Paul McCartney performed I Want to Hold Your Hand at Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding reception at Madison Square Garden on Friday, July 3, the first time he has played the song live in 60 years. The last documented performance came on September 20, 1964, at the Beatles’ concert at New York’s Paramount Theatre.

McCartney has toured for decades and kept dozens of Beatles songs in his setlists. This one he never touched as a solo artist. He brought it back for one couple, in one room, six decades later.

The Song That Started the British Invasion

I Want to Hold Your Hand was the Beatles’ first American No. 1 hit. It set off Beatlemania in the United States and opened the door for the wave of British bands whose success became known as the British invasion.

That history is why the choice landed so hard with fans. Of all the songs in McCartney’s catalog, this is the one most tied to the moment the Beatles conquered America, and he played it a few miles from where that conquest began.

A Wedding Built for Music History

Swift and Kelce married in a star-studded ceremony, with the reception held at Madison Square Garden. Rolling Stone and E! News both reported McCartney’s performance as the standout moment of the night.

Swift has spoken often about her admiration for the great songwriters who came before her. Getting one of the two men who wrote the Beatles catalog to revive a retired song at her wedding is about as direct a tribute as music offers.

Why McCartney Retired the Song

The song was built on the vocal interplay between McCartney and John Lennon, and reports over the years have suggested McCartney avoided it live because it needs Lennon’s harmony to work. Playing it now, without him, made the choice feel less like a setlist decision and more like a gift.

Whether it stays a one-off or returns to his touring set is McCartney’s call alone.

The performance was a private one, and no official recording has been released.