Paul McCartney Changed the Lyrics of ‘So Bad’ Because He Felt Bad for His Son

Paul McCartney was just one face of The Beatles — arguably the most popular band to ever exist. And while all four of them rose to fame together, many of the songs that took the world by storm were written by individual band members. Even after the band broke up, solo careers persisted, with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr becoming quite successful in their own right.

In 1983, McCartney released his song “So Bad” — just one of many in his post-Beatles era. It turns out, though, that when performing it for his family, he actually changed the lyrics because he felt “so bad” for his son James.

Paul McCartney continued a solo career long after The Beatles folded

For 10 years, The Beatles graced our ears with some of the biggest rock and roll songs of all time. McCartney, Lennon, and Harrison got together in 1958, but their rise to fame started in the early 1960s. After securing Ringo Starr as their lead drummer in 1962, the band found fame with their song “Love Me Do.” A life of peace and quiet was over for them from there; by 1964, they were huge. In 1970, after more than a decade of working with the band, Paul McCartney announced that he had left The Beatles.

Still, McCartney’s music career didn’t end there. McCartney went on to have a thriving solo career, with his first post-Beatles album release, “McCartney,” hitting no. 1 in the United States. He later formed the band Wings, which saw plenty of success as well.

Paul McCartney changed the lyrics on ‘So Bad’ in a sweet moment for his son

A dozen years after The Beatles broke up, McCartney was still hard at work making music. By the 1980s, McCartney was a father to four children: Heather, the daughter of his first wife Linda Eastman, whom he adopted upon marrying Eastman, along with Mary, Stella, and James, all of whom he shares with Eastman. McCartney and Eastman remained married up until Eastman’s death in 1998. (McCartney later married Heather Mills; the two share a daughter, Beatrice.)

After writing “So Bad” in 1983, McCartney went on to share the song with his wife and four kids. And while the lyrics worked for his wife and three daughters, they didn’t work for his youngest child, James, who was only four at the time, because the lyrics involved a girl and not a boy. As a result, McCartney changed the lyrics when singing the song for his family.

According to The Paul McCartney Project, McCartney described the lyric change in his own words: “I started singing it at home with the kids and Linda, and ‘Girl I love you so bad’ was fine for everyone except James,” McCartney said. “I felt I was leaving him out. So just for him I sang ‘Boy I love you so bad,’ and he would go all shy and it was lovely. McCartney later decided to change the song lyrics permanently. “Then I worked it into the song as ‘And she said Boy I love you so bad.’”

McCartney still has a close relationship with all five of his children. His daughter is famed designer Stella McCartney; his kids’ ages range 40 years, with his oldest daughter having just turned 60, and his youngest daughter at just 19.