(Credits: Far Out / Raph_PH)
Sat 7 March 2026 13:21, UK
There aren’t many missed opportunities in the world of Paul McCartney.
He is one of the most celebrated songwriters of all time, having seemingly completed everything there was to achieve in music before he reached his third decade on the planet, as the rest of The Beatles dominated the pop landscape and pushed their sound into new and expressive areas across the 1960s.
In 1970, The Beatles broke up amid growing tension, parting the invincible Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership for the first time since the pair’s eminence. John Lennon embarked on his more politically fuelled solo mission with the Plastic Ono band in tow, while Paul McCartney formed Wings with his wife, Linda. Throughout his post-Beatles years, McCartney’s career has been well-adorned with collaboration.
Most people would surely jump at the opportunity to hit the studio with a former Beatle, but the bewildering musician Thom Yorke isn’t “most people.” In 2012, McCartney revealed his long-lived fantasy of one day working with the genius Radiohead frontman, but with a side order of uncharacteristic reticence.
“[My daughter] keeps saying to me, ‘Ring Thom and just go into the studio and just see what you come out with,’” McCartney told NME in 2012. “I’m a bit sort of paranoid to just ring him up. ‘Hey Thom, it’s Paul here. What do you fancy, what are you doing? Do you fancy writing something?’ Just in case he says, ‘Er, actually, I’m busy’.”
(Credits: Far Out / Greg Williams)
Although the pair are mutual admirers, McCartney had reason to be bashful in his approach to the Radiohead frontman for a collaboration. It turns out McCartney had already asked Yorke to collaborate with him on his Memory Almost Full track, ‘Mr. Bellamy’, in 2006. Yorke duly turned the opportunity down, leaving the former Beatle unwilling to repeat the request.
Yorke was asked why he declined McCartney’s seemingly-attractive request in an interview with The Observer shortly after. “Uhh, ’cause I can’t play the piano,” he explained dismissively. “Not like that. I had to explain to him that I listened to the tune – ‘Mr Bellamy’ – and I really liked the song, but the piano playing involved two hands doing things separately. I don’t have that skill available. I said to him, ‘I strum piano, that’s it.’”
There are a lot of reasons as to why you might not want to work with a Beatle. Perhaps your allegiances were cemengted long aog and you’ve always been more of a Ringo guy. Perhaps the idea of even being in the same room as someone as iconic as McCartney is daunting enough that the thought of writing a song with them is paralysing beyond belief or, perhaps, you jsut don’t have the skill.
While there may be some truth to Yorke’s reasoning, McCartney also gave his version of events, offering that Yorke wasn’t a fan of collaborations. “My daughter was putting an album together, and she put us in touch,” McCartney told T4 in 2007. “I asked Thom to do a duet, but he said he couldn’t because he only felt happy working on his own and Radiohead’s material.”
Yorke has since embarked on a solo career packed with collaboration and side projects, including those with Flying Lotus, MF Doom, PJ Harvey and his supergroup Atoms For Peace. He even offered his voice to UNKLE’s ‘Rabbit in Your Headlights’ back in 1998, which invites a degree of doubt to McCartney’s explanation. Hence, it would appear Yorke was put off by the nature of the specific project as proposed.
Listen to Paul McCartney’s ‘Mr. Bellamy’ below.
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