As portions of midtown Manhattan were kept under extreme lock and key during the blisteringly hot holiday weekend, and the rest of the world awaited confirmation of the transpiring events, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were pronounced man and wife inside NYC’s Madison Square Garden on July 3rd, 2026.
With Adam Sandler officiating, and likely over 1,000 invited guests ranging from the families and friends of the bride and groom, business acquaintances, teammates, musical collaborators, entertainment moguls, and certainly some questionable choices that spawned queries of “Have they even met her??” across the internet, the Swift/Kelce wedding was an event that will likely go down in history as one of the best AND worst kept secrets in all of pop culture.
Somewhere in the middle of this, after much speculation, were the musical activities of the evening. Reputable sources have stated that the pair walked down the aisle to a string arrangement of Swift’s career-defining tune “Love Story,” and that an epic round of karaoke took place involving artists like Tate McRae, Avril Lavigne, and Sabrina Carpenter. However, little information has been revealed as it pertains to who, and what, were performed in a more formal fashion.
Tim McGraw, who Swift named her debut single after and who, along with his powerhouse wife Faith Hill, had served as a mentor during her earliest touring days, had been discussed. As had Stevie Nicks, who performed a medley of her timeless “Rhiannon” with Swift’s “You Belong With Me” at the 2010 Grammy Awards. Notably, Swift was criticized for her lacking vocal performance, though Nicks continued to support Swift publicly AND privately following the snafu, and would later go onto provide a poem for the physical package of her 2024 album The Tortured Poets Department. She would also find emotional solace in the prolific “You’re On Your Own, Kid” off Swift’s 2022 album Midnights as she grappled with the loss of fellow Fleetwood Mac member Christine McVey.
A verified source in the room, whose identity will remain anonymous, revealed that Nicks did, in fact, perform, but supposedly flubbed the lyrics to the tune in question, another Fleetwood Mac staple. In the aftermath, GMA host Robin Roberts has saved face, stating it was “extremely intimate.”
Paul McCartney’s involvement has become far more publicized, as it has been confirmed that the icon performed a beloved Beatles classic, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” for the couple. At this stage of his career, a McCartney performance of anything, anywhere in the world, is major news, but, in this instance, the rebirth of the tune, which has not been performed in a live setting by a member of Fab Four since 1964, sent shockwaves of discourse through Beatles fandom. The gesture is not entirely shocking, as Swift and McCartney’s solid rapport dates back over a decade. From a duet performance of “I Saw Her Standing There” at the mythical SNL 40 after party in 2015, a joint Rolling Stone cover, and Swift’s show of support at a recent McCartney show in Los Angeles, the multigenerational trailblazers are no strangers to one another.
According to setlist.fm records, the tune, released as a standalone single in the UK in November ‘63 and later included on the US edition of Meet the Beatles in ’64, was performed 146 times between 1963-64. This includes a resounding 128 performances in ’63. Following ’64, and the Beatles’ subsequent breakup (at least in a public sense) in ’70, it was covered several times in the immediate aftermath of its release, such as by acts like Arthur Felder with the Boston Pops Orchestra in ’64, Al Green in ’69, and Moving Sidewalks also in ’69. In later years, it was presented to a younger audience during a pivotal scene of season two of the hit TV show GLEE in 2010. Sung by Golden Globe-award winning actor Chris Colfer’s character Kurt Hummel, the song was meant to act as a prayer of sorts to Hummel’s bedridden father, Burt, following a heart attack.
To discuss the matter in-depth, I spoke with prominent Beatles historian William Hinson, a Nashville-based musician and producer with roots in Winston-Salem, NC over Zoom. A lifelong fan, Hinson has served as a social media manager and frequent guest of the popular Beatles podcast Nothing Is Real for several years, and has scored viral hits with original tunes aptly titled “George Harrison” and “Paul McCartney.” His performance aesthetic is directly inspired by The Beatles’ legendary performance on The Ed Sullivan Show in ‘64, discussed below, as he and his band occasionally don suits and ties to maintain the well-groomed image the band portrayed on the program that sent them to the next level in the states.
Below, Hinson does his best to provide a candid, informed opinion on the subject, despite, of course, not physically attending the wedding. He provides his reasoning for what spurred McCartney to dig the song out of its grave, as well as several other objectives.
SFM: Why has no living Beatle performed this song in 62 years?
