UK Release date : Wednesday, April 18, 1979
By Various Artists • LP
Previous album Nov 13, 1978 • "Wings Greatest" by Wings released in the US
Article Apr 07, 1979 • Rumors that Wings may perform in Russia emerge
Article Apr 08, 1979 • “Wings Over The World” broadcast on UK TV
Album Apr 18, 1979 • "The Songs Lennon and McCartney Gave Away" by Various Artists released in the UK
Interview Apr 26, 1979 • Paul McCartney interview for Liverpool Echo
Session May 08, 1979 • Lympne Castle Jam Session
Next album May 24, 1979 • "Back To The Egg" by Wings released in the US
This album was recorded during the following studio sessions:
December 1965
Jul 20, 1967
Feb 28, 1968
I'm the Greatest
3:23 • Studio version
Written by Paul McCartney
2:25 • Studio version • A
Performed by : Peter Asher • Gordon Waller
Session Recording: December 1965
1:51 • Studio version • A • The Beatles were present at the recording session.
George Martin : Producer
Recording : Jul 03, 1963 • Studio EMI Studios, Abbey Road
2:21 • Studio version • A
George Martin : Producer Cilla Black : Vocals Mike Vickers : Music director The Breakaways : Backing vocals
Session Recording: Feb 28, 1968 • Studio EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Written by Paul McCartney
3:00 • Studio version • A
Paul McCartney : Cat calls Chris Barber : Cat calls, Trombone Brian Auger : Cat calls, Organ Barry Jenkins : Cat calls Vic Briggs : Cat calls Viv Prince : Cat calls Madeleine Hirsiger : Cat calls Ottilie Patterson : Cat calls John Ryan : Cat calls Gustav Karl Lovenz Schneeweiss-Moody : Cat calls Pat Halcox : Cat calls, Trumpet John Crocker : Alto sax (?), Cat calls Ian Wheeler : Alto sax (?), Cat calls, Harmonica John Slaughter : Cat calls, Guitar Stu Morrison : Banjo, Cat calls Jackie Flavelle : Bass, Cat calls Graham Burbidge : Cat calls, Drums
Session Recording: Jul 20, 1967 • Studio Chappell Recording Studios, London UK
From Wikipedia:
The Songs Lennon and McCartney Gave Away was a conceptual compilation album containing the original artist recordings of songs composed by John Lennon and Paul McCartney in the 1960s that they had elected not to release as Beatles songs. The original album was released in the UK on EMI’s mid-price Music for Pleasure label in 1971.
The album was reissued by EMI in 1979 with a 1973 Ringo Starr track added.
Background
Lennon and McCartney started writing songs together in the late 1950s and by 1963 were prolific composers who wrote songs for the Beatles and also for other artists. There were broadly three categories of Lennon–McCartney songs that were not released by the Beatles:
The Songs Lennon and McCartney Gave Away – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Recordings by the Beatles of Lennon–McCartney songs that the group ultimately decided not to release.
- Lennon–McCartney songs that the Beatles deemed unsuitable for the group at the outset and did not even attempt to record themselves.
- Songs that had been intentionally written for other artists.
In the earliest days of their songwriting partnership, Lennon and McCartney expressed a desire to emulate the success of composing duos such as Goffin & King and Leiber & Stoller in having their compositions recorded by other artists, so this was an aspect of the songwriting craft that they were interested in pursuing.
With the encouragement of the Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein, they supplied some of their songs deemed unsuitable for the Beatles to fellow artists, several of whom were also managed by Epstein and were friends with Lennon and McCartney. Once the Beatles’ initial success in early-mid 1963 mushroomed into a phenomenon, there was great interest in songs written by the Beatles “in-house” writing duo. Artists began clamouring to secure original Lennon–McCartney songs knowing that there would automatically be media and public interest in such songs.
The quality of the songs and the subsequent commercial success of such songs added to the demand by artists for even more compositions.
In 1970, music writer Martin Lewis, who in 1967 had compiled the discography for Hunter Davies’ authorised biography of the Beatles, proposed that EMI should release a compilation album based on the section of his Beatles discography that focused on these songs. EMI accepted the proposal and the album compiled by Lewis was released by EMI’s Music For Pleasure label in 1971. All of the songs on the album were recorded in the 1960s while the Beatles were still active, and all of the tracks had been released as singles.
The 1979 reissue
The 1979 reissue was essentially the original 1971 album with the addition of “I’m the Greatest“, a Ringo Starr album track written for him by John Lennon in 1973; this was at variance from the original concept of the album being only songs written by Lennon/McCartney, and recorded and released as singles during the active Beatles years in the 1960s.
“Penina” was written by McCartney at the Hotel Penina in December 1968, when he was vacationing in the Portuguese region of the Algarve. The song was first recorded by the hotel’s band Jotta Herre, but a month later it was also recorded by the singer Carlos Mendes, a member of the Portuguese group the Sheiks until 1967.
Artwork
McCartney’s profile in the artwork for the front cover reused a portion of the illustration from the Beatles’ album Revolver, and Lennon’s profile is a drawing that duplicated the back-cover photograph from his album Imagine.
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Stephan Knupp • 2 years ago
It is really a pity that this wonderful album "The Songs Lennon and McCartney Gave Away" is not available on CD. It is time to re-release it again. This time the two missing songs "Come And Get it" (Badfinger) and "Goodbye" (Mary Hopkin) should be included.