrics in a way that feels completely seamless and effortless. The now-famous and plucky piccolo trumpet solo over top of that also proves McCartney’s attention to sonic detail to turn this song into something that transcends notes on a page, as clever as those notes might be. This is a triumph of compositional skill. But on a heart level, it fits right in whether you notice it or not.
Listen: Penny Lane
Helter Skelter
As much as he’s known for ornate and sometimes whimsical pop confections, Paul McCartney never stopped being a rock ’n’ roll fan or being aware of what was happening outside of his own musical environs, either. “Helter Skelter” is a key cut from 1968’s The Beatles (aka ‘The White Album’), and very much in line with the harder-edged music made by other bands at the time. It was certainly well suited to a period of riots, assassinations, social unrest, and escalating war.
“Helter Skelter” is visceral and blunt, getting to the very core of what makes for a great rock record made for its times and also applicable beyond them. Here on this track, Paul’s bass strings sound like they’re ten feet wide, his voice a barbaric yawp. Here, the innocent times of shaking moptops on The Ed Sullivan Show were long gone. Thanks to its subsequent associations with Charles Manson, “Helter Skelter” certainly became an anthem to a more shocking end of the hopeful and idealistic peace and love era of the 1960s …
Listen: Helter Skelter
Blackbird
… Yet, there are two sides to every story. “Blackbird” was one of the many songs McCartney wrote in India with his bandmates at the beginning of 1968. Also appearing on The Beatles, the song serves as a ruminative alter ego to “Helter Skelter” with classical-meets-folk acoustic guitar lines that casually climb the melodic heights and gently descend from their gentle musical slopes. Paul’s voice is a croon instead of a roar; an emollient instead of an abrasive.
Most importantly, the song alludes to the same struggles of that troubled era, with nods specific to Black communities that helped to inspire Paul McCartney to become a musician and songwriter in the first place. That sense of gentleness, gratitude, and encouragement heard in this song creates another kind of concluding statement for a tumultuous, culture-shaking 1960s. It represents one of McCartney’s greatest musical achievements beyond that era as well.
Listen: Blackbird
Get Back
Easily one of the greatest moments of Peter Jackson’s 2021 documentary series of the same name, the in-the-moment composition of “Get Back” is a marvel. In that scene, McCartney starts with a germ of an idea for a song, and hammers out its shape on his bass in real time. Beyond its primal and seemingly spontaneous origins, its greatness lies in a few key areas.
First, it captures the spirit of what the band were famously seeking to achieve during those January 1969 sessions, that being an unadorned approach to recording songs that first attracted them to play rock ’n’ roll as young musicians. Second, it is a callback to their R&B roots, but is also a singular creation all of its own. And third, in its completed form, it is one of the songs that best demonstrated that, even toward the end of their time together, The Beatles could still wail as a live band.
Listen: Get Back
Junk
This song, which had been around for two years in demo form, turned out to be a perfect theme for the times as the 1960s ended. On the printed page, the lyrics of “Junk” is a list of forgotten objects that were once useful and cherished but are now are discarded in favour of newer things to buy, or buy into. Heard on vinyl in a new decade, perhaps this serves as a retroactive comment on what became of Sixties ideals of which The Beatles had once been powerful avatars; a broken-hearted jubilee rather than a longed-for revolution.
McCartney’s melancholic delivery in a song about moving on and the sadness that doing so often entails appears on the McCartney record — his first solo effort put out during the final flicker of The Beatles’ flame in 1970. Its instrumental reprise “Singalong Junk” on that same release makes the melody an unofficial theme of that difficult transitional period for McCartney. It’s also among his sweetest, most affecting melodies.
Listen: Junk
Maybe I’m Amazed
Paul had a few approaches to songcraft during his Beatle years, with rockers and ballads often kept in separate pens. On the epic “Maybe I’m Amazed”, the two disparate worlds collide, and gloriously so with one of his greatest recorded vocal performances. It’s infused with genuine amazement that love can be such a transformative force far beyond just gentleness and romance, but also tumult, disruption, and a much-needed kick in the ass.
As such, the song is chock full of muscular guitar work, ballsy vocals, and appropriate bombast to shore up one of the best love songs he’d ever write. With Wings, McCartney would record the song live on 1977’s Wings Over America and release it as a radio single, that version revealing its status as a proto power ballad for all time, and covered by many since.
Listen: Maybe I’m Amazed
Band on the Run
Even with a few hit singles and albums under his belt, the early Seventies was initially a period where McCartney was searching for his voice as an artist and bandleader. On albums like Wildlife, Red Rose Speedway, and even the celebrated Ram, you can hear him trying things out to see what sticks. Some of the results are great. Some are undercooked. With that try-it-and-see approach in place, it stands to reason.
