Paul McCartney has always been generous in giving credit where it’s due. Throughout his legendary career, he has openly acknowledged the artists who inspired him, but one musician stands out above the rest — Brian Wilson. Wilson’s masterpiece, “God Only Knows,” is a song McCartney once described as “brilliantly done.”

In a 2007 interview with BBC Radio 1, McCartney opened up about why this Beach Boys classic holds such a special place in his heart.

“It’s one of the few songs that reduces me to tears every time I hear it,” McCartney confessed. “It’s really just a love song, but it’s brilliantly done. It shows the genius of Brian.”

Coming from the man who penned “Yesterday,” “Let It Be” and “The Long and Winding Road,” this wasn’t just casual praise — it was the greatest tribute.

McCartney’s admiration for Wilson’s composition went far beyond words. The track directly inspired some of the Beatles’ most beloved songs. “God Only Knows” served as the blueprint for McCartney’s own “Silly Love Songs,” which incorporated the same build-up of vocal counterpoints that made Wilson’s track so alluring.

Wilson himself was humble about the praise. When McCartney first called “God Only Knows” the “greatest song ever written” in the 1970s, Wilson responded, “If that’s true, then what was there left for me to do?”

Originally released in 1966, “God Only Knows” peaked at #39 on the Billboard Hot 100 but achieved top 10 status in several other countries, cementing its place in the Beach Boys’ legendary catalog. However, the song’s impact didn’t stop in the ’60s.

Following Wilson’s recent passing on June 11, 2025, “God Only Knows” has experienced a massive resurgence on social media. TikTok users have been rediscovering the track, with many hearing Wilson’s harmonies for the first time.

The song’s renaissance reached a high when Spin posted a video isolating Wilson’s raw vocals from the track. The viral clip garnered over a million views and left fans stunned by the producer’s talent.

“Now I see why Paul McCartney felt threatened by the harmonization,” one user joked in the comments. Another added, “Brian Wilson really said ‘I’m glad you guys liked the decade of silly surf rock songs I made, now here’s the greatest pop album of all time.'”

Source: parade.com/Isabella Torregiani

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1969 was a bit of a heavy time for Paul McCartney. He was desperately trying to keep The Beatles together via a project that would force them to play together once again. Maybe it was only natural that his mind would wander off to more innocent days.

It was around that time that McCartney started writing the teenage-themed “The Back Seat Of My Car”. Although he’d never record it with The Beatles, he and his wife Linda would eventually make it the closing track of their 1971 album Ram.
Taking a “Back Seat”

On The Beatles’ 1968 double LP The White Album, individual members often went their separate ways in the studio to record songs without input from the others. With the Get Back/Let It Be project that began in early 1969, Paul McCartney sought to bring everyone back together into a tight musical unit.

He did this via an album that they planned to build from scratch in rehearsals, all while being filmed. As we know, the project ended up exposing more rifts than repairing them. After the rooftop concert at the end of January, the album/documentary was put on ice for over a year, by which time the band had broken up.

Band members were encouraged to bring whatever musical idea they had to the proceedings for possible inclusion on the album. Paul McCartney began working on the bare bones of “The Back Seat Of My Car” at one of those sessions. But he abandoned it before the rest of the band could give their input.

He brought the song out of mothballs to make it the stirring closer of Ram, the 1971 album credited to both Paul and his wife, Linda. In an interview with Mojo in 2001 (as reported by The Beatles Bible), McCartney explained where his head was at when he was writing “The Back Seat Of My Car”:

“Back Seat Of My Car’ is very romantic: ‘We can make it to Mexico City.’ That’s a really teenage song, with the stereotypical parent who doesn’t agree, and the two lovers are going to take on the world: ‘We believe that we can’t be wrong.’ I always like the underdog.”

Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia

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The Beatles released their fifth studio album Help!, which was the soundtrack to their film of the same name.

The album produced three #1 singles, including the title track, “Yesterday” and “Ticket to Ride.”

Help! was a critical success, and hit #1 on the Billboard Albums chart, spending nine weeks in the top spot. It was also nominated for album of the year at the Grammys, marking The Beatles’ first Grammy nomination in that category.

Help! was the second film to star The Beatles, following 1964’s A Hard Days Night. It had the band trying to protect drummer Ringo Starr, who’s the target of a sinister cult and mad scientists trying to obtain a sacrificial ring he received as a gift from a fan.

