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TL;DR:

  • John Lennon said The Beatles’ “Yesterday” was Paul McCartney’s only good song in a track from Imagine.
  • Yoko Ono was even more harsh in her assessment of Paul’s talents as a musician.
  • Imagine was huge in the United States and even bigger in the United Kingdom.
Paul McCartney and John Lennon during The Beatles' "Yesterday" era
Paul McCartney and John Lennon | Bettmann / Contributor

John Lennon wrote a song that implied Paul McCartney didn’t write anything good besides The Beatles’ “Yesterday.” Subsequently, Paul got upset. He named a number of Beatles songs that he felt exhibited his talent.

John Lennon mentioned The Beatles’ ‘Yesterday’ in ‘How Do You Sleep?’

During a 2020 interview with GQ, Paul responded to something Yoko Ono said. “I remember reading an article, an interview with Yoko, who, OK, she was a big John supporter, I get that, but in this article she goes, ‘Paul did nothing. All he ever did was book studio,'” he said. “And I’m going, ‘Err? No.'”

In the same vein, Paul took issue with one of John’s lyrics. “And then John does this famous song, ‘How Do You Sleep?,’ and he’s going, ‘All you ever did was ‘Yesterday,'” Paul recalled. “And I’m going, ‘No, man.'” Paul felt the song was partially responsible for the negative perception that surrounded him after The Beatles’ breakup.

Paul McCartney named some good songs he wrote besides The Beatles’ ‘Yesterday’

Paul listed some of the Fab Four songs he wrote that made him proud. “‘Let It Be,’ ‘Eleanor Rigby,’ ‘Lady Madonna,’ for f***’s sake,” he said. “And I was happy to tell myself all of this.”

Paul thought of some other tracks he liked. “There’s more!” he said. “‘Hey Jude,’ ‘The Fool On The Hill,’ whatever. I think that’s how I got out of it, by persuading myself that it wasn’t a good idea to give in to my depression and my doubts.”

Paul recalled crossing paths with Lady Gaga during her career peak. He said Gaga dealt with self-hatred even though everything she released was a huge success. Paul understood what Gaga was thinking. While Paul tries to keep a positive attitude, he revealed he often thinks his songs are bad until someone else tells him otherwise.

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How John Lennon’s ‘How Do You Sleep?’ performed on the charts

Aside from the title track and “Jealous Guy,” “How Do You Sleep?” is probably the most famous song from John’s album Imagine. Despite this, “How Do You Sleep?” was never actually a single. The album reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for one of its 47 weeks on the chart. It was John’s biggest album besides the Yoko collaboration album Double Fantasy, which became especially popular after John’s tragic death in 1980.

The Official Charts Company reports “How Do You Sleep?” didn’t chart in the United Kingdom. On the other hand, Imagine reached No. 1 there for two weeks, remaining on the chart for 101 weeks in total. Imagine became the singer’s most popular solo album in his native U.K.

Paul is a master musician. Contrary to the lyrics of “How Do You Sleep?,” he is more than just “Yesterday.”

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