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In The Beatles, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr had different monikers. In more recent years, McCartney has said that he resented the label he received. He once said that he didn’t mind leaning into stereotypes while in the film A Hard Day’s Night, though. There, he was just playing a character, but in real life, he felt that he had to do and be more than his bandmates. 

A black and white picture of Paul McCartney wearing a suit and sitting in a chair.
Paul McCartney | Fiona Adams/Redferns

Each of the Beatles had different public images

The hoards of Beatles fans gave each of the musicians a moniker. McCartney became the Cute Beatle, Lennon was the Smart Beatle, Harrison was the Quiet Beatle, and Starr was the Funny Beatle. McCartney once spoke about how much he disliked that label. 

“I hated that,” McCartney said on The Howard Stern Show. “That’s what happens — just, ‘He’s the cute one.’ I’d go, ‘No, I’m not! Don’t call me that. I hate that! But once it’s said, it kind of sticks.”

McCartney wanted to be known for his music, not his looks. 

“They had to just say, ‘He’s the cute one; he’s the quiet one [George Harrison]; he’s the witty one [John Lennon]; and he’s the drummer [Ringo Starr],” he said. “I just can’t help being cute, Howard.”

Paul McCartney said he had to be a bit ‘more’ than the other members of The Beatles

McCartney said that he didn’t necessarily mind the stereotypical portrayal of himself in A Hard Day’s Night because it was a film.

“No, I didn’t mind it. No, no; I still don’t,” he told Rolling Stone in 1974. “I was in a film. I don’t care what they picture me as. So far as I’m concerned I’m just doing a job in a film. If the film calls for me to be a cheerful chap, well, great; I’ll be a cheerful chap.”

He said that outside of films, though, he had to play a greater role than his bandmates. 

“It does seem to have fallen in my role to be kind of a bit more that than others. I was always known in the Beatle thing as being the one who would kind of sit the press down and say, ‘Hello, how are you? Do you want a drink?’ and make them comfortable,” he said. “I guess that’s me. My family loop was like that. So I kind of used to do that, plus a little more polished than I might normally have done, but you’re aware you’re talking to the press … You want a good article, don’t you, so you don’t want to go sluggin’ the guys off.”

Paul McCartney had a hard time getting over The Beatles’ break up

After The Beatles broke up, McCartney struggled to find a sense of direction. He isolated himself and drank heavily as a way to cope. His daughter, Stella McCartney, said she spent much of her childhood watching her father recover from the split. 

“It did occur to me, watching [The Beatles: Get Back], that we spent a lot of our childhood with Dad recovering from the turmoil and the breakup,” she told The New Yorker. “Can you imagine being such a critical part of that creation and then having it crumble? And, as children, we were part of a process in which our dad was mourning. It was not an easy thing for Dad, and it lasted for a lot longer than we probably knew.”

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