In the years after The Beatles split, John Lennon insulted some of Paul McCartney’s work. He took shots at him through song and criticized him in interviews. Still, he had begrudging respect for one of McCartney’s most famous songs. It reportedly frustrated him that he didn’t write it himself.

Paul McCartney said John Lennon wished he had written ‘Yesterday’

In 1965, McCartney wrote “Yesterday,” a song he says came to him in a dream. It’s one of The Beatles’ most celebrated tracks and has been covered endlessly by other artists. According to McCartney, his bandmate liked the song so much that it irritated him.

“The worst thing for John,” McCartney said (per Cosmic Magazine), “was that he didn’t write ‘Yesterday.’”

McCartney said Lennon got visibly frustrated when he heard the song.

“I did,” McCartney said, “and he would get really quite biffed because you would be in New York and the pianist would go and hum the song. That would annoy him.”

McCartney wasn’t the only one to notice Lennon’s jealousy. His friend said he couldn’t stand it when people attributed the song to him.

“‘Yesterday’ drove him crazy,” friend Howard Smith told MOJO Magazine. “People would say, ‘Thank you for writing ‘Yesterday,’ I got married to it, what a beautiful song…’ He was always civil. But it drove him nuts.”

John Lennon told Paul McCartney the only good thing he did was ‘Yesterday’

In 1971, amid the fallout of The Beatles’ breakup, Lennon released the song “How Do You Sleep?” The song is a blistering attack on McCartney, a nuclear response to the song “Too Many People.” Even amid the attacks on McCartney, though, Lennon couldn’t bring himself to criticize “Yesterday.”

“The only thing you done was yesterday / And since you’ve gone you’re just another day,” Lennon sings.

Adding insult to injury, George Harrison played guitar on the song. He said he was glad he wasn’t the target of Lennon’s ire.

“I enjoyed ‘How Do You Sleep?’” he said in a 1987 interview with Musician Magazine. “I liked being on that side of it with Paul [chuckles] rather than on the receiving end.”

He shared his favorite songs by his bandmate

When asked about his favorite songs by his former bandmate, McCartney had three in mind: “Imagine,” “Instant Karma,” and “Beautiful Boy.”

“Obviously, ‘Imagine,’” he told BBC Radio (per Far Out Magazine). “‘Instant Karma’ is great, and the nice thing was, when I listen to the records, I can imagine him in the studio and go, ‘Oh ok, I know what he’s done. He’s just said to the engineer, ‘Gimme some Elvis echo. Bog echo.’”

He said that “Beautiful Boy,” a song Lennon wrote about his son Sean, is among his favorite songs of all time.

“I’m often asked for my favorite tunes kind of thing, and I always include ‘Beautiful Boy,’” he said. 

In 1984, McCartney also included “Beautiful Boy” on his desert island picks.

“I haven’t chosen any of my records, so to sum up the whole thing, I have chosen one of John Lennon’s from Double Fantasy, which I think is a beautiful song, very moving to me,” he said on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. “So, I’d like to sum the whole thing [up] by playing ‘Beautiful Boy.’”