May 23, 2025      —–     Chart #299

Hello Music Friends,

Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Chart of the Week. This week, we’re heading straight to the sweaty, smoky heart of Beatlesland with a song that sounds like it was recorded in a whiskey-soaked backroom at 2 a.m. — “Oh! Darling” from the Abbey Road album. And let me tell you: if heartbreak had a soundtrack and it wore a leather jacket, this would be it.

Now, first things first — yes, this is Paul McCartney on lead vocals. And no, that is not a mistake. That’s not Otis Redding, that’s not Wilson Pickett, that’s Sir Paul, the same guy who gave us “Michelle” and once sang about a sheepdog named Martha. But here? He sounds like a man who’s just been handed divorce papers, evicted from his own band, and told the pub’s out of Guinness — all in the same day.

And get this — Paul actually showed up early to the studio every morning for a week, just to get his voice nice and ragged before recording. He wanted it to sound like he’d “been performing it on stage all week.” Translation: he basically gave himself a musical hangover to nail the take. That, my friends, is dedication — or maybe just an elaborate excuse to yell at tape machines.

“Oh! Darling” is classic 50s-style doo-wop meets British blues meltdown. It’s the kind of song that makes you want to pour a drink, dial your ex, then hang up before it rings — all while slow dancing with a ghost from your past. That piano intro alone sounds like it’s been abandoned in a corner of a honky-tonk bar just waiting for a guy in a rhinestone suit to bang out his pain.

While Paul’s tearing his vocal cords to shreds, the rest of the band holds it down like the professionals they were — George on that subtle but spicy guitar, Ringo keeping time with just the right amount of swing, and somewhere in the control room, John Lennon probably rolling his eyes because he thought he should’ve sung it. (He wasn’t wrong — John thought he could’ve brought more of that raw edge. Paul just beat him to the mic.)

And let’s be honest — this is one of those songs that feels way older than it is. You could play it in a 1958 sock hop or a 1974 dive bar and no one would bat an eye. It doesn’t belong to an era — it belongs to the wounded hearts club, where the drinks are strong, the lights are low, and somebody’s always shouting “baby, please!”

So this week, throw “Oh! Darling” on the turntable (or playlist — we’re not all living in High Fidelity) and let it remind you that sometimes, the best way to deal with love gone wrong is to sing like you just stubbed your soul.

Keep Rockin’,

Stan Bradshaw