The Beatles and Paul McCartney both are one of the biggest names in the music world. Paul was one of the members of the Beatles and they are the only band to have sold 183 million units of certified sales. Paul is considered one of the music legends. McCartney has written and sung several songs and many of his songs are really popular.
Since he has written many hit songs there might not be a single song that he does not like or regretted writing however, he does have a song that he regretted writing. So what song does he regret writing? why did he regret writing that song? we will discuss all of the above questions further in the article.
The Beatles song Paul McCartney regretted writing
As mentioned Paul has written many songs for the Beatles including You Never Give Me Your Money, She Came In Through The Bathroom Window, The Long and Winding Road, and more. However, there is one particular song that Paul regrets writing.
When the Beatles released their eighth studio album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Paul was only 24 years old and imagining the future he wrote the song “When I’m Sixty-Four” and this is the very song that McCartney regrets writing. But why? why does he regret writing this song? He said that he should have named it When I’m Sixty-Five instead of when I’m sixty-four.
In an interview with Los Angeles Times interview McCartney said, “It was really an arbitrary number when I wrote [‘When I’m Sixty-Four’]. I probably should have called it ‘When I’m 65,’ which is the retirement age in England. And the rhyme would have been easy, ‘something, something alive when I’m 65.’ But it felt too predictable. It sounded better to say 64.”
Furthermore, Paul said that he met a pianist who plays for old people and the pianist told him that he (the pianist) has to change the title from when I’m 64 to when I’m 84 as the elderly people think 64 is a young age. McCartney explained, “I met someone who plays piano in an old persons’ home, and he said, ‘I hope you don’t mind, but I play some of your songs, and the most popular one is “When I’m Sixty-Four,” but I have to change the title to ‘When I’m 84’ because 64 seems young to those people,’ he said. ‘They don’t get it.”
For god sake, the song was written by a 24 years old guy and at the time Paul might have thought that 64 or 65 of age is too old and they will have various diseases by then and although most people do get diseases by the time they reach 65, there are many people who are way older than that age and Paul’s song did not really foreshadow enough and that is also the reason why McCartney really regrets.
Some might even think that Paul hates that song but no, it is not the case. Paul doesn’t hate this song he just regrets writing this song, and I feel like he does not even have regret about the song but he has a problem with the song’s title because it does not foreshadow much.
1 Comment
For years I was looking forward to playing that song on my birthday. That ship sailed; I think I like When I am 84 better!