Paul McCartney’s film music works best when a clear, memorable melody has room to carry a sequence. We value his gift for the title song, while keeping the arrangers’ contribution firmly in view.
Fi1m perspective
When Yellow Submarine (1968) gets to a song, George Dunning’s cartoon voyage to Pepperland finds its purpose. We enjoyed the song sequences more than the stretches between them, because the music gives the animation something better to do than accompany another pun. The four credited writers make the waiting feel longer than it should. Every song sequence is worth staying for, but the film still requires patience. That is a useful place to begin with McCartney: his music can be the reason to watch a film without making the whole thing work.
The title song was primarily McCartney’s, and its playful directness is characteristic of his writing for the screen. His melodies are clear enough to follow quickly and adaptable enough to work in pop or orchestral arrangements. In Yellow Submarine, that accessibility helps us stay with a film whose dialogue can test our goodwill. This is Beatles music, though, and the success of the whole soundtrack should not be credited to one member of the band.
His first independent film composition, The Family Way (1966), makes the division of labour clearer. McCartney supplied melodic themes; George Martin arranged them into an orchestral score, and the brass-inflected writing suits a composer whose tunes do not depend on a single instrumental sound. Martin’s contribution deserves to be heard as work, rather than treated as a technical footnote. With Wings on Live and Let Die (1973), McCartney moved into the rock title song, where his gift for a tune has the force the occasion needs. Spies Like Us (1985) continued that emphasis on a song written for the film rather than a full score.
Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984), which McCartney wrote and performed in, offers a less encouraging example: the soundtrack was better received than the film. It is a useful warning against assuming that the ability to write songs will extend to the scenes around them. Start with Yellow Submarine, and be prepared to wait through some stubborn wordplay for the next song.
Biography
Paul McCartney is an English musician and actor. He is credited as Paul (uncredited) in the 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine, on which he also worked as a musician.
His other screen credits include the role of Paul in A Hard Day's Night (1964). He has made voice appearances as himself in episodes of The Simpsons (1989) and BoJack Horseman (2014), and appeared in 30 Rock (2006). McCartney was born in Liverpool, England, in 1942.
