Why Paul McCartney Called This Wings Song a ‘Joke’

After leaving The Beatles, Paul McCartney had more freedom to do whatever he wanted musically. His solo career and time with Wings are filled with oddball songs that showed McCartney’s willingness to think outside the box and experiment with new sounds. One song from Wings was an intriguing choice for the singer-songwriter, and he labeled it as a “joke,” even though he enjoyed the track. 

Paul McCartney ended Wings’ ‘Venus and Mars’ with a soap opera theme song cover

Venus and Mars is the fourth studio album released by Paul McCartney and Wings. The album had massive expectations, following up on the critically acclaimed and commercially successful Band on the Run. While it didn’t receive the same acclaim, it still reached No. 1 on the charts and featured the No. 1 single “Listen to What the Man Said”.

The album ends with an odd duo. The second to last track is “Treat Her Gently/Lonely Old People,” which is a track from the perspective of two lonely old people who are sitting at home alone as the day goes by. The last track is “Crossroads,” a cover of the theme song of British soap opera. The soap opera lasted from 1964 to 1988 and was a popular series amongst older viewers. The theme was composed by Tony Hatch and was widely recognizable to British audiences. 

McCartney called ‘Crossroads’ a ‘joke’

In a 1975 interview with New Musical Express, McCartney was asked why he included a cover of “Crossroads” on Venus and Mars. The former Beatle said it was a “joke,” saying he wanted to follow up “Lonely Old People” with something they could have been listening to. Since they often watched soap operas, he thought it’d make sense to include the Crossroads theme. 

“It’s a joke. It’s after ‘Lonely Old People’, you see, they’re kind of sitting there in the park saying ‘Nobody asked me to play?’ It’s a kind of poignant moment, and then there’s a little break and then ‘Crossroads’ starts up, and that’s very… it’s lonely old people, y’know, it’s kind of just the kind of thing that lonely old people watch. It could just as easily have been ‘Coronation Street’, but we knew the chords to ‘Crossroads’. No, I just thought that it would be just nice to do it.”

McCartney said it became less of a joke as people enjoyed it

While it’s a bizarre way to end an album, Paul McCartney and Wings did an excellent job covering “Crossroads.” They made it seem edgier with a rock n’ roll sound, and the guitar-playing from Joe English is impressive. McCartney developed an appreciation for it years later, as audiences who had never heard of Crossroads still enjoyed the song. 

“The thing is that for people who haven’t heard it and don’t know the whole ‘Crossroads’ thing, like Americans, like a fellow who was helping me arrange this stuff, he just thought it was just a lovely tune,” McCartney shared. “He thought I’d written it. He just thought it was a beautiful little tune, and it is. I quite like it as tune, y’know, the ‘Crossroads’ thing. It fitted. Originally it was just a joke, but as it recorded, it ended up as less of a joke.”