Why Ringo Starr called Paul McCartney ‘petty’ following songwriting credit controversy

The legendary Lennon-McCartney credit caused a split between Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

The Let It Be hitmaker had been trying to change the credit on a handful of songs, citing an issue with a cut-off on online devices listing songs by The Beatles as “John Lennon and…” rather than “Lennon-McCartney.” Veteran drummer Starr called McCartney’s actions “petty and silly,” and while the Wings frontman has cooled off on the credit controversy, people are still outraged. McCartney has made it clear it is not the credit he dislikes but the shorthand for it, which on streaming services and iPod devices will often cut his name off for the sake of screen space. He has since accepted it’s an unchangeable part of music history, with the credit applied to songs McCartney or Lennon wrote both as a team, and by themselves.

McCartney once said: “Lennon and McCartney is still the rock’n’roll trademark I’m proud to be a part of – in the order it has always been.” But a year before his statement, he caused controversy by flipping the credit on his live album, Back in the U.S., much to the annoyance of Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono. Even peace-loving Starr weighed in on the credit controversy, saying McCartney’s actions were “petty and silly.”

Ono would bring a threat of legal action to McCartney, who backed down and has accepted the credit is stuck for good. Speaking to The Guardian at the time, McCartney said: “It snowballed. People were phoning me up saying, ‘You’re doing yourself no favours with this, you know.’

“I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ ‘Well, you know, you want to knock John’s name out. He’s dead. It’s terrible: you’re walking on a dead man’s grave.’ I was like, ‘Get the fuck out of here.'”

Part of McCartney’s problem is believed to stem from Ono’s refusal to list Yesterday under a different credit to the Lennon-McCartney partnership in the Anthology book. Several songs written independently are still credited to the tag, which caused trouble for both Lennon and McCartney after The Beatles split up.

Songs like Help!, Eleanor Rigby, and Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite still remain contentious for fans of the group. Speaking of Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite, McCartney says it’s still relatively infuriating for people to say Lennon wrote it. Lennon told Hit Parader he took the words for the song from a circus poster, and did not credit McCartney. But Lennon’s writing partner said he was with the Imagine hitmaker that very afternoon.

He said in 2013: “I read, occasionally, people say, ‘Oh, John wrote that one.’ I say, ‘Wait a minute, what was that afternoon I spent with him, then, looking at this poster?'” Starr would also suggest the impact the credit had on George Harrison and himself was a tough experience.

The veteran drummer said: “An attitude came over John and Paul of ‘We’re the grooves and you two, just watch it’. They never said that or did anything, but it was over a period of time. … In a way, I felt like an observer of the Beatles, even though I was in them. Whereas, I think, John and Paul were the stars of the Beatles.”