The Beatles Song that Paul McCartney Would Say Is His Favorite ‘if Pushed’
Paul McCartney wrote and recorded many iconic songs with The Beatles. Picking a favorite song for him is like picking a favorite child. However, McCartney said that if he was “pushed” into naming his favorite Beatles track, there is one that he would choose, and he has a couple of reasons why.
Paul McCartney says ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ is his favorite Beatles song
“Here, There and Everywhere” is the fifth track on 1966’s Revolver album. The love song is credited to Lennon-McCartney but was primarily written by McCartney. Paul McCartney often refers to the song as one of his favorite songs that he’s written, and in an interview with NPR’s Terry Gross, he said if pushed, he would select it as his favorite Beatles song.
“That’s a question you get asked a lot. ‘What’s your favorite song?’” McCartney said. “When I’m pushed, I will pull that one out of the bag, and it is definitely amongst my favorites.”
McCartney says the song has a great structure and melody
While discussing “Here, There and Everywhere”, McCartney gives two reasons why it’s his favorite: the song’s structure and it’s melody. He believes the structure works well because it’s divided up into three parts, and it’s combined with a melody that pushes it into being one of his favorite tracks.
“I think the structure of it. I like it. It always reminds me in structure of a great Cole Porter song ‘Cheek to Cheek’, which Fred Astaire sang,” McCartney shared. “And it’s so neat the way it just wraps itself up that I always thought, ‘Wow. That’s a great trick.’ So, ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ does that. Here, first verse. Second verse, there. Third verse, everywhere, leading me back to here. That was what attracted me. And then I think that wouldn’t have been enough to make it my favorite song, but I think it’s got a nice melody. So, the combination of those always made it one of my big favorites.”
McCartney wrote ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ while John Lennon was sleeping
John Lennon was notorious for sleeping all the time. He wrote two Beatles songs, “I’m Only Sleeping” and “I’m So Tired,” about his love for sleeping and unfortunate struggle with insomnia. In Barry Miles’ Many Years From Now, Paul McCartney said he began writing “Here, There and Everywhere” at Lennon’s pool at his house in Weybridge while Lennon was sleeping. McCartney was fiddling with his guitar, found a chord he liked, and proceeded to finish the song from there.
“I sat out by the pool on one of the sun chairs with my guitar and started strumming in E,” McCartney said. “And soon [I] had a few chords, and I think by the time he’d woken up, I had pretty much written the song, so we took it indoors and finished it up.”
Lennon and McCartney collaborated on many Beatles songs together, but sometimes Paul had to write down what he had when inspiration struck, even if Lennon was fast asleep.
