{"id":136935,"date":"2025-05-27T21:36:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T21:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/136935\/"},"modified":"2025-05-27T21:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T21:36:11","slug":"the-beatles-album-paul-mccartney-will-always-regret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/136935\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beatles album Paul McCartney will always regret"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Paul<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n

Tue 27 May 2025 19:05, UK <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t blame Phil Spector for doing it but it just goes to show that it\u2019s no good me sitting here thinking I\u2019m in control because obviously, I\u2019m not.\u201d<\/strong> \u2014 Paul McCartney<\/a>, The Beatles<\/p>\n

To try and force your favourite artist into picking one of their albums to hold up as their ultimate version of their work can sometimes be like getting blood out of a stone. In the case of The Beatles songwriting maestro<\/a>, Paul McCartney, we\u2019ve luckily had nearly six decades of critics and journalists pestering Sir Paul for his favourite record by the Fab Four, so that all the legwork has been done for us. But what about the album he likes least? For every good moment, there is usually a bad one, and The Beatles are just the same. <\/p>\n

During a revealing 1991 interview, McCartney suggests that he had a love for all the albums he, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr made together. But he did confess that his favourite was the iconic concept album from 1967, Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band an album released on June 1st, 1967. The singer revealed it was the concept behind the record that he feels was really engaging, and naturally, because he was meticulously involved in its creation. He said, \u201cI\u2019d pick Sgt. Pepper\u2019s, meself, because I had a lot to do with it\u201d noting the album\u2019s importance to his own creative evolution. All The Beatles\u2019 albums were collaborative efforts, contributing different songs each, but there was no doubt that McCartney had this record by the lapels.<\/p>\n

Sir Paul McCartney confirmed similarly in an interview from 1990, where he said: \u201cIf records had a director within a band, I sort of directed Pepper.\u201d The record\u2019s positive tone, affirmed in songs like \u2018Getting Better\u2019 and \u2018With A Little Help From My Friends\u2019 are all down to McCartney and his newfound creative leadership. He had assimilated into the role of leader more easily than some of the other band members had wanted. Still, the record is perhaps one of their most important.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a stepping stone on the band\u2019s pathway to icon status that is founded in sadness. After the band\u2019s manager, Brian Epstein, died, the group needed a focus, and Macca provided it. John Lennon had operated as the group\u2019s leader for some time, but as the 1960s progressed, Lennon\u2019s head was turned away from the studio and toward society\u2019s stage. With the album so deeply entrenched in McCartney\u2019s iconography it\u2019s not unexpected that he would adore it. This decision to pick McCartney\u2019s creation as his favourite may also hint at which was the singer\u2019s least favourite. <\/p>\n

\"Ringo<\/a>The Beatles (Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n

Let It Be was the final album The Beatles ever released, but the songs on it were largely compiled from off-cuts and previous incarnations that had fallen by the wayside. Though the album is certainly worthy of being considered one of the band\u2019s best records, there was something about it that Paul McCartney really didn\u2019t like\u2014Phil Spector. His influence on the record would push McCartney over the edge. <\/p>\n

The infamous producer, who died a few years ago, has had his place in history forever tarnished by his eccentric, violent and sociopathic tendencies. While one certainly couldn\u2019t lay much of that at the producer\u2019s feet on The Beatles album, Spector still represented everything wrong with the album for McCartney. In fact, one song perhaps typifies how Macca felt about the whole album.<\/p>\n

\u2018Long and Winding Road\u2019 was a song McCartney had created with a clear but simple ethos. It was a piano ballad and demanded to be treated as such. However, as The Beatles\u2019 split behind the scenes grew impossible to work with, the song was repurposed by John Lennon and Phil Spector and turned into something entirely different.<\/p>\n