The title track to 1973’s Band on the Run continues that experimental feel while being a major artistic breakthrough at the same time. Its kitchen sink approach to tempo, texture, arrangements and varied instrumentation becomes the smorgasbord of sonic delight that he’d always been aiming for. Crunchy guitars, fluttering synths, and sweeping orchestral flourishes all make this track into the embodiment of what listeners wanted in Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles career. Even today, it’s a quintessential Macca cut.
Listen: Band on the Run
Silly Love Songs
In addition to being a rock ’n’ roll fan, McCartney loved R&B and soul. By the mid-Seventies, Philly soul and disco was where that music had gone with soaring strings and cinematic scope. “Silly Love Songs” from 1976’s Wings at the Speed of Sound adapts that sound and seamlessly matches it to McCartney’s famous melodic chops. He comes by the subject matter honestly as a response to criticisms aimed at his reputation for writing mushy love songs instead of brawny rockers.
Like “Band on the Run”, this song is unconventional in a structure that includes long instrumental passages instead of strict and conventional verse-chorus-verse economy. But all of Macca’s strengths are here. As has been well-documented by now, the bassline to this song is easily one of the best he’s ever laid down, which is really saying something. And as much as he embraced Philly soul on this cut, the Brian Wilson influences that so impacted Sgt. Pepper are still gloriously present in the “how can I tell you about my loved one” vocal section. And those horns! C’mon. This song’s great. End of story.
Listen: Silly Love Songs
With a Little Luck
McCartney continued his interest in creating soul-pop gems that were not very Beatleseque to the chagrin of critics. Yet this was still a period where McCartney was putting out exceptionally tuneful singles tailor made for the radio that also reflected his unique musical signature. Appearing on 1978’s London Town, “With a Little Luck” finds him doing so while embracing synth technology and still managing to create a warm, balanced, and downright restful sound.
McCartney leans into his tendency toward the lyrical sunny side during this same period that had punk rock no future attitudes dominating the headlines. His lead vocal on this cut is among his best ever in a soulful R&B vein, singing lyrics that prove that hopefulness and positivity can be just as defiant as their opposites. This has always been a common thread in McCartney’s work, with this song being among his purest expressions of Macca-styled optimism.
Listen: With a Little Luck
Coming Up
This hit single was a triumph in two different forms between the UK and North America. It appears on 1980’s McCartney II, with that studio version being a hit in the UK. The production is whimsical and odd as a kind of rhythm and blues revue number with a highly processed, lo-fi sound. There’s even a kazoo horn section! It’s eccentric so as to be a singular work. Even John Lennon was a fan!
On the B-Side to that single is a live cut recorded at the tail end of 1979 with Wings in Glasgow. This was the hit version in North America, taking the subtext and making it the text on the fiery rhythm and blues front, this time with real horns. Either way, this song showed McCartney’s musical experimental side, his sense of whimsy, and his formidable chops as an R&B singer all in one composition.
Listen: Coming Up (studio version), Coming Up (live version)
Here Today
When the press caught up to McCartney to get his reaction to John Lennon’s death in 1980, his response made it clear that he was not ready express the depth of his loss. It remains to be impossible to know what such a loss meant to him, other than what we hear on “Here Today”, a song that appears on 1982’s excellent Tug of War. If “Yesterday” was an unconscious song of mourning, also finding McCartney alone with only his guitar and a string quartet, “Here Today” finds the songwriter singing through his grief in what is perhaps his most conscious and unguarded musical moment to date.
“Here Today” is a declaration more than a just simple tribute. It’s an acknowledgement of emotional shortcomings within a cherished friendship as much as a vow to move beyond them — to hold back the tears no more. Significantly, this is a love song that is a stretch even from an artist who famously wrote love songs as easily as breathing; a masterwork not as an act of craft, but rather as one of personal and very brave emotional exploration.
Listen: Here Today
Pipes of Peace
“Pipes of Peace”, the title track to Paul McCartney’s 1983 release, is a return to Sixties values and sentiments through a new lens. This is literally a peace and love anthem right in the middle of the polarized Cold War landscapes of Reagan and Thatcher’s 1980s. It certainly stood out during a time when songs about mutual destruction by nuclear war were becoming a pop music subgenre.
