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TL;DR:

  • Lana Del Rey’s “Young and Beautiful” is like a more serious version of one of The Beatles’ songs.
  • Del Rey’s tune is a lot better than the Fab Four’s tune.
  • Del Rey’s track was one of her biggest hits in the United States while The Beatles’ track didn’t chart there.

Lana Del Rey’s “Young and Beautiful” is one of her best songs. It’s lyrically similar to a tune from The Beatles‘ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Despite this, The Beatles’ track has a typically cute Paul McCartney tone.

Why Lana Del Rey’s ‘Young and Beautiful’ is similar to The Beatles’ ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’

In “Young and Beautiful,” Del Rey asks her lover if he will continue to love her as she ages. It’s a deeply emotional tune and one of the most iconic ballads of the 2010s. Part of what makes it special is that very few love songs deal with aging.

One of the only other love songs with a similar meaning is The Beatles’ “When I’m Sixty-Four.” Notably, both songs are framed as someone asking their lover a question. Considering that Del Rey directly referenced other Beatles tracks like “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “Tomorrow Never Knows” in her lyrics, it’s quite possible that “When I’m Sixty-Four” influenced “Young and Beautiful.”

Lana Del Rey’s song is darker and more honest than The Beatles’ tune

The major difference between “When I’m Sixty-Four” and “Young and Beautiful” is their tones. The former is a jocular song where Paul McCartney asks if the woman he loves will feed him when he’s 64. On the other hand, there’s a darker undercurrent to Del Rey’s track. She seems haunted by the idea that the man in her life might leave her.

“When I’m Sixty-Four” brushes up against unsettling themes but settles for a cutesy style that was characteristic of Paul’s work. On the other hand, “Young and Beautiful” is one of Del Rey’s most earnest tracks. That’s why “Young and Beautiful” is clearly the better of the two.

Related

5 Lana Del Rey Songs With Classic Rock References

How ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’ and ‘Young and Beautiful’ performed on the pop charts

“When I’m Sixty-Four” was never a single, so it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The track appeared on the seminal concept album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. That record peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for 15 weeks and remained on the chart for 233 weeks. Besides Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was the Fab Four’s most popular studio album in the United States.

“Young and Beautiful” became a modest hit in the United States. It peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100, staying on the chart for 21 weeks. “Young and Beautiful” lasted longer on the chart than any of Del Rey’s other singles besides the Cedric Gervais remix of “Summertime Sadness.” “Young and Beautiful” received lots of attention because it repeatedly appeared in Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby.

“Young and Beautiful” and “When I’m Sixty-Four” are both great songs — even if one is better.

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