Pete Townshend and Paul McCartney had something of a rivalry in the 1960s. The two were co-leaders of their bands, The Who and The Beatles. While The Who didn’t have to compete with The Beatles after 1970, the band still had a rival in Paul McCartney, who formed his second band, Wings. So, it might not have thrilled Townshend when his daughter asked him for a copy of one song by McCartney.
Pete Townshend’s daughter wanted a copy of Paul McCartney’s ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’
In 1972, Paul McCartney and Wings released “Mary Had a Little Lamb” as a non-album single. It is based on the children’s nursery rhyme of the same name. It was a minor hit, reaching No. 9 on the U.K. charts and No. 28 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. However, it flopped with critics, with many believing it was an example of McCartney selling out.
In a 1972 interview with Sounds Magazine, McCartney admitted he wasn’t a huge fan of the song himself, but kids loved it. He even got a request from Pete Townshend, who wanted a copy for his daughter.
“The great thing about ‘Mary Had A Little Lamb’ for me – I was never wild about it personally – was that when we took it on tour, it was the song that got the audience singing along on the ‘Ia la’s’. That was fantastic because it saved the number for me,” McCartney explained. “And kids love it. Pete Townshend’s daughter had to have a copy. I’d never realized there was a four-year-old audience. Whilst toymakers have got that wen sussed around Christmas, no one outside the business, short of the Osmonds and the Jacksons, cater for it.”
McCartney wrote the song for his daughter, Mary
Pete Townshend’s daughter was around three years old, so it makes sense that Paul McCartney’s song would have appealed to her. Like The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine”, McCartney wrote “Mary Had a Little Lamb” for kids. In the novel The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Break-Up 1970-2001, McCartney said he wrote it for his daughter, Mary.
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“‘Mary’ is just a kids’ song,” McCartney said. “‘Mary Had A Little Lamb’ – that was just a kids’ song. It was written for one of our kids, whose name is Mary and I just realized if I sang that, she’d understand. That’s it with us, that’s what you might expect from us – just anything.”
Townshend has changed his mind on The Beatles
Everyone was obsessed with Paul McCartney and The Beatles during the 1960s, but Pete Townshend wasn’t sold. In an early interview shared by Far Out, Townshend discussed The Beatles and called them “flipping lousy.”
“Actually, this afternoon, John [Entwistle] and I were listening to a stereo LP of The Beatles — in which the voices come out of the one side, and the backing track comes out of the other,” Townshend said. “When you actually hear the backing tracks of The Beatles without their voices, they’re flippin’ lousy.”
However, in a 2019 interview with Rolling Stone, he admitted he grew to love them. He still threw a slight jab at them by saying they were more “pop” than he would have liked.
“I wasn’t crazy impressed with the Beatles when I first heard them,” Townshend admitted. “But I loved them. I did love them. They were joyful, they were funny. They were more a pop group than I would have liked [but] they had this incredible image. They were delightful, absolutely delightful.”
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