Sting has said it was “very special” to hear Sir Paul McCartney thinks so highly of his song Fields Of Gold that he wishes he had written it himself.

The Beatles star told a Q&A session with students at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (Lipa) on Wednesday that, if there was one song he would like to have been his, it was the 1993 track.

Sir Paul, 76, said: “I liked Sting’s Fields Of Gold, and I thought, ‘you know what, I should have written that. How dare he?'”

Asked if he had shared his thoughts with Sting, Sir Paul joked: “Yeah, I told him ‘you stole my song’. I thought that was a nice one, you know?”

Sting, 66, responded in a tweet: “@PaulMcCartney says he wishes he would have written ‘Fields of Gold’.

“There are more than a few of Paul’s that I wish I would have written. To hear this from someone I owe my life to is very special. Thank you, Paul.”

Ivor Novello Awards.
Sting and Paul McCartney in 1989 (Martin Keene/PA)

Fields Of Gold appeared on Sting’s 1993 album Ten Summoner’s Tales and peaked at number 16 in the charts, despite it being one of his most popular tracks.