The Story Of John Lennon’s Favorite Paul McCartney Song

The Beatles—what word can you describe them except that they are legends? The Fab Four continues to inspire the world with their quintessential songs that would never be erased for eternity. They are the ones who probably inspired your heroes to pick up any musical instrument, make songs, and perform them with a heart on the sleeve. They are the ones who inspire the ordinary in so many ways and make them feel that they are someone in the world that we live in. The music’s legacy could initially be traced back from them, perhaps.

But what about the Beatles themselves? Do they also have their own favorites as well? Aside from flexing their personal work, there are also some occasions when the iconic songwriting duo John Lennon and Paul McCartney spoke fondly of each other’s songs.

Lennon was never an apple-polisher when it comes to voicing out his opinions. If there’s something that’s remarkably wrong from what he sees, he will say something about it. More evidently, one of the reasons why the Beatles broke up was Lennon’s shabby comment about his partner’s work, whom he called “granny’s songs.” Of course, that didn’t sit right with Paul.

Nevertheless, Lennon was also a person who isn’t shy about giving compliments to Paul. Take, for instance, his 1972 interview with Hit Parader, whom he labeled “Hey Jude” as McCartney’s “best song.”  “It started off as a song about my son Julian because Paul was going to see him. Then he turned it into ‘Hey Jude,’” Lennon told the interviewer. He also added that he always thought that the song was about him (John) and Yoko.

Another moment where he expressed the enigmatic meaning behind the song was his 1980 Playboy interview: “I always heard it as a song to me,” John expressed in the interview. For him, Paul was fighting on subconscious levels during the time where he felt that Lennon was leaving him for good. He said that the “angel” in him tells him to say goodbye, but Paul’s devil side dislikes John’s departure at all.

But for whatever reasons did Paul McCartney wrote the song for “Hey Jude,” at least we know that it’s not only us who adores this one-of-a-kind Beatle classic.

Listen to “Hey Jude” below.