With over 200 Beatles songs to his name, Paul McCartney has always treated the band’s catalogue with something close to affection. Even when others – notably John Lennon – were quick to dismiss some of their past work, McCartney largely chose not to publicly criticise their recordings.
But not every track was loved equally – and a handful clearly didn’t sit right with him. From unrewarding studio experiments to rushed singles that never landed, McCartney has quietly admitted to disliking or distancing himself from a few Beatles tunes over the years.
Here are four songs that McCartney has either directly criticised or stepped away from – including a fan favourite.
‘She Said, She Said’
Despite being a standout on Revolver and a favourite among Beatles fans, McCartney didn’t perform on this psychedelic track. The reason being because he walked out of the studio during recording.
“John brought it in pretty much finished,” McCartney recalled in Many Years From Now. “I’m not sure, but I think it was one of the only Beatle records I never played on. I think we’d had a barney or something, and I said, ‘Oh, f*** you!’ and they said, ‘Well, we’ll do it.’ I think George played bass.”
The song, inspired by an acid-fuelled conversation with Peter Fonda, may have also alienated McCartney because he hadn’t yet taken LSD at the time – making the material more difficult for him to connect with. Whatever the reason, it’s a rare case where McCartney physically removed himself from a Beatles track entirely.
‘Revolution 9′
McCartney was known for his interest in being a music pioneer, but The White Album’s most experimental piece tested even his limits. Composed primarily by Lennon and featuring heavy input from Yoko Ono, ‘Revolution 9’ was a sound collage made up of tape loops, spoken phrases and noise experiments.
“There were about ten machines with people holding pencils on the loops – some only inches long and some a yard long,” Lennon said of the recording. “I fed them all in and mixed them live.”
McCartney never publicly attacked the track, but his absence from its construction was telling – especially given his own interest in tape loops and sound experiments earlier in the band’s career. With Ono helping select the loops and the track lacking any conventional structure, it’s widely believed McCartney wasn’t keen on the result, even if he never outright said so.
‘Hold Me Tight’
Not all of McCartney’s dislikes were based on creative disagreements. Some, like this early With the Beatles cut, were simply the result of rushed songwriting under pressure.
“I can’t remember much about that one,” McCartney admitted. “Certain songs were just ‘work’ songs… you haven’t got much of a memory of them. That’s one of them.”
He later referred to it as “a failed attempt at a single,” suggesting it never lived up to the ambitions they had when writing it. Despite being a Lennon-McCartney composition, neither seemed particularly invested in it after its release.
‘What You’re Doing’
Another example of a Beatles track McCartney viewed as underwhelming was ‘What You’re Doing’, from Beatles for Sale. Though he took lead vocals and wrote much of the song himself, he later admitted it lacked inspiration.
“‘What You’re Doing’ was a bit of filler,” he said. “I think it was a little more mine than John’s… You sometimes start a song and hope the best will arrive by the time you get to the chorus, but sometimes that’s all you get, and I suspect this was one of them.”
He conceded that the recording itself might have made it sound better than it actually was. “Maybe it’s a better recording than it is a song,” he added. “Sometimes a good recording would enhance a song.”
Beyond these four, McCartney also had lukewarm feelings about a number of early Beatles songs that never reached single status. ‘Little Child’ he described as a “work job,” and called ‘Every Little Thing’ an “album filler” that didn’t have “what was required” to be a hit. He dismissed ‘I’m Just Happy to Dance With You’ as a “formula song”, and referred to ‘Tell Me What You See’ as “not awfully memorable.”