The contribution to popular music made by both John Lennon and Paul McCartney can never be truly overstated. The partnership spawned some of the world’s most cherished songs and, later, it emboldened the pair to seek solo careers — but what was the final song the pair truly wrote alongside one another?
The ‘Lennon and McCartney’ branding was so ubiquitous on the back of The Beatles’ first records that you would expect the Fab Four to be a duo. While George Harrison and Ringo Starr’s own proficiency with a pen grew with time, for a short while all the songs were either Paul’s or John’s.
During the band’s frenzied early moments, attached to one another by the almighty touring schedule, Lennon and McCartney created songs side by side with prolific efficiency. They worked on melodies together, they exchanged lyrical ideas, they harmonised on vocals and either played piano or guitar for one another—but soon enough that naturally came to an end.
Lennon and McCartney were not just songwriters, they were performers too and, above all else, they were artists. It meant that naturally as they grew into their adult lives, the pair’s values and stylistic nuances began to diverge from one another. They were developing signature sounds.
After a time, and the removal of all touring, the majority of the moments Lennon and McCartney spent together was in the studio and, as everyone who has ever stepped foot into a studio will know, time in a recording booth is time spending money. This meant that the band were encouraged to bring songs to the studio fully-formed and increased the writing partners’ separation.
The final track that saw them share credit equally is suggested by Beatles Bible to be 1967’s ‘Baby You’re A Rich Man’. It’s a combination of two unfinished Lennon-McCartney songs, it was recorded in a single day and issued as the B-side to ‘All You Need Is Love‘. But, in fact, there was one more number that saw them share credit and also pave way for the future.
The truth is, however, that ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’, which appeared on the band’s Let It Be album, marked the final partnership John Lennon and Paul McCartney ever endured. The beauty of this song is that it is two original efforts, one from Paul and one from John, somehow dovetailed together.
Lennon’s ‘Everybody Had a Good Year’ is inserted into the middle of Paul’s ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’ and rings out across the airwaves as the final truly joyous moment the partnership ever shared. For proof, you only need to look back at the Let It Be documentary.
During recording sessions, with Lennon more interested in Yoko Ono, Macca being his domineering artistic self, Harrison and Starr trying to find their own sound, ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’ remains the few times that all four members of the group are smiling at once.
It was the final union of their incredible careers before the band decided to go their separate ways. It is the final bastion of Lennon and McCartney, the greatest songwriting partnership in pop music history.
