Paul McCartney’s Latest ‘SNL’ Set Honored the Past With Zero Beatles Songs

Is Paul McCartney’s legacy as one of The Beatles, or is his post-1969 musical output just as relevant? In the Season 51 finale of Saturday Night Live, McCartney was the musical guest alongside host Will Ferrell as host. McCartney is coming off a massive Prime Video documentary, Man on the Run, which dives deep into what Sir Paul did right after the infamous Beatles breakup and how he’s forged a huge musical career since then. And, with a new album dropping May 29—The Boys of Dungeon Lane— McCartney is once again proving that he’s got one foot rooted in nostalgia and another moving forward.

But at 83 years old (he’ll be 84 in June), are we hitting a point where Macca will no longer even be putting out new music in the near future? And, if that’s the case, are we officially at a point where his post-Beatles career is just as relevant as his famous time with the rest of the Fab Four?

“Days We Left Behind” leans hard on Beatles nostalgia

As McCartney played his newest single, “Days We Left Behind,” on SNL, images of John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and McCartney himself, in their much younger days, flashed on the screen behind him. At this point, in 2026, Paul, reminding people, in song form, that he is literally a living, breathing piece of history, has become a bit of a subgenre for him. In 2014, he dropped the song “Early Days,” which seemed to specifically be about his friendship with John Lennon. In 2023, the so-called final Beatles song, “Now and Then,” also seemed to be a kind of prolonged goodbye to the Beatles, with McCartney once again dueting with John Lennon across the decades. (This was also the stated purpose of 1995’s “Free as a Bird.”)

So, with “Days We Left Behind,” McCartney seems comfortable with the fact that he’s never going to stop writing at least a few new songs about his time with The Beatles. In addition to “Days We Left Behind,” his new album also contains a track called “Home to Us,” in which McCartney duets with Starr. So, that’s two memoir-ish songs about The Beatles. But does McCartney need this nostalgia anymore?

Playing “Band on the Run” is the closest Macca can get to playing a Beatles song

Outside of maybe “Live and Let Die” and “Maybe I’m Amazed,” and maybe “Let ’em In,” it’s safe to say that “Band on the Run” is one of Macca’s most iconic songs. And, playing that song on SNL is basically the closest McCartney can come to playing a Beatles song at this point. Does he need to play Beatles songs anymore?

Obviously, the next time McCartney is on tour, he will play Beatles songs. That’s not the point. The larger, more interesting feeling is that McCartney now has a catalogue of post-Beatles songs about the Beatles, meaning that the layers of Beatle nostalgia are surprising and strange. The Beatles are great, McCartney is a genius, but, hypothetically, we watch Paul do his thing without feeling like we’re looking at a tribute to the past? It may not be possible at this point, but considering how many amazing songs Macca has outside of The Beatles or nostalgia-baited songs, in some ways, we’re being prevented from just hearing and seeing him play new songs.

McCartney on stage, playing music, is automatically a signal to our brains about music nostalgia. Meaning, in some ways, at this point, he should be free to play whatever he wants.

This story was originally published by Men’s Journal on May 18, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Men’s Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.