The Day Paul McCartney Almost Cut One of the Greatest Beatles Lines—and Who Saved It

We often need others to validate our creations. It’s hard to see through any misplaced confidence or self-loathing enough to have an objective point of view. Many artists have nearly scrapped a song or a line that ended up being one of their most iconic efforts, for fear it wouldn’t be any good. Even a songwriter as celebrated as Paul McCartney has fallen into this trap a time or two. There was one moment in particular wherein McCartney almost cut one of his most famous lines, until John Lennon talked him out of it.

The Iconic Line Paul McCartney Nearly Cut

“As a performer, you’re often thinking, ‘Is this any good? Is this rubbish? Is this a cliché?” McCartney once said.

It’s hard to believe that someone with such a stellar track record could feel insecure about his talents, but it’s also comforting. Even McCartney needs a confidence boost from time to time.

“Any time you write a song, you’re going, ‘This is crap. This is terrible. Come on,’” McCartney added elsewhere. “So I kick myself and say, ‘Get it better. If it’s terrible, get it better.’ And sometimes someone will come along, someone who you respect, and say, ‘No, that’s great. Don’t worry about that,’ and then show you a side to it that you didn’t notice and, then you’ll go, ‘Oh, yeah.’”

“Hey Jude”

A famous example of this comes from the first time McCartney played “Hey Jude” for John Lennon. It was an early version of the song, and McCartney hadn’t worked out all the lyrics yet. There was one line in particular that was never meant to be more than a placeholder, but Lennon had other ideas.

“When I was playing ‘Hey Jude’ to John,” McCartney added in the same interview, “I said, ‘The movement you need is on your shoulder.’ I turned round to him and Yoko [Ono], who was standing behind me, and said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll fix that.’”

“And John said, ‘No, you won’t. That’s the best line in it,” he continued. “When someone’s that firm about a line that you’re going to junk, and he said, ‘No, keep it in,’ so, of course, you love that line twice as much because it’s a little stray, it’s a little mutt that you were about to put down and it was reprieved and so it’s more beautiful than ever.”

Given how correct that lyric is for the song, you would never guess McCartney had second thoughts about it. Luckily, Lennon talked some sense into him, and the world was gifted this one-in-a-generation track.

(Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)