Paul McCartney and John Lennon were songwriting equals in The Beatles, but the bassist still looked up to his bandmate. He craved compliments that rarely came. Macca praised John by calling him the Elvis of the Beatles, but he typically drew the line at mimicking his friend. Still, Paul copied John in one of the last songs he made as a member of the Fab Four.
Paul McCartney copied John Lennon’s vocal approach on ‘Oh! Darling’
The Beatles stood on their last legs when they recorded Abbey Road in 1969. The contentious recording sessions that produced the Let It Be album and infighting over who would be their next manager all but drove the band apart. Abbey Road was the last thing the band did as a foursome.
Paul copied John on the song that channeled some of the energy and attitude The Beatles had earlier in the decade with “Oh! Darling.”
The song was a spiritual cousin of the pleading, 1950s-style love songs the Fab Four made in their early days. Paul’s singing takes his vocal cords to their breaking point. John did the same on “Twist and Shout” from The Beatles’ 1963 debut, Please Please Me. His impassioned vocals shredded his voice and left him ashamed of his effort on the song, but it was a highlight on the album.
John pushed Paul to let him sing lead on “Oh! Darling” since it suited his singing style, according to Paul McCartney: A Life author Peter Ames Carlin. Paul rejected those advances and made several attempts to record his lead vocal track alone early in the morning before his bandmates arrived at the studio.
He finally nailed it in late July 1969. Paul, John, and George Harrison recorded the background vocal harmonies in early August at John’s final recording session with The Beatles. He announced his plans to leave the band in September 1969, which essentially ended the group.
“Oh! Darling” saw Paul’s attempt to copy John succeed with flying colors. (Macca also did it earlier in The Beatles’ career on the standout non-album song “I’m Down”). He pushed his voice to the breaking part on “Oh! Darling.” He sings “When you told me / You didn’t need me anymore / Well you know I nearly broke down and died” with a full-throated howl. Then he immediately pulled back to sing the last portion of “died” in the gentler tone Beatles fans expected (at least the first time in song). Paul’s singing borrowed a page from John, but Macca successfully mixed searing and passionate vocals with his signature tone.
Did John like Paul’s singing on ‘Oh! Darling”?
John wanted to sing “Oh! Darling” since he felt it suited him better. In The Beatles’ better days, Paul might have let him. Instead, he handled the vocals and successfully copied John’s style from “Twist and Shout” and “Yer Blues.”
Read Related Also: Ranking the 7 Shortest Beatles Songs
Paul finally received one of John’s hard-to-get compliments, albeit years later and of the backhanded variety.
“‘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 – it was more my style than his. He wrote it, so what the hell, he’s going to sing it,” John told All We Are Saying author David Sheff during his last interview in 1980. “If he’d had any sense, he should have let me sing it.”
A decade removed from The Beatles, and John still found it hard to praise Paul. But he at least acknowledged it was a great composition even if he could never get past the fact he didn’t sing the tortured love song.
How did ‘Abbey Road’ perform on the charts?
The band was nearly lost in a landslide of artistic differences and bickering, but The Beatles produced another gem when they recorded Abbey Road.
The album debuted at No. 1 on the charts in England, per the Official Charts Company. It held the top spot for 11 straight weeks, dipped to No. 2, then went back to No. 1 for another six weeks.
Abbey Road started its Billboard chart climb at No. 178 in mid-October 1969. It quickly became one of The Beatles’ most successful records in the United States. It rose to No. 1 by Nov. 1, held the top spot for 11 weeks, and spent an astounding 489 weeks — nearly nine and a half years — among the top 200 albums.
Abbey Road was The Beatles’ final album as a functioning foursome, and one of their most successful records. Millions of avid music fans have heard how Paul McCartney copied John Lennon’s singing in one of his last acts as a Beatle.
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