It was the breakout hit for a music legendDan Haygarth Liverpool Daily Post Editor and Regeneration Reporter
11:59, 18 Oct 2025
Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in New York during the Beatles tour of the USA in February 1964(Image: Mirrorpix via Getty Images)
Alongside John Lennon, Paul McCartney wrote the vast majority of The Beatles’ music and enjoyed plenty of success in his solo career and with Wings. As such, he has a back catalogue of songs that would be the envy of any musician.
As a writer or co-writer, Paul has achieved 32 number one songs in the United States’ Billboard charts and In 1979 he was recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as the “most honoured composer and performer in music”. Between 1962 and 1978, he wrote 43 songs which achieved more than 1m sales.
Despite his success, Paul is not afraid to praise other writers and musicians. One which he has named among his favourites is ‘God Only Knows’ by The Beach Boys, written by the late Brian Wilson.
About the song, Paul told BBC Radio 1 in 2007: “‘God Only Knows’ is one of the few songs that reduces me to tears every time I hear it. It’s really just a love song, but it’s brilliantly done. It shows the genius of Brian. I’ve actually performed it with him and I’m afraid to say that during the sound check I broke down.”
Another song which the Beatles legend finds particularly moving is Billy Joel’s 1977 single ‘Just The Way You Are’. Written by the New York native as an ode to his wife, the song is one which Paul said he wishes he’d written.
In 1994 he said: “I don’t really want to have written anyone else’s songs, but, as a fantasy question, I love ‘Stardust’, by Hoagy Carmichael and Mitchell Parish. It’s a beautiful song.
“And I remember thinking that Billy Joel’s first hit, ‘Just The Way You Are’, was a nice song, I’d like to have written that one too.”
‘Just The Way You Are’ was Billy’s first hit in the UK and the US, reaching numbers 19 and three in the charts respectively. It also won two Grammy awards in 1979 and was widely praised by critics. Michael Gallucci from Ultimate Classic Rock said it was “one of the most perfectly constructed songs in Joel’s catalogue”
Paul’s appreciation for Billy’s work is very much reciprocated. It was watching Beatlemania sweep America as a teenager that made Billy realise that a working class musician like himself could make it.
Billy Joel performs during his Madison Square Garden residency(Image: Greg Allen/Invision/AP)
John, Paul, George and Ringo’s performance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 was a cultural watershed moment watched by more than 73m people, cementing The Beatles as a force in the States. Billy has said that performance changed his life, inspiring him to pursue music as a career.
Asked about The Beatles influence on him in an interview with 60 Minutes Australia in 2022, he said: “They were my idols and they did it. They wrote their own music, they wrote their arrangements, they played their own music, they sang their own music. It wasn’t synthetic – it wasn’t put together for Hollywood, it was their own work that did it.
“The Beatles didn’t look like Hollywood stars, The Beatles looked like working class guys – they had an attitude. I guess being from Liverpool – that’s a working class town.
“When we saw these guys on TV, we said ‘wait a minute, they don’t look like Fabian, they don’t look like Frankie Avalon, they don’t look like Elvis. They looked like regular guys, like people you would have hung out with – except their hair was longer.
“I picked up on that right away – I said ‘that’s possible, I could actually do that, coming from where I come from’.”
The Beatles have continued to play a big role in Billy’s career. He frequently plays the band’s songs live, notably a performance of ‘All My Loving’ at New York City’s Madison Square Garden earlier this year, marking the 60th anniversary of the Fab Four’s appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.
Paul has also joined Billy on stage. The two delivered a memorable performance of ‘Let it Be’ at Shea Stadium’s last ever concert in 2008.
At that gig, Paul spoke about The Beatles’ famous 1965 gig at the same stadium. He said: “It’s so cool to be back here on the last night. I came here a long time ago, we had a blast that night, and we’re having another one tonight.”