The Who didn’t have to compete with The Beatles after 1970, the band still had a rival in Paul McCartney, who formed his second band, Wings. So, it might not have thrilled Townshend when his daughter (Emma) asked him for a copy of one song by McCartney. (Cheatsheet)
In 1972, Paul McCartney and Wings released “Mary Had a Little Lamb” as a non-album single. It is based on the children’s nursery rhyme of the same name. It was a minor hit, reaching No. 9 on the U.K. charts and No. 28 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. However, it flopped with critics, with many believing it was an example of McCartney selling out.
Everyone was obsessed with Paul McCartney and The Beatles during the 1960s, but Pete Townshend wasn’t sold. In an early interview shared by Far Out, Townshend discussed The Beatles and called them “flipping lousy.”
“Actually, this afternoon, John [Entwistle] and I were listening to a stereo LP of The Beatles — in which the voices come out of the one side, and the backing track comes out of the other,” Townshend said. “When you actually hear the backing tracks of The Beatles without their voices, they’re flippin’ lousy.”
In a 1972 interview with Sounds Magazine, McCartney admitted he wasn’t a huge fan of the song himself, but kids loved it. He even got a request from Pete Townshend, who wanted a copy for his daughter. Pete has two daughters, Emma and Aminta. Emma Townshend is an English writer and journalist and the eldest daughter of The Who's Pete Townshend. Previously she worked as an academic, musician.
“The great thing about ‘Mary Had A Little Lamb’ for me – I was never wild about it personally – was that when we took it on tour, it was the song that got the audience singing along on the ‘Ia la’s’. That was fantastic because it saved the number for me,” McCartney explained. “And kids love it. Pete Townshend’s daughter had to have a copy. I’d never realized there was a four-year-old audience. Whilst toymakers have got that wen sussed around Christmas, no one outside the business, short of the Osmonds and the Jacksons, cater for it.”
Pete Townshend’s daughter was around three years old, so it makes sense that Paul McCartney’s song would have appealed to her. Like The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine”, McCartney wrote “Mary Had a Little Lamb” for kids. In the novel The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Break-Up 1970-2001, McCartney said he wrote it for his daughter, Mary.
