THIS IS PAULMCCARTNEY´S FAVOURITE JOHN LENNON SONG

“You know if you know someone that long,” Paul said whilst in conversation with Sean Lennon, celebrating John’s recent 80th birthday celebration on BBC Radio 2. “From your early teenage years to your late twenties, that’s an awful long time to be collaborating with someone and you grow to know each other and even when you’re apart you’re still thinking about each other, you’re still referencing each other,” McCartney added.

 

Sean was eager to discover what song from Lennon’s solo career holds the biggest place in McCartney’s heart and his answer didn’t disappoint. “Obviously ‘Imagine and ‘Instant Karma’ is great and the nice thing was, when I listen to the records, I can imagine him in the studio and go, ‘Oh ok, I know what he’s done’. I’m often asked for my favourite tunes kind of thing, and I always include ‘Beautiful Boy’,” McCartney revealed.

The Double Fantasy track was famously written for Sean by John and the song full of messages of self-improvement like “Every day and in every way, I am getting better and better”, which has become somewhat of a self-help mantra. The honest lyrics also feature the famous line, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans” — it’s a track that sees Lennon truly lay his heart on the line in.

McCartney wasn’t just being polite by saying it was his favourite Lennon song because it was written about his former bandmate’s passionate adoration for his son who he was in the company of — he has been banging the drum about ‘Beautiful Boy’ for decades.

During an appearance on Desert Island Discs back in 1982, just two years after John’s death — a grief-stricken Macca picked the beautiful song as one of his choices, “I haven’t chosen any Beatles records but if we had more than eight I probably would have. I haven’t chosen any of my records so to sum up the whole thing I have chosen one of John Lennon’s from Double Fantasy which I think is a beautiful song very moving to me. So, I’d like to sum up the whole thing by playing ‘Beautiful Boy’.”

Almost forty years on from when he made that initial statement about ‘Beautiful Boy’ being the song from the entirety of The Beatles Universe which means the most to him, his adoration for the John, Sean and the song remains the same.