Oh! Darling - Remastered 2009

Paul McCartney wrote this song. He came to the studio early every day for a week to sing it because his voice was too clear - he wanted it to sound strained, like he had been performing it all week. McCartney had deployed the retro shredded-voice form several times before, including on "I'm Down," "Long Tall Sally," and "Helter Skelter." Perhaps a bit of artistic rivalry was afoot here - hard rock vocals in The Beatles had been the domain of John Lennon, and Paul seemed almost to be pushing himself to compete.

Lennon resented that Paul didn't let him sing lead vocals. He felt it was more his style, but since McCartney wrote it, it was his decision. In a 1980 Playboy interview, Lennon even shot down McCartney's vocal efforts, specifically stating that he could have done it better.

The Beatles performed this in their movie Let It Be. While rehearsing the song for the film, John announced that Yoko's divorce with her former husband had finally gone through and he improvised a verse about that. This can be heard on The Beatles Anthology 3.