The 10 Best Paul McCartney Songs With The Beatles

Few bands’ repertoires are extensive enough to have a best songs list for separate members. But then most bands aren’t like The Beatles. In this mini-series, I will go over the best Beatles songs from separate band members, starting with Paul McCartney. The songs are mainly ranked on personal preference, but cultural importance was a small ranking factor too. Let’s dive into the list!

Read more: Part 2 – John Lennon and Part 3 – George Harrison

10. Hey Jude

“Hey Jude” is undeniably one of Paul McCartney’s most iconic compositions. He wrote the song to comfort John Lennon’s son, Julian, during the divorce of his parents. McCartney eventually changed ‘Hey Jules’ into ‘Hey Jude’ because it sounded better. The song isn’t necessarily a big personal favorite of mine, but even I admit I can’t abstain from singing along to the song’s iconic four-minute-long na-na-na coda.

Read more: The Story Behind “Hey Jude” by The Beatles

9. The Fool on the Hill

“The Fool on the Hill” was released on The Beatles’ soundtrack Magical Mystery Tour. And while the movie was received rather poorly, the double EP was a commercial success. The inspiration behind “Fool on the Hill” was the designer collective The Fool, who designed artwork for the Beatles in 1966–67. The song is about misunderstood people and describes a perceived fool who is actually wise. “The Fool on the Hill” ranks among Paul McCartney’s most-covered songs and is one of my personal favorites.

8. And I Love Her

In my opinion, “And I Love Her” is one of McCartney’s greatest achievements in the ‘Beatlemania’ phase. “It was the first ballad I impressed myself with”, Paul McCartney wrote in his biography Many Years From Now. “It’s got nice chords in it, ‘Bright are the stars that shine, dark is the sky…’ I like the imagery of the stars and the sky. It was a love song really.” McCartney most likely wrote the song for Jane Asher, although he denied that in later years.

7. Helter Skelter

For number 7, I’ve picked “Helter Skelter”. The song was released on the Beatles’ ninth studio album known as the White Album and was McCartney’s attempt to create the loudest, dirtiest song possible. The inspiration behind the song was Pete Townshend from The Who, who said in an interview the single “I Can See For Miles” was their loudest and rawest to date.

“I thought, Right, they’ve done what they think was the loudest and dirtiest; we’ll do what we think,” McCartney told Mojo Magazine. “I went into the studio and told the guys, ‘Look, I’ve got this song but Pete said this and I want to do it even dirtier.”

6. Yesterday

“Yesterday” is arguably McCartney’s most famous composition. The song has over 2300 known cover versions and has been hailed as the most covered pop song of all time. The ballad is more a Paul McCartney song than a Beatles song, as McCartney is the only band member to appear on the record. It makes the song a perfect addition to this list.

Read more: The Story Behind “Yesterday” by The Beatles

5. Eleanor Rigby

“Eleanor Rigby” – released on the iconic Revolver in 1966 – marked a departure from McCartney’s typical sound. Instead of the typical guitar arrangement accompanied by sweet themes, “Eleanor Rigby” featured a string arrangement accompanied by somber lyrics about loneliness. The song was a defining moment in establishing the Beatles as true artists and is – in my opinion – one of Paul McCartney’s greatest songs.

Read more: Ranking The Beatles Albums From Worst To Best

4. She’s Leaving Home

For number 4, I’ve picked “She’s Leaving Home”. Paul McCartney wrote the song after reading about a teenage runaway in the Daily Mail. “The headline was something like ‘A-Level Girl Dumps Car and Vanishes’. So, I set out to imagine what might have happened, the sequence of events,” McCartney wrote in The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present.

The song was released on The Beatles’ iconic Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album and is easily one of the greatest tracks on the record.

3. The Medley

I know that “The Medley” isn’t one song, and I know John Lennon contributed songs to the medley too. Nevertheless, I’ve decided to include it on my list of greatest Paul McCartney songs. The “Abbey Road Medley” was an idea mainly conceived by McCartney. “I think it was my idea to put all the spare bits together,” he said. “We hit upon the idea of medleying them all and giving the second side a sort of operatic structure – which was great because it used ten or twelve unfinished songs in a good way.”

McCartney wrote 5 out of the 8 songs of “The Medley”, with “You Never Give Me Your Money”, “Golden Slumbers”, and “The End” being the absolute highlights of the operatic sequence. Many consider it one of McCartney’s greatest achievements with The Beatles, and so do I.

Read more: The Story Behind the “Abbey Road Medley” by The Beatles

2. Penny Lane

“Penny Lane” is a trip down memory lane to Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s youth in Liverpool, England. “We were writing childhood memories: recently faded memories from eight or ten years before, so it was a recent nostalgia, pleasant memories for both of us,” McCartney reflected in his biography Many Years From Now.

The song is the perfect go-to feel-good song, especially because of the piccolo trumpet solo played by trumpeter David Mason, which I once saw described as a ‘sense of freedom, energy, and sheer happiness’.

Read more: The Story Behind “Penny Lane” by The Beatles

1. Here, There and Everywhere

In my opinion, “Here, There and Everywhere” is Paul McCartney’s greatest song with The Beatles. Weirdly enough, the song isn’t even close to being as popular as songs like “Yesterday” or “Hey Jude”. Therefore, I also regard it as McCartney’s most underrated composition. John Lennon and Paul McCartney both loved the song, and McCartney even stated that “Here There and Everywhere” was his personal favorite.

Paul McCartney wrote the song at John Lennon’s house while he was asleep. “I sat out by the pool on one of the sun chairs with my guitar and started strumming in E, and soon had a few chords, and I think by the time he’d woken up, I had pretty much written the song, so we took it indoors and finished it up,” McCartney recalled in Many Years From Now.

The introduction of the song was inspired by The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows”, and the flow of the song was inspired by Fred Astaire’s “Cheek to Cheek”. Both songs are personal favorites of Paul McCartney. Together they inspired one of the greatest songs ever written: “Here, There and Everywhere”.

That was my list of the best Paul McCartney songs with The Beatles! I surely forgot to mention songs that could’ve easily ranked on this list. I’m thinking of “Let It Be”, “Blackbird”, “All My Loving”, and “Michelle”, among others. What are some of your personal favorites from Paul McCartney with The Beatles? Please let me know in the comments below!