The Beatles members rarely performed songs by themselves, but there were times when they recorded solo tracks. While there was primarily only one lead vocalist on each song, the other members were usually in the background, rocking out on their instruments. However, there are a few songs by Paul McCartney that he sang and played the instruments on without any other members. Here are four Beatles songs featuring only Paul McCartney.
‘Blackbird’
“Blackbird” is a 1968 song from The White Album. The track addresses the racial tensions during the U.S. Civil Rights movement. After witnessing the Little Rock Nine, a group of students escorted into a recently desegregated school in Arkansas, he was inspired to write a song. In Many Years From Now, McCartney said the title refers to a black woman and is written from her perspective.
Those were the days of the civil rights movement, which all of us cared passionately about,” Paul said. “So this was really a song from me to a black woman, experiencing these problems in the States: ‘Let me encourage you to keep trying, to keep your faith, there is hope.’”
While it’s credited to Lennon-McCartney, John Lennon didn’t have much to do with this song. McCartney performed “Blackbird” as an acoustic solo, which was for the best with a solemn number like this.
‘Mother Nature’s Son’
“Mother Nature’s Son” is a 1968 Beatles track that Paul McCartney wrote as a love letter to nature. Inspired by a lecture from Maharishi Maheshi Yogi during their India trip, McCartney was also influenced by a Nat King Cole song called “Nature Boy”.
“I’ve always loved the [Nat King Cole] song called ‘Nature Boy’: ‘There was a boy, a very strange and gentle boy…’ He loves nature, and ‘Mother Nature’s Son’ was inspired by that song,” McCartney told Barry Miles. “I’d always loved nature, and when Linda and I got together we discovered we had this deep love of nature in common. There might have been a little help from John with some of the verses.”
McCartney recorded his vocals and guitar simultaneously. On a later take, he added other instruments like the timpani and drums.
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‘Martha My Dear’
“Martha My Dear” is the third Beatles song from The White Album that Paul McCartney recorded himself. It was recorded in two days at Trident Studios, with McCartney recording the piano and his vocals simultaneously. George Martin also wrote the score that was conducted for several other musicians. The track seems like an ode to a lover, but it’s actually addressed to McCartney’s old sheepdog.
“It’s a communication of some sort of affection but in a slightly abstract way – ‘You silly girl, look what you’ve done,’ all that sort of stuff,” McCartney said. “These songs grow. Whereas it would appear to anybody else to be a song to a girl called Martha, it’s actually a dog, and our relationship was platonic, believe me.”
‘Yesterday’
“Yesterday” is possibly the greatest solo song recorded by The Beatles. It dominated the charts for several weeks and has become the most-covered song ever. The melody for the song came to McCartney in a dream. When he woke up, he wrote the harmony down, and used “scrambled eggs” as joke lyrics to keep the harmony in his memory.
McCartney wanted to record the song with his bandmates, but they all felt there wasn’t much they could add. However, they did use a string quartet and Martin helped Paul write the score.
Paul McCartney has the ability to write and record hits by himself. These songs proved his ability to write classic songs that would later earn him success in his solo career.
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