October 7, 2022     —–     Chart #164

Hello Music Friends,

Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Chart of the Week. Today we are travelling to 1967 and one of the greatest bands of all time. Plus I must come clean with you and confess why I have chosen this particular song for this special week. Or maybe I don’t have to say and you can just figure it out on your own. Let’s just say that this week I completed another lap around the sun and on this lap today’s song hits pretty close to home if you know what I mean.

“When I’m Sixty-Four” is a song by the English rock band The Beatles, written by Paul McCartney  (credited to Lennon–McCartney) and released on their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. McCartney wrote the song when he was about 14, probably in April or May 1956, and it was one of the first songs he ever wrote. The song was recorded in a key different from the final recording; it was sped up at the request of McCartney to make his voice sound younger. It prominently features a trio of clarinets (two regular clarinets and one bass clarinet) throughout.

The song is sung by a young man to his lover, and is about his plans of their growing old together.  Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn suggests it was McCartney’s second composition, coming after “Call It Suicide” but before “I Lost My Little Girl”. It was in the Beatles’ setlist in their early days as a song to perform when their amplifiers broke down or the electricity went off. Both George Martin and Lewisohn speculated that McCartney may have thought of the song when recording began for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in December 1966 because his father, Jim McCartney, turned 64 earlier that year.

In 1967, John Lennon said of the song, “Paul wrote it in the Cavern days. We just stuck a few more words on it like ‘grandchildren on your knee’ and ‘Vera, Chuck and Dave’ … this was just one that was quite a hit with us.” Lennon’s contribution of the children’s names were likely made in the studio. McCartney’s manuscript for the song sold for $55,700 (equivalent to $102,000 in 2021) at Sotheby’s, London in September 1994.

So here’s to blowing out 64 candles and launching another 365 day journey. This is a fun song to play and play along with. Take it for a spin.

Keep rockin my friends,

Stan Bradshaw