James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke with Sir Paul McCartney is the emotional stuff of legend

We’ll be honest — Carpool Karaoke is a big on The Late Late Show that often doesn’t hold our interest in the way that it used to. Some of the pit stops don’t really have the spark to them that we’d like for them to and often, we don’t care enough about some of the musicians who are featured.

Yet, there’s something about the segment with Sir Paul McCartney that is different. It’s emotional, heartfelt, and it may be the greatest edition of the segment we’ve ever seen. It’s almost like a mini-history lesson of the Beatles and beyond that, it’s a rare opportunity to see Corden break and have a visual flashback to his childhood right while he is in the car with a music legend.

Let’s break down the moment — it comes during “Let It Be,” when in the middle of singing it with Paul, James starts to get emotional. Afterwards, he comments on how he didn’t expect that before telling McCartney a story about when he first listened to that song, his grandfather (a musician) introduced it by saying he was about to hear “the best song you’ve ever heard.” Corden then commented that “if my granddad was here right now he’d get an absolute kick out of this.” Sir Paul’s response? “He is.” It was simple, it was beautiful, and it’s hard not to get choked up while watching it. It’s yet another reminder that McCartney, despite all of his fame and decades of accolades, knows that sometimes, just a couple of words can mean a lot to someone.

Beyond just this moment, though, this video is great — it’s a tour of Liverpool and it’s a chance for McCartney to visit some locales he hasn’t been to in quite some time. You see a home he lived in as a teenager and then also a pub he would occasionally visit. It’s a lovely little journey through the man’s memories — and, of course a celebration of music. It’s a must-watch for any Beatles or Corden fan.

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