From their early days in Liverpool to the soaring heights of their fame, Paul McCartney and John Lennon were more than just bandmates: they were friends, brothers even, who were deeply connected and involved in one another’s personal lives and families. McCartney was there to witness Lennon become a father for the first time in 1963 and again in 1975. Lennon saw the same when McCartney had his first son two years later in 1977.
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Despite the public grievances each musician had with the other, they were still family. In 1982, McCartney alluded to this close bond while selecting his all-time favorite Lennon track to take with him on a desert island on the BBC program Desert Island Discs.
Paul McCartney’s Favorite John Lennon Track
The premise of the BBC’s Desert Island Discs is simple. The show features musical icons and other notable figures selecting eight records they would want to take with them on a desert island. They’re also allowed to choose a book and a luxury. During his 1982 appearance on the show, Paul McCartney opted for a book of his wife Linda McCartney’s photography and a guitar, naturally. And while he didn’t include any of the Beatles’ or his own records in his list of eight songs, he did choose a sentimental track from John Lennon.
“I have chosen one of John Lennon’s from Double Fantasy, which I think is a beautiful song—very moving to me. So, I’d like to sum up the whole thing by playing “Beautiful Boy.”” Lennon’s “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)” is the A-side closer to the final album he released before his tragic death one month later. The record centered around Lennon’s relationship with his second wife, Yoko Ono, and the life and family they built together. “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)” was Lennon’s tribute to his second son, Sean Ono Lennon.
“It’s self-explanatory,” Lennon said of his song’s inspiration. “The music and the lyric came at the same time. The joy is still there when I see Sean. He didn’t come out of my belly, but by God, I made his bones because I’ve attended to every meal and to how he sleeps and to the fact that he swims like a fish. That’s because I took him to the ‘Y.’ I took him to the ocean. I’m so proud of those things. He is my biggest pride, you see.”
Macca’s Pick Harkens Back To Another Familial Connection
The fact that Paul McCartney would pick “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)” as his all-time favorite John Lennon track isn’t all that surprising. McCartney had become a father just five years before his appearance on BBC’s Desert Island Discs, so he likely related to his friend’s musings on fatherhood. But even more than that, McCartney likely felt a special connection to his late friend’s son, Sean Ono Lennon, the same way he felt connected to Lennon’s first son, Julian. In fact, McCartney’s relationship with Julian inspired one of the Beatles’ greatest hits of all time, “Hey Jude.”
McCartney wrote the lyrics to “Hey Jude” while driving to the home of Lennon’s first wife, Cynthia Lennon, in Weybridge. Around the time John and Cynthia divorced, McCartney decided to pay Cynthia and Julian a visit. “I thought, as a friend of the family, I would motor out to Weybridge and tell them that everything was alright. To try and cheer them up, basically, and see how they were. I would always turn the radio off and try and make up songs, just in case,” he later said.
“I started singing, ‘Hey Jules, don’t make it bad, take a sad song and make it better.’ It was optimistic, a hopeful message for Julian: ‘Come on, man, your parents got divorced. I know you’re not happy, but you’ll be okay. I eventually changed ‘Jules’ to ‘Jude.’”
From his touching tribute to Lennon’s first son to his love for his former bandmate’s song about his second, McCartney’s connection to Lennon on a familial level is undeniable. The fact that Lennon’s “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)” is as great sonically as it is sentimentally is just a bonus, as far as desert island albums go.
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