Sixty-two years after the Beatles last performed “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” McCartney played the song for the first time as a solo artist at Madison Square Garden reception
Paul McCartney reportedly performed the Beatles classic “I Want to Hold Your Hand” live for the first time since 1964 at Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s Madison Square Garden wedding reception.
McCartney, like Stevie Nicks, was among the A-list performers at the couple’s wedding, and People reports that McCartney used the special occasion to play a song he hadn’t performed live since the Beatles’ early days, and a hit he never touched live as a solo artist.
“After the ceremony, Taylor’s mom Andrea invited everyone into the reception room where the stage was set up,” a source told People.
According to setlist.fm, the last time McCartney performed “I Want to Hold Your Hand” live was on September 20, 1964 at the Beatles’ concert at New York’s Paramount Theatre. The track remained unplayed by him for 62 years, until the Swift wedding.
McCartney and Swift, who appeared together on the cover of Rolling Stone’s Musicians on Musicians issue in 2020, have long praised each other’s work, with McCartney saying the weeks leading up to the wedding that Swift’s fame rivals that of the Beatles’.
“You do see the parallel, you know the fame and the amount of fame,” McCartney told the BBC. “The worldwide fame that Taylor Swift has and that we had, but I don’t think she needs any advice to tell you the truth.”
Swift also called McCartney an “eternally exceptional artist” on social media upon the release of his new album The Boys of Dungeon Lane.