Paul’s Four Exquisite Piano Ballads

You know and love all of them!

Paul McCartney is not a great piano player, and he would be the first to admit it. He cannot hold a candle to Elton John or Billy Joel, not to mention any classical pianist. But he plays well enough to use the piano as a composing tool, and to accompany his beautiful, versatile voice in great songs.

Paul’s piano is an delightful component of such Beatles’ tunes as Lady Madonna, Honey Pie, and Why Don’t We Do It In The Road. But where it really shines is in these four incredible, timeless ballads.

Here they are, in reverse chronological order by release date.

John Lennon’s piano skills were even worse than Paul’s, but they also served, as in Hey Bulldog. I’ll bet he used both hands to play the opening figure!

Baby I’m Amazed

The only one of the four songs that is NOT a Beatles song is this charming ballad from Paul’s first, eponymous solo album, which is often referred to as The Cherries Album. Baby I’m Amazed features an unforgettable chromatic run as a hook, and a very tasty guitar solo, also by Paul. (Paul plays all the instruments on his three eponymous albums.)

Let It Be

Let It Be is both the title of last album released by The Beatles as well as the title of this beautiful ballad. While it is very hymn-like, especially with the gorgeous church-sounding organ, Paul says that “Mother Mary” actually refers to his mother, who was named Mary. However, Paul (and John) loved to play with words and their multiple meanings.

Let It Be was intended to be a TV special, but that idea didn’t pan out and instead became the 1970 movie Let It Be. A few years ago, the films of the recording sessions were also the subject of an 8-hour, 3-episode documentary produced and directed by Peter Jackson for the Disney+ streaming service and titled The Beatles: Get Back. With all this video production, Let It Be wound up being the last original studio album released by The Beatles. But the Abbey Road album recording sessions actually happened after the Let It Be sessions, so Abbey Road was really The Beatle’s swan song.

The Long and Winding Road

Paul recorded this enchanting song as a piano ballad for Abbey Road. Then it was given to super producer Phil Spector (long before his murder conviction) to tart up with his trademark Wall of Sound orchestration. Paul hated what Phil did to it. I didn’t like it myself, as a young person. But now I do like it — I don’t know if that is because I am an old person now, or just because the Wall of Sound version has been in my brain for 50 years.

The Let It Be documentary gave us a little taste of what this song sounds like without the Wall of Sound. I’ve dug up such a version for you here.

Hey, Jude

I put this list in reverse chronological order so that we can finish up with the iconic ballad Hey, Jude. Sing the nah-nah’s along with me, won’t you?

(Did you ever notice that Paul is a master at shouting stuff in the background, especially during outros? Anything from whoops to a snatch of She Loves You Yeah Yeah Yeah!)

I used ChatGPT to get synonyms for beautiful, so I wouldn’t say beautiful like 100 times.