William Hinson: If anyone was going to do it, it would be Paul. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was definitely a John and Paul song. They wrote it together. That was one of the songs they wrote for what they’d call “eye to eye,” meaning that, since John was right-handed and Paul was left-handed, if they sat across from each other, it was like a mirror. You can sing the melody, but that song just isn’t as good without the harmony. That would be one reason. But, like I said, Paul would be the one to do it.
Why do you think Paul felt compelled to play it for this occasion?
My speculation would be that he was just asked to do it. He has a tendency of being very open to things like that.
Do you think he was at all resistant?
Probably not! I would love to know who played in the band. If he had Rusty Anderson and Abe Laboriel Jr., his band, then that’s one thing, but it could have been a house band. I would also be interested to know WHAT he played. I assume he played the bass. The last time he played it was on the second leg of the American tour in ’64. September 20th in New York, I think. Which is funny, because, and this is tangential, but they would play songs like “Baby’s in Black” and “Long Tall Sally” until they stopped touring in ’66. But, they stopped playing “I Want To Hold Your Hand” in 1964! It’s one of the biggest songs of all time!
Is there a world in which he just did it by himself?
[Pauses] No… I don’t think so. [Pauses again]. That’s a great question. Is there a world?? Maybe, if he has a ukulele. He does his cover of “Something” and dedicates it to George Harrison every time he plays, and he starts it out solo on ukulele, and then the band comes in after the first verse. But I doubt it. It’s more likely that if he didn’t play it by himself, and he didn’t play it with HIS band, he got up there with the house band and just sang. There’s this little pub up in the Hamptons where he lives almost full time now…
[As a Long Islander, I smiled] Stephen Talkhouse!
Yes! He’ll just pop out and play. There are videos of him playing “I Saw Her Standing There.” There are a handful of times that I’ve seen of him pop out for that song and just singing with whoever is there, or anywhere. So, I can see that being what happened.
Where do you think the song ranks among their catalog by Beatles diehards?
For me, I would separate THE song with what the song means. How important the song is. So, THE song, within the entire Beatles catalog, the band themselves would MAYBE say it’s top 20. But, in terms of importance, it’s the most important, or the second most important, song in their catalog. Simply because that song is what broke them in America. It was their first #1 in the US in January of ’64 while they were playing a 18-night residency at the Olympia Theatre in Paris. That’s where they found out they were #1 in America, which then triggered them to go on Ed Sullivan on the 9th of February, etc. etc. The other one, which is important in THAT context, is “She Loves You.” That was British and European Beatlemania. For the longest time, it was the best-selling single in the UK. It sold 500,000 pre-orders. That doesn’t happen, even now.
It was interesting to hear that he played “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” And it was interesting that he played “Hello Goodbye” as the last tune on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert earlier this year. I’ve seen him play “Hello Goodbye,” but it’s not one of the regular ones he plays all the time. It’s like seeing him play “Jet.” I’ve only seen him play “Jet” one time. Whereas I’ve seen him play “We Can Work It Out” a couple of times, and it’s pretty bad when he plays it. He’ll sub it out for “Jet” or “Uncle Albert,” which he also never does. Him playing “I Want to Hold Your Hand” leads me to believe that he's covering his bases. He has nothing to prove, nothing left that he needs to do, I just think SHE asked him to do it. They are pretty good friends, and they have been for a while. [Smiles] I like what he’s doing right now, man! I like this ‘everywhere all the time, pulling stuff from the archives’ kind of thing. AND, I would extremely remiss if I didn’t say this… you GOTTA put this in the interview! It’s very important to me that you say that I think The Boys of Dungeon Lane is fucking incredible. If he had released a lesser album, I’d be pretty mad at this publicity run, but this shit BANGS, so, I’m lovin’ it.
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Hinson’s stellar new album In Case of Emergency!, was released this past February, and he has recently garnered media coverage due to his latest release, “Carroll,” a duet with fellow Nashville act Marielle Kraft. The tune tells the story of the late Carroll Taylor Wiseman, wife of Artemis II commander Reid Weisman, who died of cancer in 2020 at age 46. Upon its release, the pair were brought to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX to commemorate the occasion.
Catch Hinson on tour this August:
8/8 - West Hollywood, CA @ The Peppermint Club
8/11 - Sacramento, CA @ The Starlet Room
8/13 - Boise, ID @ Shrine Social Club
8/15 - Portland, OR @ Polaris Hall
8/16 - Seattle, WA @ Barboza
8/18 - Salt Lake City, UT @ The DLC
8/19 - Bolder, CO @ The Velvet Elk Lounge
