Macca’s gems: No More Lonely Nights

Although it is by no means McCartney's most successful single from the eighties, No More Lonely Nights is one of his strongest in those days: One that has stood the test of time more than good. The theme song of Sir Paul's feature film Give My Regards To Broad Street from 1984 is one of his most beautiful ballads, with a little help from Pink Floyd's David Gilmour.

The feature film is almost finished when McCartney realizes that he can still use an extra song. Preferably one with the title of the film. But when he starts working at it, he soon realizes that 'Give My Regards To Broad Street' is not really an easy line to use. And even before he has started it, he already left it alone: 

For Give My Regards To Broad Street, I couldn't think for a lifetime to write a song saying that. (…) So anyway, in the end, I decided, that was none, and nothing was coming, and I didn’t feel good about it. It felt like too intense a problem, so I do what I always do: I give up, haha! (…) So, that was good, that was of my brain.

In the end, McCartney uses a bass line, which he had previously recorded while jamming, as the basis for a new song. 

I had been messing around in the studio with a bass thing. And it was just jamming, one day, when I had nothing to do, coming here, just having some fun on some of the equipment. And this was a bass I had, with an echo device on it. And I’d been playing, those notes (humming the melody line). And the echo was taking care of the rest of it. So it was going… (humming again) …and it made this tune. It was a riff and it went on and on and on for hours. But I asked them to tape it, just in case, because I thought it was just a good idea for something. (…) We ended up using that little peace of echoed bass at the very beginning of the picture, when the titles came on. So I took those notes, and wrote the tune called No More Lonely Nights, which then we used it as a theme tune. 

Official video:

Once the song is written, it is recorded in no time. Semi live, in just three hours, with a band consisting of, among others, the British jazz bassist Herbie Flowers, with whom Paul previously collaborated on his album Ram, and David Gilmour. It is Gilmour who gives the song extra cachet with a killing guitar solo: 

I found it quite amazing doing No More Lonely Nights with Paul McCartney. In one three-hour session with a band we learnt it and put it down, and Paul played piano and sang the lead vocal live, and I put the guitar solo down, bang.

David Gilmour

Finally, McCartney also turns the ballad into a dance version because he still needs a track for the credits of the film. As the time is short to the release of the film, causing that the song has to be recorded quickly, McCartney plays on this version all instruments by himself, with the exception of the horns section. This so-called 'playout version' appears as B-side of the single, but ultimately no less than seven or eight different variations are made, most of which are released as a 12-inch version.

No More Lonely Nights (Playout Version):

Over the past ten years, the track has been covered several times. Amongst others by the American jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli, who records the song in 2015 for his tribute album Midnight McCartney. In 2012, No More Lonely Nights is performed live on the MusiCares Tribute To Paul McCartney by Alison Krauss & Union Station.

John Pizzarelli cover:

Alison Krauss & Union Station (live):

Related posts:

Give My Regards To Broad Street
Paul McCartney's Eighties

André Homan

André Homan is a Dutch writer and journalist.

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