The Paul McCartney solo song that sounded like The Beatles

The majority of bands break up because every member knows that they want to make great music, but they disagree on how to do it. While The Beatles had many issues throughout their time as a band, that was the overriding problem. No matter the personal problems the band had, they were united by the will to make good music. Once they started disagreeing on what good music sounded like, their split was only a matter of time.

It could be argued that towards the end of The Beatles, Paul McCartney was one of the dominating voices, and his creativity pierced through everything that the band did. He always had an affinity for writing pop songs, and he carried that affinity with him until the very end of the band, which often rubbed other members the wrong way as they were forced to record songs such as ‘Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da’ and ‘Hello, Goodbye’, despite thinking it was beneath them.

“That’s another McCartney. Smells a mile away, doesn’t it?” said John Lennon when voicing his disdain towards the band. “An attempt to write a single. It wasn’t a great piece; the best bit was the end, which we all ad-libbed in the studio, where I played the piano. Like one of my favourite bits on ‘Ticket To Ride’, where we just threw something in at the end.”

When you listen to The Beatles and then the music that the members went on to make as solo artists, you can hear a distinct difference. This is because George Harrison and John Lennon were able to make the music that they thought they should be making, rather than what they thought The Beatles should be making. Lennon was offering up much more honest songs, while George Harrison was exploring styles that had previously been shrugged off by The Beatles.

Paul McCartney was a bit different, though. Given that he was one of the leading voices in The Beatles before they split, his solo music has a similar tone to that of the much-loved band. When you listen to his first solo album, McCartney, it essentially sounds like a watered-down version of The Beatles. Paul McCartney even admitted to this himself.

“When The Beatles had broken up and I was on my own for the first time, I got that four-track Studa in my living room,” he admitted. “And just kind of started making up songs and stuff, and it was a very bare album.”

Some of the songs on this album sound as though they would have been better suited for The Beatles instead of Paul McCartney as a solo artist. This particularly applied to the track ‘Teddy Boy’, which McCartney wrote when the band were still together, but that was never released. He penned the lyrics and melody to the song while the band were in India, and while they recorded a demo for the song, it was never released.

Subsequently, McCartney decided to re-record the song for his first solo album. It sounds nice, but there is no escaping the fact that it sounds like it should be a Beatles song. The demo the band made was eventually released, and now The Beatles’ rendition of the track can be heard on their 1996 Anthology album. Which version is best remains up for debate.