The Time Paul McCartney Was Outdone on the Charts by His Own Brother: “I Didn’t Rub It In”

You rarely think about the siblings of iconic musicians. While the rest of us likely feel in competition with our family members at times, imagine their accomplishments ranging from No. 1s to best-selling albums. The siblings of The Beatles likely had trouble not feeling inferior to their world-altering relations. The only one who could hold their own in the family competition against a Beatle is Peter McCartney.

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McCartney once outsold his Beatle brother on the charts. Revisit the moment Paul McCartney didn’t have the biggest news around the family dinner table, for once.

[RELATED: Remember When: The Beatles Clash Over Which Song Deserves To Be an A-Side to This Psychedelic Single in 1967]

The Song That Helped Peter McCartney Outdo His Brother on the Charts

Known professionally as Mike McGear, McCartney was a part of the comedy group The Scaffold. They reached the top of the charts in the UK in 1968 and beat out even The Beatles with “Lily The Pink.” This redo of a folk classic, “The Ballad of Lydia Pinkham,” proved deeply popular among mainstream audiences.

“Mr. Freers had sticky out ears / And it made him awful shy / And so they gave him medicinal compound / And now he’s learning how to fly,” the lyrics to this song read. The track is full of tongue-in-cheek jokes, befitting the comedy group. In some ways, this song calls to mind Paul McCartney’s most adventurous songs.

“But I didn’t rub it in,” the younger McCartney once said of beating out his brother on the charts. “As luckily, The Beatles went on to have one or two (hundred) number ones after me and Scaffold… By the way, whatever happened to them?”

“As a northern working-class lad, actually getting to the hallowed spot of number one in the charts and ‘Top Of The Pops’ in 1968 with ‘Lily The Pink’ was unbelievable, but outselling the best group in the world with one of the members happening to be your elder brother was even better,” he added.

Paul McCartney likely didn’t feel too threatened by his brother’s moment in the sun, given the sheer amount of No. 1 songs The Beatles and he himself had as a solo artist. But it is rare that two members of the same family earn top-performing songs.

Knowing how little brothers are, Peter McCartney likely beat that horse to death anytime he reunited with his far more famous brother—and what sibling wouldn’t?

(Photo by Peter Timmullstein bild via Getty Images)