The song, featured on the band\u2019s final record Let It Be, is largely considered one of the final moments the group were actually caught on tape. As most fans will tell you, most of Let It Be was recorded before their penultimate record Abbey Road, but this song had been finished after that record had come out and in less than pleasing circumstances. As John Lennon put it in 1980 when speaking with David Sheff, \u201cHe had a little spurt just before we split. I think the shock of Yoko Ono and what was happening gave him a creative spurt, including \u2018Let It Be\u2019 and \u2018Long And Winding Road\u2019, \u2019cause that was the last gasp from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCartney said of the track in Many Years From Now: \u201cI was a bit flipped out and tripped out at that time. It\u2019s a sad song because it\u2019s all about the unattainable; the door you never quite reach. This is the road that you never get to the end of.\u201d The track followed a similar recording process<\/a> as much of The Beatles\u2019 back catalogue.<\/p>\n

\"\"Paul McCartney (Credit: Linda McCartney)<\/p>\n

Usually arriving as part of a recording session and under the arm of a single member of the band, the group would all pitch in to try and get it to a recordable point, then with the help of George Martin \u2014 the band\u2019s legendary producer \u2014 they would piece it together and get it down on tape. It\u2019s a simple process that worked for the majority of their output. But for \u2018The Long and Winding Road,\u2019 things went a bit differently.<\/p>\n

However, with the band falling apart at the seams, Spector was put in charge of releasing Let It Be, which meant overdubbing plenty of songs to achieve his famed \u2018Wall of Sound\u2019 production. \u201cOn \u2018The Long And Winding Road\u2019 he wanted to overdub orchestra and choir, but there weren\u2019t the available tracks on the tape,\u201d remembers engineer Brian Gibson when speaking to Mark Lewisohn for his book on the band. \u201cSo he wiped one of Paul McCartney\u2019s two vocal tracks in order to put the orchestra on.\u201d<\/p>\n

It sent McCartney to the papers with his disgust at how Spector had changed the songs. He told the Evening Standard in 1970: \u201cThe album was finished a year ago, but a few months ago American record producer Phil Spector was called in by John Lennon to tidy up some of the tracks. But a few weeks ago, I was sent a re-mixed version of my song \u2018The Long And Winding Road\u2019, with harps, horns, an orchestra and women\u2019s choir added.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one had asked me what I thought. I couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d continued McCartney. \u201cI would never have female voices on a Beatles record. The record came with a note from Allen Klein saying he thought the changes were necessary. I don\u2019t blame Phil Spector for doing it but it just goes to show that it\u2019s no good me sitting here thinking I\u2019m in control because obviously, I\u2019m not. Anyway, I\u2019ve sent Klein a letter asking for some of the things to be altered, but I haven\u2019t received an answer yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The album was released with Spector\u2019s \u2018The Long and Winding Road\u2019 cut still present, something George Martin took umbrage with: \u201cThat made me angry \u2013 and it made Paul even angrier, because neither he nor I knew about it till it had been done. It happened behind our backs because it was done when Allen Klein was running John. He\u2019d organised Phil Spector, and I think George and Ringo had gone along with it. They\u2019d actually made an arrangement with EMI and said, \u2018This is going to be our record.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the years, Paul McCartney has been painted as many different villains in The Beatles\u2019 story. The singer has been cast as the anti-Lennon, a commercially driven artist and the kind of pop star that will always look to be in the limelight. But the truth is actually more aligned with the idea that McCartney is simply a devoted performer and creator \u2014 one that doesn\u2019t take too kindly to being overruled. <\/p>\n

Let It Be\u00a0will always be more famous for being the final release from the most famous band in the world rather than the songs on it. However, to overlook the record as the embers of a once roaring fire is a serious mistake. The record has several songs that are worthy of ultimate Beatles pantheon including the rocky \u2018Get Back\u2019, \u2018I, Me, Mine\u2019, \u2018Across the Universe\u2019 and of course the titular song \u2018Let It Be\u2019. It means the LP should certainly be considered one of their best, even if it doesn\u2019t sit well with Paul McCartney.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n

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