Paul McCartney has written countless songs over the course of his lengthy career, but one of his recordings began as his dad’s idea. McCartney’s father also enjoyed playing music, and once composed a song of his own. To surprise him, McCartney recorded a version of it years later. His father refused to admit he’d written the song, though.
Paul McCartney recorded a song his dad wrote
In 1976, McCartney released the song “Walking in the Park With Eloise” with Wings, but credited it to a group called The Country Hams. McCartney has described it as the only song his father ever wrote. He decided to record a version of it as a tribute to his father.
“The recording of the song happened when I was in Nashville,” McCartney said in a Q&A on his website. “I mentioned it to Chet Atkins and he said, ‘We should record that for your dad!’ So, it was Chet’s idea. We got a couple of guys together and recorded it.”
His dad was thrilled to hear it, but he wouldn’t admit he’d written the song.
“Oh, he loved it. He really loved it,” McCartney said, adding, “He wouldn’t ever admit he’d ‘written’ it. He said it was just a piece he played on the piano that he’d ‘made up’. And I said, ‘Well, we call that writing these days!’ I think he meant that he didn’t physically write something out in notation.”
Paul McCartney shared the type of music his dad played
“Walking in the Park With Eloise” is a jazz instrumental, akin to what McCartney heard his father playing around the house.
“He usually played all the ‘old standards’, that’s why I’ve got such a rich background knowledge of them,” McCartney said. “He never read any music, it was all by ear. I think it all sunk in when I was little, before I could even reach the piano!”
McCartney’s earliest lessons in music came from the types of artists his father played around the house.
“It gave me an interest in those kinds of songs. I’d hear Fred Astaire’s stuff on the TV or radio – [singing] ‘Heaven, I’m in Heaven!’ And I would learn to appreciate the skill made in making that song. I figured out how he’d done it, what tricks he used,” he explained. “A lot of my music education was just that, hearing tricks that other composers had used and thinking, ‘Oh, I love that. I’ll do it too.’ For instance, the song ‘Bésame Mucho’ starts off in a minor key and goes into a major. What a great trick!”
His dad worried about him joining The Beatles
While McCartney’s father had a great appreciation for music, he did not think it was a good idea for his son to pursue it full time. When The Beatles returned from Hamburg, his father told him to get a job.
“My dad had told me to go out and get a job,” McCartney said in The Beatles Anthology. “I’d said, ‘I’ve got a job, I’m in a band.’ But after a couple of weeks of doing nothing with the band it was, ‘No, you have got to get a proper job.’ He virtually chucked me out of the house: ‘Get a job or don’t come back.’”
McCartney began working at a coil-winding factory but, of course, he eventually rejoined The Beatles.
