Paul McCartney either wrote or co-wrote hundreds of songs for The Beatles during their heyday. It’s almost impossible to pick out his very best songs; each of his songwriting credits appeals to different people for different reasons. That being said, we think these four particular Beatles tracks prove that Paul McCartney is a truly genius songwriter!

Few artists can dedicate a song to a struggling group of people with as much tact and reverence as McCartney did with the 1968 track “Blackbird”. McCartney said that he wrote this soothing, beautiful song for black women in the United States who were struggling amidst the Civil Rights Movement. It’s one of McCartney’s few solo performances recorded under The Beatles’ name.

Paul McCartney has historically been a genius songwriter partly because he knows his way around a ballad. “Yesterday” is one of his greatest works, and it also happens to be one of the most covered songs of all time. This song’s melody is one of the most recognizable of the 20th century. McCartney’s expert songwriting weaves together an anthem for those who are stuck living in the past, and who just need a little push forward.

Despite its not-so-great associations with an infamous cult leader, “Helter Skelter” is (and was originally intended to be) a heavy, dirty song unlike anything else that had been released in the rock genre in 1968. It is widely considered to be a proto-metal song, and one can’t deny that the initial elements of the early days of metal can be heard quite clearly. It’s wild songwriting, to say the least. McCartney was at his most creative here, without a doubt.