The Paul McCartney Song That Was a Total Flop
Paul McCartney makes the shortlist for the most successful songwriter ever. Between the chart-topping tunes he wrote with The Beatles and his successful solo songs, he’s reached the apex dozens of times in his career. Still, one Paul song turned into a total flop when another artist recorded it while the Fab Four were at their peak.
Paul McCartney’s song ‘Catcall’ was a total flop for Chris Barber
English jazz musician Chris Barber found himself in an enviable position in July 1967. Paul McCartney had a song to give away and wanted to hand it to Barber. It was an offer he couldn’t refuse. Barber took Macca’s “Catswalk” tune, which he wrote nearly a decade earlier, rechristened it “Catcall,” and recorded a pop-jazz take on the song.
It was one of the rare Paul songs that flopped completely when the single hit shelves in October 1967.
Barber scored several hits in England, but “Catcall” wasn’t one of them. He had three top-10 tunes and another two top-50 songs, per Official Charts Company. One might think having McCartney’s name attached would create a ripple effect of success. That wasn’t the case. In an era where nearly every song Paul and the Beatles performed found instant acclaim, “Catcall” never reached the charts.
Paul’s song went largely unnoticed at the time, and it probably was because of the times that no one seemed to care.
The Beatles took popular music in a new direction when they dropped their early singles and debut album. Big bands and soft pop went out the door. Groups such as the Fab Four, The Rolling Stones, the Kinks, and the Yardbirds came in. By late 1967, music fans had little appetite for jazz tunes. “Catcall” sounded like it was incredibly fun to record (hear it on YouTube), but no one wanted to listen to it. It was the rare Paul song that flopped, but there were more to come.
Paul missed the mark with a Beatles project and a solo release
Paul gave “Catcall” away, and the song flopped. It wasn’t the last time The Beatles bassist missed the mark.
Macca conceived the Magical Mystery Tour film that aired on the BBC in late 1967. The album contained some of the band’s best psychedelic tunes (the title track, “I Am the Walrus,” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” come to mind). Yet the film flopped like no other Beatles project. Much of it had to do with the colorful movie airing in black-and-white on TV the day after Christmas. The far-out visual concepts and jumble of ideas probably didn’t help.
Paul apparently didn’t learn from that experience. He received a Golden Globe nomination for Give My Regards to Broad Street, but critics panned the 1984 movie. Roger Ebert’s harsh review called it a non-movie with paper-thin characters. The song “No More Lonely Nights” was a smash hit, but Macca needed some outside help from Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour to salvage the disaster of an album.
Paul McCartney’s songs rarely flopped in the 1960s (and beyond), but the tune he gave to Chris Barber, “Catcall,” was an exception. It might have been set up to fail, but it wasn’t the last time Paul misfired with one of his creative ideas.
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