Paul McCartney has often said he could never pick his favorite song because it would be like choosing his favorite child.
But every so often he'll name one or two and this time it's his 1966 Beatles' song, "Here, There and Everywhere," explaining on his podcast, McCartney: A Life in Lyrics, that the late dancer, singer and actor Fred Astaire helped inspire it.
"I was a big fan of Fred Astaire, I still am, and unlike the studio executives, who thought he could dance a little, has no voice. I always loved his voice, I still do."
As for how the song came about, he says, "I would go out to [John Lennon's] house for a writing session, and he wasn't always up, so I would often have 20 minutes, half an hour while someone told him I was here, and he would get up.
"I remember sitting out by his swimming pool in his house in Weybridge, which is a golf suburb of London. I had my guitar because I was ready for the writing session. So we sat out and started something...it just went quite nice and smoothly. So by the time I came to write with John, by the time he deemed to get up and have his coffee, I would have something to go on."
But, he still wasn't convinced about the lyrics.
"Even when you get lyrics like this, the purpose of the lyric is to support the song rather than be a lyric. It's quite liberating.
"You can just experiment as you go along. So things slip out like they would in a session with a psychiatrist…Basically, I always say when I'm writing a song, I'm following a trail of breadcrumbs. Someone's thrown out these breadcrumbs, and I see the first few, and you just go along, and I feel like I'm following the song rather than writing it."
"Here, There and Everywhere" is on The Beatles' seventh album, Revolver.
Paul McCartney's 'A Life in Lyrics' Podcast is heard Sunday mornings at 7am on Lonestar 92.5.
In other McCartney news, a wooden sculpture of him by artist Wilfrid Wood has been deemed "too unflattering" for an auction to raise money for War Child.
So Wood is auctioning it off himself with the proceeds going to the charity.
The full story is here courtesy of his official Instagram page.