The song itself is an amalgam of everything McCartney is good at, with lyrical nuance as supported by the melody being one of his strongest here. There are strings, interwoven vocal lines, bouncy White Album-style piano, and even a splash of tabla mixed with Western instruments to tie this tune to that earlier Sixties sound of his former band. The big difference here is McCartney is no longer a youthful champion for peace for his own generation’s sake, but rather for his children’s, compellingly suited to the grim atmosphere of the times with its optimism intact.
Listen: Pipes of Peace
Once Upon a Long Ago
This cut is featured as a new track on 1987’s All the Best compilation in the UK and Canada as a part of a collection of his solo and Wings hits. Put in that context, this song about an idealized past looked on with affection fits in very well for an artist looking back on his own achievements, and during a time when Sgt. Pepper had aged a full two decades. This track is musically sumptuous and on an epic scale, helped along by instrumental flourishes that include Nigel Kennedy on violin, and with orchestrations by George Martin.
With all of these rich textures, “Once Upon a Long Ago” is imbued with a cinematic feel and a wistful, quiet sense of longing at its heart. The cinematic quotient and allusions to fairy tales might be explained by its one-time consideration to be a part of The Princess Bride soundtrack. Outside of that context though, the song evokes the idea of how time passes so quickly, yet also seems like such a long time ago. Like “Junk”, this is a song about leaving things behind, all the while finding oneself reaching for the treasures to be found in one’s past all at once.
Listen: Once Upon a Long Ago
Calico Skies
McCartney recorded “Calico Skies” in 1992 having written it during a power outage. Similar to the conditions in India with his bandmates decades before, McCartney only had his acoustic guitar to hand in composing this folky, Elizabethan-flavoured song about peace, love, and commitment. Later on, it was a song fit for inclusion on 1998’s Flaming Pie. As expected, Paul’s solo acoustic guitar is reminiscent of tracks like “Blackbird” and “Mother Nature’s Son”. But there is more to this song than just a return to his late-Sixties roots.
“Calico Skies” is the product of a songwriter known for his love songs who has spent decades since then learning how love really works in real life. It’s an honest and lived-in tribute to a defining relationship as its participants grow older and as they face challenges of all kinds together. This is one of McCartney’s most personal and heartfelt compositions about love and the maturity it brings. Linda McCartney’s death that same year made this sentiment extra impactful in tribute, and as a statement of gratitude and love for her after a time-tested marriage.
Listen: Calico Skies
English Tea
Paul McCartney got together with Radiohead and Beck producer Nigel Goderich for 2005’s Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, with this song being a shining highlight of that collaboration. “English Tea” comes complete with chamber pop strings, playful piano, and even an ocarina solo worthy of “Fool on the Hill”. With those musical ingredients, Paul leans into his enduring reputation for twee (“very me …”) by delving into mythical evocations of English life and culture.
Inasmuch as working with Nigel Goderich could have been seen as a way to modernize his sound and approach, McCartney takes things in the exact opposite direction here on a song that is the sound of contentment itself, comfortable in familiar environs as a Macca-doing-Macca tune, but with a wink of the eye that can’t help but raise a smile in light of such self-knowledge at its heart.
Listen: English Tea
New
By the 2010s, McCartney continued to strike the balance between modern production and his own well-established musical style. He chose a few of his favourite producers that included Mark Ronson to get him to where he wanted to go and to great effect on 2013’s New. The result on this title track is a freshness, and newness, that is astounding — a classic sound that evokes everything good about each era of McCartney’s career by then, with a rich modern tone all at once.
As such there is a timeless quality to this song, while still feeling attached to the continuum of Paul McCartney’s history as an architect pop songwriting as we know it today. This brings things full circle in a song about coming into being, feeling renewed, and arriving in a new place where one was always meant to go. Full of Brian Wilsonisms that McCartney has incorporated since the mid-Sixties, this song is downright joyful and defiantly optimistic as always.
Listen: New
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Runners up and bubbling under:
- All My Loving
- I’ve Just Seen a Face
- Got to Get You into My life
- Hello Goodbye
- She’s Leaving Home
- Every Night
- Dear Boy
- Live and Let Die
- Jet
- Bluebird
- Let Me Roll It
- Nineteen-Hundred and Eighty-Five
- Junior’s Farm
- London Town
- Listen to What the Man Said
- Let ’Em In
- Getting Closer
- Wanderlust
- No More Lonely Nights
- Put it There
- My Brave Face
- Jenny Wren
- Fine Line
- That Was Me
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Paul McCartney is a singular songwriter, and one of the key musicians of the Twentieth Century who defined the modern pop era. His work with The Beatles, with Wings, and solo marked the times, and did so with lightheartedness, positivity, and with melodies that remain to be full of the lifeforce today.
Learn more about Paul at paulmccartney.com.
