Paul McCartney spent decades creating some of the most beloved songs in music history, but even legends have regrets.

Looking back on ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’, one of his earliest works for The Beatles, McCartney admits he may have made mistakes with the lyrics.

The song, a whimsical ode to growing old together, was written when he was still a teenager – a far cry from the realities of ageing. And now, as time has marched on, he has a different perspective on what he should have done differently.

‘When I’m Sixty-Four’ first appeared on SGT. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967, but McCartney originally wrote it in his teens, inspired by the jazz and music hall styles his father loved.

And despite the song’s warm reception, McCartney later admitted that the number in the title, 64, was somewhat arbitrary.

In a 2006 interview with the Los Angeles Times, McCartney suggested that he should have chosen an age.

It was actually an arbitrary number when I wrote the song. I should have called it ‘When I’m 65,’ which is the retirement age in the UK,” he said. “And the rhyme would have been easy—‘Something, something alive when I’m 65.’”

So why didn’t he change it? Simple: He felt ‘When I’m sixty-four’ had a better ring to it.

But it felt too predictable, he explained. It sounded better to say 64.

On the other hand, John Lennon, McCartney’s legendary songwriting partner, never shared Paul’s thoughts on the song.

Album cover for SGT. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Image: Getty)

The scope of [That is] Paul’s [song] is complete,” Lennon said in David Sheff’s All We’re Talking About: The Last Great Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. “I would never have dreamed of writing a song like that. There are some things I never think about, and that’s one of them.”

At 82, McCartney has joked about how dated the song now is. He once recalled a conversation with a pianist playing for old people and having to adjust ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’ to keep it relevant to his audience.

I met a piano player in an old people’s home, and he said, ‘I hope you don’t mind, but I play some of your songs, and the most popular one is When I Was Sixty-Four, but I had to change the title to When I Was 84 because 64 seems young to those people. They don’t get it,’ McCartney shared.

If I wrote it now, I’d probably call it When I Was 94,’ he joked.