“Lennon/McCartney” is one of music’s greatest songwriting credits, a catchall that covered most of the Beatles’ tracks and was employed even when John Lennon and Paul McCartney didn’t collaborate on a certain song. However, although arranged alphabetically, the ensuing decades have favored Lennon’s placement in the songwriting credit, suggesting that Lennon had more to do with crafting the Beatles songs than McCartney. In a revealing new interview with Esquire, McCartney opens up about his frustrations regarding “Lennon/McCartney” as well as a nixed “McCartney/Lennon” credit. McCartney said, “We had a meeting with [Beatles manager] Brian Epstein. I arrived late. John and Brian had been talking. ‘We were thinking we ought to call the songs, Lennon and McCartney.’ I said, ‘That’s OK, but what about McCartney and Lennon? If I write it, what about that? It sounds good, too. They said, ‘OK, what we’ll do is we’ll alternate it: Lennon and McCartney, McCartney and Lennon.’ Well, that didn’t happen. And I didn’t mind.”
