Paul McCartney, With A Little Assist From His Mates

Point out a Paul McCartney music with drums and vocals by Ringo Starr, and an orchestral association by George Martin, and also you may suppose we’ve landed at some unspecified second in Beatles historical past. In truth, we’re speaking about an underrated second in Paul’s solo catalog, and the elegant ballad “Stunning Night time,” which made its UK High 40 debut on the chart of December 27, 1997.

The monitor was the third and last single from McCartney’s Flaming Pie album, which had already yielded the “Younger Boy” and “This World Tonight” releases. “Stunning Night time” stands as one thing of a hidden gem in Paul’s solo profession, with its fairly melody and evocative lyrics reminiscent of “I received’t want a fortress, they’ve received castles in Versailles…and I’m nonetheless stranded, questioning why.”

The music had been round for a decade, with a model lower in New York in 1986 however shelved. The brand new take was co-produced by McCartney and Jeff Lynne, with whom Paul had labored on The Beatles’ Anthology challenge of 1995-96; it was after the 2 former bandmates have been reunited on Anthology that Paul advised he and Ringo file one thing new collectively.

The day after they lower the monitor, the pair collaborated once more on “Actually Love You,” additionally featured on Flaming Pie. That gave trivia followers a captivating new query, because it was the primary time a music carried the writing credit score “McCartney/Starr.”

Additional Beatles connections

“Stunning Night time” additionally had backing vocals by Linda McCartney, its launch as a single coming solely 4 months earlier than her tragic dying from most cancers on the age of 56. Martin’s beautiful orchestration was recorded, as appeared solely proper, at Abbey Street Studios, on St. Valentine’s Day 1997. The Beatles’ connection was additional enhanced by the presence on that date of engineer Geoff Emerick.

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The music had a false ending adopted by an uptempo coda, on which Ringo’s backing vocals can clearly be heard; after some closing studio banter, he pretends to be ushering the musicians out of the studio by saying “in your means, thanks.” Surprisingly, “Stunning Night time” didn’t develop into a serious chart merchandise, getting into the UK chart at its No.25 peak earlier than falling to No.37 in a four-week run within the High 75.

Purchase or stream “Stunning Night time” on Flaming Pie, in its Paul McCartney Archive Assortment version.