John Lennon’s Favorite Beatles Songs That Paul McCartney Wrote

It remains a fascinating exercise to wonder how John Lennon and Paul McCartney felt about each other’s songs.

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Bands, and especially a band’s primary songwriters, are famously competitive. This explains why it’s so difficult to keep even the most successful groups together. Even the world’s greatest rock band couldn’t survive themselves.

George Harrison felt it as he began creeping out from behind the giant shadows of Lennon and McCartney. However, Lennon did praise McCartney’s songs in an interview conducted by writer David Sheff. Sheff had visited Lennon and Yoko Ono in August 1980 at their home in The Dakota on an assignment for Playboy.

Sheff’s interview appeared in Playboy on Dec. 6. Two days later, Lennon was shot and killed in front of his New York apartment. Sheff’s three-week conversations with Lennon and Ono were later compiled in his book All We Are Saying (2000). The book documents the last major interview with the couple.

If Lennon were alive today, these McCartney-penned classics might have made his playlist.

“Here, There and Everywhere” from Revolver (1966)

While filming Help! in Austria in 1965, McCartney played Lennon his demo of “Here, There and Everywhere.” According to McCartney, Lennon said, “You know, I probably like that better than any of my songs on the tape.” The two were sharing songs on a break from filming when Lennon offered his praise for McCartney’s new tune. Sheff noted that Lennon said “Here, There and Everywhere” was one of his favorite Beatles songs.

“Oh! Darling” from Abbey Road (1969)

Sheff also writes how Lennon thought McCartney’s “Oh! Darling” sounded more like a song he might have written and it remained one he loved. But Lennon also said he should have sung it: “‘Oh! Darling’ was a great one of Paul’s that he didn’t sing too well. I always thought that I could’ve done it better—it was more my style than his. He wrote it, so what the hell, he’s going to sing it. If he’d had any sense, he should have let me sing it.” Still, McCartney admitted his voice sounded “lukewarm” on the track.

“Hey Jude” (Single, 1968)

“That’s his best song.” That’s how Lennon described “Hey Jude” in an interview with Hit Parader in 1972. Lennon isn’t alone in how high he placed “Hey Jude.” McCartney has kept it as a staple of his solo sets for decades. He wrote it as a hopeful message for Lennon’s son Julian while his parents (John and Cynthia) divorced. The message: “Come on, man, your parents got divorced. I know you’re not happy, but you’ll be OK.” Lennon told Sheff it’s a “damn good set of lyrics and I made no contribution to that.”

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