Paul McCartney Told Taylor Swift This Elvis Presley Hit Cured a Headache
Elvis Presley’s music has had a major effect on a lot of people, however, few can say it cured their headache. Paul McCartney told Taylor Swift that one of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s tunes helped him to feel better after an encounter with a beautiful girl left him with a headache. In addition, Paul said he wanted his music to have a similar effect on people.
An experience at a fair which caused Paul McCartney to go home and listen to Elvis Presley
It all starts with Swift. Swift and Paul make very different music, however, they interviewed each other for an article in Rolling Stone. Over the course of the interview, they discussed everything from Daphne du Maurier’s novel Rebecca to the concerts Paul attended as a youth to The Bangels’ classic hit “Manic Monday.” At one point, they discussed a time Paul went to the fair when he was a young man.
“But we went to the fair, and I just remember — this is what happens with songs — there was this girl at the fair,” Paul recalled. “This is just a little Liverpool fair — it was in a place called Sefton Park — and there was this girl, who was so beautiful. She wasn’t a star. She was so beautiful. Everyone was following her, and it’s like, ‘Wow.’”
Paul felt there was something almost supernatural about the experience. “It’s like a magical scene, you know?” he said. “But all this gave me a headache, so I ended up going back to his house — I didn’t normally get headaches. And we thought, ‘What can we do?’ So we put on the Elvis song ‘All Shook Up.’ By the end of that song, my headache had gone. I thought, you know, ‘That’s powerful.’”
How Taylor Swift and Paul McCartney want their music to have a similar effect on people
“That really is powerful,” Swift noted. It’s also a touch ironic. “All Shook Up” is about how love can cause people to feel emotions that aren’t exactly pleasant. Despite this, “All Shook Up” managed to calm Paul down. Paul revealed he wants his music to have a similar effect on fans. Paul added how he loves to hear fans tell him his music helped them through difficult times, like exams or illnesses. Swift said one of her goals is to write music that helps people through difficult times.
How the world reacted to ‘All Shook Up’
“All Shook Up” certainly had an effect on Paul. This raises an interesting question: Did it have an effect on the public at large? According to the book Who Did It First?: Great Rock and Roll Cover Songs and Their Original Artists, the track reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It remains one of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s most well-known songs — there’s even an Elvis jukebox musical named after it. “All Shook Up” shook up the American pop charts — and it also helped Paul feel better as a young man.
