Long and Winding Road, The by Paul McCartney – ***

First released: 1970

Paul battles with this song just like Lennon battled with "Across the Universe". They never seemed satisfied with it. Paul always hated the version Phil Spector mixed for the "Let it Be" album and on the single. It's also on "1967-1970" and 2000's "1". The "Naked" version from 2003 sets it straight, but then the performances shortcomings begin to show. Apparently the heavenly choirs covered up a multitude of sins. A demo version appears on "Anthology 3" in 1996.

This one of the songs McCartney chose to remake in an inferior version for "Give My Regards to Broad Street" in 1984, and still another studio version that was a bit better in 1989 that ended up on the Japanese version of "Flowers in the Dirt" and was also a b-side. A live version was performed by Wings and released on "Wings Over America" in 1976. Different live versions were performed on 1990’s "Tripping the Live Fantastic", 2002/3's "Back in the US/World" and on 2009’s "Good Evening New York City".