McCartney Times

The extensive back-catalogue of The Beatles is the envy of any musician worth their salt. Such is their massive list of impressive records most artists would be happy with just one of their famed LPs. Here, Sir Paul McCartney, arguably the band’s dynamic musical leader, selects his favourite The Beatles LP of all time.

McCartney remains to this day a very active advocate for the work he did with The Beatles. And rightly, so. The singer has become synonymous with pop music through his craft and having written some of the world’s most beloved songs it’s a fair assessment that he always will be. A career that spans nearly six decades is testament to that.

In this revealing 1991 interview, McCartney suggests that he had a love for all the albums he, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr made together. But he did confess that his favourite was the iconic concept album from 1967 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The singer revealed it was the concept behind the record that he feels was really engaging. He said, “I’d pick Sgt. Pepper’s, meself, because I had a lot to do with it.”

He confirmed similarly in an interview from 1990 where he said: “If records had a director within a band, I sort of directed Pepper.” The positive tone of the record affirmed in songs like ‘Getting Better’ and ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’, are all down to McCartney and his leadership.

Although Macca is joking, it’s a sentiment that John Lennon reiterated when selecting his own favourite (The White Album) for a 1971 interview, “[Paul] wanted it to be more a group thing, which really means more Paul. So he never liked that album.” Lennon said, “I always preferred it to all the other albums, including Pepper, because I thought the music was better. The Pepper myth is bigger, but the music on the White Album is far superior, I think.”

Back to the below clip and as the smirking Macca laughs off the idea of egotism, he says, “It wasn’t entirely my idea. But to get us away from being ‘The Beatles’ I had this idea that we should pretend we’re this other group”. He reiterates that he’d prefer not to choose just one but “I’d choose that if I had to.”

It’s an album that even for Paul McCartney with so many LPs under his belt remains a mark of pride “It stands up,” Paul says. “It’s still a very crazy album. It still sounds crazy even now, after all these years. You would think it would have dated … but I don’t think it does.”

It’s hard to argue with such a selection. An album built on a solid concept, furnished with some of the band’s most experimental and eclectic work, all led by the pop sensibilities of Paul McCartney – it’s a masterpiece.

Watch Paul McCartney confirms his favourite The Beatles album of all time below.

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