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Monday, May 13, 1996

Recording "Beautiful Night"

For Paul McCartney

Last updated on September 29, 2020

Paul McCartney, in Club Sandwich n°82, Summer 1997:

I sat at the piano and Ringo sat at the drums. It was so comfortable and lovely to work with him again. Jeff Lynne and I produced. Ringo was very happy with it and we tagged on the fast bit at the end, which wasn’t on the original recording. 

Ringo came here, to the studio, to do ‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’, and brought his kit with him. It sounds great when it’s recorded, the snare, the bass. He then left his kit here, in storage, so I phoned up and ordered exactly the same pieces, and set up my new kit in exactly the same way. In fact, Ringo used my model of his kit for ‘Beautiful Night’.

Mark Lewisohn, in Club Sandwich n°82, Summer 1997:

[…] With Paul at the piano and Ringo on drums, the song came together comfortably. Wanting to play some guitar on the end, Paul introduced a new element to his composition, the uptempo finale, and the microphone caught some characteristic ad-libbing by Ringo and Paul as they prepared to leave the studio. […]

At the end of “Beautiful Night“, we can hear Ringo Starr making fun.

l think everyone who makes a record has that option, to leave the daft stuff on at the end. You nearly always fade it out but at the end of ‘Beautiful Night’, it had been such a good take that Ringo started having fun, acting like he was a doorman, throwing people out. I love that so much. lt’s very Beatley. lt’s a very Beatley idea to do that, because we did a bit of that in the group…. Beautiful Night actually sounds a bit Beatley too… ln fact, I swear that at the end of Beautiful Night, you can almost hear a sort of very John Lennony voice in there. Listen to it. Check it out.

Paul McCartney, from The Beatles Monthly Book N°261, January 1998

Session activities

  1. