Paul McCartney Helped Elvis Costello Write This Hit Single From 1989

In 1989, Elvis Costello had a hit single with “Veronica”. The song, on his Spike record, was written by Costello and rock music legend Paul McCartney. Costello had the idea for “Veronica”, which was written as a tribute to his grandmother, who had Alzheimer’s.

 “I wanted to write a song about this old person sitting there and appearing to be completely gone, as we say,” Costello explains. “But really coming and going and sometimes being completely lucid—but not making it a sentimental song. I wanted it to be sort of defiant and happy, as if it was about a very young girl who was just starting out her life.”

“Veronica” says, “Is it all in that pretty little head of yours? / What goes on in that place in the dark? / Well, I used to know a girl, and I would have sworn that her name was Veronica / Well, she used to have a carefree mind of her own and a delicate look in her eye / These days, I’m afraid she’s not even sure if her name is Veronica.”

How Elvis Costello Began Writing With Paul McCartney

Interestingly, Costello and McCartney wrote several songs together, in addition to “Veronica”. Among their other collaborations are “That Day Is Done” and “The Lovers That Never Were” for McCartney, and “So Like Candy” and “Pads, Paws and Claws” by Costello. The two also released “You Want Her Too,” a collaboration with McCartney and Costello.

Perhaps even more surprising, it’s McCartney who wanted to write with Costello. The first song Costello brought to the rock and roll icon was “Veronica”.

“When I’d got the call to say Paul wanted me to write some songs with him for his next record, I didn’t know what to expect,” Costello remembers. “But as his last co-written hit had been with Michael Jackson, I wondered whether I should be taking some dancing lessons. I’d brought an early draft of ‘Veronica’ that you would have recognized. But we immediately got to work putting a better flow into the chorus and shifting the bridge into making that part of the song seem more like a dream.”

Costello later admitted that the success of “Veronica” initially made him not like it as much. Fortunately, that changed once he changed the key.

“The whole song changed completely,” Costello says. “Suddenly, I didn’t have to think about the record. It went back to why I wrote it, how I wrote it about my grandmother. And it really meant something to me, and I kind of regained it. I’d got my song back from the evil success that it had had.”

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