(Credits: Prime Video)
Mon 26 January 2026 20:09, UK
When Keith Richards spoke about the main difference between The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, he was relatively straightforward with his answer. “I remember Keith Richards saying to me, ‘You had four singers. We only had one’,” said Paul McCartney, recalling the guitarist’s comments, “Little comments like that will set me off, and I think, ‘Wow’. That is pretty uncanny.”
One of the best factors of The Beatles was how good their harmonies were. You rarely have a band that is so astronomically famous that it doesn’t have one particular stand-out member, as all shared singing duties and were essentially leads. Fans loved every member of The Beatles, and while they might have had their favourites, no specific member was considered higher than the rest.
Due to the fact that the band shared singing duties, members were never really judged on their singing ability in the same way other vocalists were. People praised The Beatles for being The Beatles rather than focusing on individual aspects of them. As such, Paul McCartney has rarely been compared to other vocalists, but there is one Lennon said he was like, which offended him.
Once The Beatles split, there was a period of tension between John Lennon and Paul McCartney throughout the 1970s. After The Beatles split, Lennon wasn’t hesitant in letting his disdain for his former bandmates be known. In the book Lennon Remembers, he was quick to let his thoughts be known, as he lashed out at all his former band members, as well as Mick Jagger, Orson Welles and Frank Zappa.
When speaking about Paul McCartney, he compared his singing style to Englebert Humperdinck. While Humperdinck might have been a successful musician, he was relatively one-note, and McCartney was deeply offended by Lennon’s comments. They led him to do some soul-searching, where he dug into a hole that friends and family had to pull him out of.
Paul McCartney with Jane Asher in 1968. (Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
“I hated it,” he said when discussing Lennon’s comments in his book, “You can imagine, I sat down and pored over every little paragraph, every little sentence. ‘Does he really think that of me?’ I thought. And at the time, I thought, ‘It’s me. I am. That’s just what I’m like. He’s captured me so well; I’m a turd, you know.’ I sat down and really thought, ‘I’m just nothin’.’”
It must have been a difficult period. There had been fallout following the band announcing they were breaking up, so for McCartney to go through that and then read such negative comments from his former bandmate would have been hard. That’s reflected well in his comments about reading the book.
“People who dug me like Linda said, ‘Now you know that’s not true, you’re joking. He’s got a grudge, man; the guy’s trying to polish you off,’” said McCartney. “Gradually, I started to think, ‘Great, that’s not true. I’m not really like Engelbert; I don’t just write ballads.’ And that kept me kind of hanging on; but at the time, I tell you, it hurt me. Whew. Deep.”
McCartney’s reaction is also a reminder of how intimate The Beatles’ breakup was, and how bruising it could feel when the private fractures spilt into public record. These were not anonymous critics sniping from a distance. This was the person who had sat beside you for years, shaping your instincts, sharpening your ideas, and, at times, acting as the loudest mirror in the room. When that mirror turns cruel, it can make even a confident artist question what everyone else has been hearing all along.
But the irony, of course, is that Lennon’s jab only really works if you ignore the width of McCartney’s voice and writing. Even within the Beatles, he was never just the soft-focus romantic, and his solo career would only make that more obvious as he swerved between bite, sweetness, and sheer melodic invention.
If Lennon meant to reduce him to a single tone, McCartney’s best response was always the same one he had relied on since the early days: keep making music, keep widening the frame, and let the songs complicate whatever tidy insult someone wants to land.
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