10 songs McCartney gave away

Especially in the Beatles’ early years, John Lennon and Paul McCartney gave away a large number of songs to other artists, enough to fill a complete album in the seventies. Often it was about songs that the writers did not like well enough, or didn’t fit the band, but nevertheless there are some great gems amongst them. Also during his solo career McCartney gave songs away, although less frequently. Ten songs McCartney gave away, in chronological overview:

Part One: The Sixties

1964 Cilla Black – It’s For You

Liverpudlian Cilla Black was a close friend of the Beatles and also managed by Brian Epstein. Lennon and McCartney wrote several songs for her, of which It’s For You was the most successful one. McCartney had recorded his own version earlier that year which was delivered to Black while she was performing at the London Palladium. This demo was believed to have been lost or destroyed until Black’s nephew found it in 2016.
Demo (snippet)

1964 Peter & Gordon - A World Without Love

McCartney wrote the song when he was 16, but he thought the song wasn’t good enough for The Beatles. He gave the song to the brother of his then-girlfriend Jane Asher in 1963, who just signed a recording contract with Gordon Waller, as Peter and Gordon. The song became a worldwide hit. Since 2013 a demo by Paul McCartney is available on YouTube. 

Demo (snippet): 

1966 Peter & Gordon - Woman
Written by Paul McCartney under the pseudonym Bernard Webb because McCartney wanted to find out if he could be successful without the Lennon & McCartney-label. And it proved to be that he could: Woman became another big hit by Peter & Gordon.

1969: Mary Hopkin - Goodbye

Written by McCartney who also played bass guitar, lap-slapping percussion and drums as well as the acoustic guitar introduction and solo. Goodbye became a big hit, reaching No. 2 in the UK singles chart. It was another McCartney track preventing Goodbye reaching the top position: Beatles' single Get Back. A demo by McCartney solo on guitar has been released officially for the first time in 2019, as part of the 50th Anniversary edition of The Beatles album Abbey Road. 

Paul McCartney Demo

1969 Badfinger – Come And Get It

Written by McCartney for the 1969 film The Magic Christian and performed by Badfinger. McCartney recorded a solo demo of the song during the Abbey Road recording sessions, gave it to the band and told them, "it's got to be exactly like this”. Paul’s demo was officially released as a Beatles song on the 1996 album Anthology 3. In 2015 a cover was made by the supergroup Hollywood Vampires with Paul McCartney and Alice Cooper on lead vocals.
Hollywood Vampires: 

Continue with Part Two: The Wings & solo years

Related Posts:

10 McCartney Gems From The Seventies
10 Great Rock Songs By Paul McCartney & Wings
10 Driving Songs By McCartney

André Homan

André Homan is a Dutch writer and journalist.

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