The John-McCartney duo was the heartbeat for the Beatles. Many songs were written by the duos and they even performed the songs together. John and Paul, are both exceptional artists who have done so much for audiences. The whole band has been on the vocal part of many songs and has even performed as the lead vocalist.
For instance, John Lennon’s original track ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, George Harrison on ‘Savoy Truffle’, and the list goes on. The Band never really operated as a big group. We weren’t going to see Paul writing a song for John to sing and vice versa. It didn’t work that way. And once, John commented that there is a song he could’ve sung better than Paul.
When John and Ono were in an interview with Playboy’s David Sheff in 1980. He went on to say a lot of stuff about many Beatles songs. John said that there is a song on Abbey Road that he could have done a better job on vocals. While they were talking, he had a lot to say about ‘Oh! Darling.’ He said, “Oh! Darling’ was a great one of Paul’s that he didn’t sing too well, I always thought that I could’ve done it better.”
He went on to say that it was more of his style than Paul’s. He said, “He wrote it, so what the hell, he’s going to sing it,” He added, “If he’d had any sense, he should have let me sing it.”
Also, the vocals for the song were really draining. To get the right vocals, he would come to the studio early and try his best to get the best vocals. Engineer Geoff Emerick recalled, “Every day we’d be treated to a hell of a performance as McCartney put his all into singing the song all the way through once and once only, nearly ripping his vocal cords to shreds in the process.”
He also wrote, “Paul’s ego prevented him from ever giving John a stab at singing the lead on ‘Oh! Darling,’ despite the fact it was probably better suited to Lennon’s voice.”
We will never know how it would have sounded with John at the mic but here’s Paul singing ‘Oh! Darling’
