(Credits: Far Out / Jet Records / Paul McCartney)
Wed 1 April 2026 20:30, UK
Is there any such thing as a perfect song?
Die-hard fans of The Beatles would certainly argue the case, despite the fact that the iconic band themselves would disagree, squabbling over songs and insulting the writers of them in the process.
Because you might adore Paul McCartney’s timeless hit ‘Yesterday’ and understandably regard it as the perfect song, but your second idol, John Lennon, would wholly disagree, calling it nonsensical.
Ultimately, that is the point. Avoiding the trap of harping on about music being a subjective medium and beauty being in the eye of the beholder, I would much rather focus on the fact that music’s messiness is a reflection of day-to-day life, which is never glossy, well-produced and spotless in its delivery. Neither should the music that seeks to engage with it.
That’s what made The Beatles so brilliant. Sure, their innovation was unprecedented, writing songs that pushed the barriers of what is accepted time and time again, but it was their ability to hide human cracks in the otherwise glossy product of genius. It’s what made so many of their copycats, simply copycats, for they could replicate all of the production techniques until they were blue in the face, but so long as it was missing the soul of their songwriting, then it never came close.
ELO’s Jeff Lynne, however, was someone who took The Beatles’ formula and made it his own… He blended rock with orchestral arrangements in a way that focused on a style of chord progressions made famous by the band, and so, when McCartney was looking for a producer for a retrospective Beatles project, it was clear that Lynne was the man.
After digging out Lennon’s 1977 demo ‘Free As A Bird’, McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr got the band back together in a bid to make a retrospective hit. But rather than fill Lennon’s shoes and make the band a four-piece again, The Beatles recruited Lynne as a producer. Knowing how intricate a task it would be for Lynne to mix Lennon’s original vocals with a new recording, The Beatles put faith in a man whose style was built on the back of The Beatles’ early details.
McCartney said, “Jeff is precise, that’s one of the things I love about him, you know, his stuff just rolls out there’s not a thing wrong, you know, you listen to it so, and then you stop listening to it so precisely, and it just rolls over you.”
Naturally, the project was a source of pride for Lynne, who named this song as his career highlight, and for a brief moment, he was more than just a Beatles fan put in the driving seat of his favourite band of all time, but an important collaborator whose ideas and execution put him on a level playing field with these otherwise untouchable icons.
Lynne recalled, “I just had to improvise and come up with a few things to make it work, I did it late at night, 3am in the studio, just me and the engineer, because I didn’t want to do it in front of Paul and George.”
Concluding, “But I came in the next day, and Paul gave me a hug, and he said, ‘You’ve done it, well done!’”
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