Source: everettpost.com

John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s friend and confidant Elliot Mintz was the guest on the latest episode of Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan’s interview podcast The Magnificent Others. Mintz, who was Lennon and Ono’s publicist during their years living at the Dakota building in Manhattan, recently published a memoir about his experiences with the legendary couple titled We All Shine On: John, Yoko, and Me.

During his conversation with Corgan, Mintz discussed being a witness to what he believes was the final time Lennon and fellow Beatles legend Paul McCartney ever spent time together.

According to Mintz, the get-together happened around Christmas time in 1978. He told Corgan that John and Yoko had invited him over to the Dakota, and while he was sitting in their living room, some other guests arrived at the building.

As Mintz recalled, “[T]here’s a knock on the door … and [John] opens it, and Paul and Linda McCartney walk in, and they greet each other.”

Elliot noted that this was the first time he’d ever met McCartney. Continuing his story, Mintz said. “And [Paul and Linda] come in, and John just said, ‘This is our friend Elliot.’ And I said, ‘Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, Linda.’ And we sat and we talked for a while. … How should I say it? It wasn’t overly jubilant. It wasn’t icy. It was just correct.”
The Couples and Mintz Then Went Out for Dinner

Mintz recalled that it was then decided that the group would get dinner at the Manhattan restaurant Elaine’s. As Elliot noted, Elaine’s was a popular dining spot for celebrities, although its food was notoriously mediocre.

He remembered that no one was particularly thrilled at the menu choices, so Linda suggested that they order a pizza from a nearby pizza place she liked and have it delivered to Elaine’s. Mintz was tasked with getting the pizza to the restaurant.

Source: americansongwriter.com/Matt Friedlander

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Even During Their Feud, Paul McCartney and John Lennon Still Defended Each Other

When the other three Beatles signed with Klein, Paul McCartney was forced to take drastic measures that would affect their relationship forever. In an effort to dissolve the band's partnership so he wouldn't be tied to Klein, the bassist took his former bandmates to court. McCartney, to this day, acknowledges that his decision was a big part of what led to the feud, but at the same time, it was inevitable.

After Lennon left England, he and McCartney stopped seeing each other for a while, but they were certainly still thinking and talking about each other. More importantly, even though their songwriting partnership had effectively ended with The Beatles (except for "Give Peace a Chance," but that's a different story), they were still influencing each other's writing. They were both writing songs about each other, mostly to attack each other, and that, apparently, made people think that they could get on their good side by badmouthing the other to them. But according to Alice Cooper, who was friendly with Lennon in the '70s, they quickly learned that wasn't the way to go.

"When they were after each other’s throats, when it came to the breakup and all that stuff, if anybody in the Vampires back in those days – that was our drinking club – if anybody said anything bad about Paul, John would take a swing at you, because that was his best friend," Cooper explained.

"You are not allowed to talk about their best friends. They were best friends no matter what was going on in the whole thing."

The same thing, it seems, happened with George Harrison. The Quiet Beatle wasn't as angry with McCartney as Lennon was, but they still had a strained relationship at the time. In fact, Harrison played guitar on Lennon's diss track, "How Do You Sleep?" But he wouldn't stand for anyone insulting his childhood friend, even when he was actively bashing him. Jim Keltner, a session drummer who worked with both Lennon and Harrison in the early '70s, explained that, while they worked together, the two of them would make "really brutal" comments about their former bandmate.

Source: collider.com/Val Barone

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Paul McCartney is set to hit the road again this year. The Walton-born Beatles icon, 83, revealed last month that his Got Back tour will kick off again in September as he makes his way across North America. ‌

The tour will launch on September 29 in Palm Desert, California, making stops in cities like Las Vegas, Denver, Tulsa, San Antonio, New Orleans, Atlanta, and Montreal before wrapping up in Chicago in November. Paul's latest live performance was at Anfield on June 7 when he joined Bruce Springsteen on stage at Liverpool FC's home ground. ‌

He also performed intimate shows at the Bowery Ballroom in New York in February, which were revealed at the last minute and had fans rushing to the venue for tickets. The previous leg of Paul's ongoing Got Back tour wrapped up in December, after concerts in Manchester and London brought the European run to a close.

The final evening in the capital saw him reunite with fellow Beatle Ringo Starr on stage, as the duo performed 'Helter Skelter' and the reprise of 'Sgt Pepper' together.

Source: themirror.com/Connor McCrory, Dan Haygarth

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