James Paul McCartney was brought up by a music-loving father. McCartney Snr was a brass band enthusiast, and from an early age he would immerse his son in music of all disciplines. Not just Big Band and Jazz, but Skiffle too. McCartney's upbringing left him with an innately jazz and soul-oriented musical mind, and this influence is clear in his writing from the start. The jazzy sixth harmony at the end of She Loves You ("yeah, yeah, yeah, yeahhhhhh!") is an early example, subtly making it's way into straightforward pop. Later, McCartney would be far more overt in displaying these influences, Got To Get You Into My Life, Drive My Car, The Word and She Came In Through The Bathroom Window all songs which could be mistaken for soul standards.
That, in short, is Paul. His wide range of influences gave him a musical versatility neither George or John could hope to match. Alone, he is a potent melodist, weaving a tune up and down in scalar intervals. However as a writer he was often prone to single-mindedness in his desire to write the song he envisaged, at the behest of the (sometimes valid) criticisms of others and of the dangers of cliché. Such unilateral songwriting often manifested itself in a desire to emulate his contemporaries and influences. This resulted in what Lennon called "Paul's granny music"; Honey Pie, Ob La Di Ob La Da and Maxwell's Silver Hammer. Your opinion of those songs will depend largely on your opinion of their genres, but they were never strictly Beatles numbers. A particularly cringeworthy example of McCartney taking this too far is You Gave Me The Answer, a song he recorded for Wings's album Venus And Mars.
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A brief summary of how to write in the song writing style of Sir Paul McCartney.
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