Paul McCartney’s Favorite John Lennon Song Was About a Woman They Both Loved

The songwriting partnership of Paul McCartney and John Lennon is one of the best in musical history, producing timeless and enduring rock and pop tracks that ranged from romantic to revolutionary to eccentric and plenty in between. Despite the personal and artistic differences that contributed to the Beatles’ eventual demise, the respect each musician had for one another was clear—as was their friendship that started in their childhood.

Thus, when Paul McCartney took the time to pinpoint his favorite song that his late friend and bandmate had ever written, it was unsurprising that he picked one with ties to their Liverpudlian roots all those decades ago. McCartney’s favorite Lennon song, he mused in a 2020 interview, was about a woman they both loved.

Paul McCartney’s Favorite John Lennon Song

Compared to Paul McCartney, John Lennon had few solo compositions and performances in the Beatles’ discography. “Julia” was an exception to the norm. The Fab Four included Lennon’s touching, whimsical solo track as the A-side closer to their 1968 eponymous release, also called the “White Album.” This one-off track has always been a favorite of McCartney’s.

“I love “Julia,” which is about the mom he couldn’t live with,” McCartney revealed during a 2020 interview on the Adam Buxton Podcast. “I love the poignancy of that because I’d been with him round to Julia’s house to visit her, and I knew how deeply he loved her. So, “Julia,” I would go with [as my favorite Lennon song].”

Speaking of the song in Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, the ex-Beatle wrote, “It’s very sad because he really did dote on his mum. Julia was the light of John’s life. He idolized her. She was a beautiful woman with long red hair; she was fun-loving and musical, too. She taught him banjo chords, and any woman in those days who played a banjo was a special, artistic person.”

“John and I were both in love with his mum,” McCartney continued. “It just knocked him for six when she died. I always thought it was bad enough my mother dying and what I had to go through, but that was an illness. So, there was some way you could understand it. But in John’s case, the horror of reliving that accident. Oh, my God! That always stayed with me.”

The Song Was Unusual For The Beatle In Many Ways

Paul McCartney’s favorite John Lennon song was unusual in several ways. For one, Lennon didn’t frequently open up about his estranged relationship with his mother. Lennon went to live with his aunt when he was young but started rekindling his relationship with his mother in his teens. Not long after, when Lennon was only 17, his mother died after an off-duty police officer hit her with his car. The event left Lennon bitter, angry, and emotionally closed off.

“Julia” was different. “John and I would go and visit her, and she’d be very nice, but when we left, there was always a tinge of sadness about John,” McCartney recalled in Many Years From Now. “Being John, he didn’t admit to it much unless it was a very quiet or drunken moment when he felt he could let his guard down.”

Later in the same book, McCartney praised “Julia” for Lennon’s notable guitar technique. “The interesting thing for me on “Julia” is the finger-picking style,” McCartney said. “It was a folk picking style, and he was the only one in the band who could ever do that properly. That was John’s song about his mum, folk finger-picking style, and a very good song.”

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