![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Paul-McCartney-Chuck-Berry-Split-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
(Credits: Far Out \/ Paul McCartney \/ V. K. Hietanen \/
\nFinnish Heritage Agency)<\/p>\n
Wed 1 April 2026 3:00, UK <\/p>\n
It almost seems clich\u00e9 for anyone to start claiming that Paul McCartney<\/a> wasn\u2019t as good as he\u2019s made out to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n Every one of the Beatles\u2019 naysayers might have a point about them not being gods, but since they were never out to make the greatest music on Earth, it\u2019s easy to enjoy their songs as some of the most forward-thinking pop music in the world, while every now and again getting a whimsical ditty from McCartney. But while many people claim that Macca has had many different peaks and valleys throughout his career, he felt that there were some musicians he loved that weren\u2019t exactly perfect, either.<\/p>\n Then again, there\u2019s hardly any chance that McCartney overtly spent time dragging his heroes through the mud. He was the eternal optimist of the group, and even if John Lennon talked about how Elvis Presley became a joke at the end of his career, that didn\u2019t dull McCartney\u2019s enjoyment of going back<\/a> to songs like \u2018Hound Dog\u2019 and \u2018Heartbreak Hotel\u2019 and reminiscing on when he was first discovering rock and roll.<\/p>\n And you\u2019d be hard-pressed to find a time when Macca wasn\u2019t more than happy to talk about the thrill he had of listening to bands like The Everly Brothers for the first time or hearing the harmonies on those early Buddy Holly records. That\u2019s what started him off, but even if he had come a long way from that kind of sound, it didn\u2019t take long for people to think that he had gone too soft on them.<\/p>\n I mean, when you\u2019ve started making songs like \u2018Mary Had a Little Lamb\u2019, it\u2019s not like you\u2019re trying to compete with bands like The Who, but that\u2019s not what McCartney was going for. All of his greatest inspirations had certain periods of their careers, and you wouldn\u2019t necessarily show someone \u2018Helter Skelter\u2019 and claim that it\u2019s by one of the most sentimental songwriters of their generation.<\/p>\n You have to remember that McCartney was much more diverse than everyone thought he was, and he wasn\u2019t going to roll over when someone claimed that he wasn\u2019t as good as he was made out to be because of his silly songs. He knew that his hardcore fans would let him have his fun, and when looking at the ridicule that came his way, he couldn\u2019t help but remember back when Chuck Berry was going through the exact same thing.<\/p>\n While McCartney could appreciate the father of rock and roll in all of his forms, he remembered that one of his critics got it all wrong when talking about the song \u2018My Ding a Ling\u2019, saying<\/a>, \u201cI remember a critic saying, \u2018The first time I heard Chuck Berry was \u2018My Ding a Ling\u2019,\u2019 I said \u2018Oh terrific and you\u2019re a critic.\u2019 I mean Chuck did a lot of work before [that]. As far as I\u2019m concerned, that was the end of his career, but they\u2019ve got an opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n And, really, holding Berry to the same standards that he was used to with this song just doesn\u2019t seem right. The whole thing was clearly a novelty song, and if we were using that logic surrounding every other tune in his catalogue, it would be like trying to convince someone that The Beatles were nothing but straight crap and only using \u2018Wild Honey Pie\u2019 as a piece of musical evidence.<\/p>\n In this case, you need to see the full picture, but if you look at what MCCartney was saying, it\u2019s not hard to see why \u2018My Ding A Ling\u2019 was one of the low lights of Berry\u2019s career. No rock and roll band was destined to last for very long at that point, and while The Beatles were the exception to the rule back then, there was no reason to think that anyone was going to get any smarter listening to this tune. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/wp-content\/themes\/far-out-magazine\/img\/google-discover.svg\")
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