(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Sun 16 November 2025 18:30, UK
In the grand history of rock and roll, John Lennon and Paul McCartney were probably the closest thing to blood brothers in the industry.
While there were countless bands that had legitimate siblings in a band together like Oasis or even The Kinks, no other duo seemed to have the same synergy as ‘The Nerk Twins’ when they began making The Beatles’ masterpieces. They couldn’t certainly take the piss out of each other every single time they were asked about their songs, but it was always rooted in a deep respect for their respective partner as a writer.
Because even though Macca might have objected to a song like ‘Revolution 9’ being on a Beatles album, it’s not because he couldn’t see the power behind it. Lennon had created a soundtrack of chaos that no one would soon forget, but that also might not have had its place on a Beatles album compared to the more tuneful tracks on The White Album like ‘Dear Prudence’ or ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun’.
‘The Cute One’ could be diplomatic, but Lennon was a much different animal. He didn’t take shit from anyone, much less someone in his own band, and if he felt that a song was crap, he had no problem saying it. In fact, half of the interviews Lennon did after The Beatles made him sound like he had an axe to grind with all of Macca’s songs, which he would often dismiss as ‘granny shit’ or silly love songs.
Even if there were the few collaborations that got Lennon’s seal of approval like ‘A Day in the Life’ and ‘We Can Work It Out’, he did have a special place in his heart for the song ‘Here There and Everywhere’, saying that the track was “Paul’s song completely, I believe. And one of my favourite songs of The Beatles.” And coming from Lennon, that wasn’t simple lip service to his mate, either.
A lot of what they had been working on before was starting to be looked at as teenybopper stuff, and while this was still a love song, it was much more sophisticated than before. McCartney had already adopted the constantly-shifting key changes from Brian Wilson’s productions, but given how sweet the melody is, the whole tune almost feels like something you would hear from the days of classic pop songs from the likes of Frank Sinatra.
And judging by how naturally the lyrics fell into place, McCartney agreed that the tune was among the best that he had come up with, saying, “Now when I sing it, I look back at it and think, ‘The boy’s not bad.’ In fact, if pushed, I would say that ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ is my own favourite of all my songs.” But part of why the production is so great is because of how sparse it is.
There are a lot of moving parts like the soaring harmonies in the background, but they are fairly simple arrangements. All they need to do is glide across the song to give everything that little pulse throughout the tune, and that subtle guitar line in the bridge is that little attention to detail that proves why the band were thinking of everything that would make their songs absolutely perfect.
So while ‘Here There and Everywhere’ fits pretty snugly right in between the rest of the band’s psychedelic period, the kind of songwriting that McCartney was working with here could have worked in nearly any time period. Because when you land on a melody that’s this perfect, there’s no way that any trend can manage to get in the way.
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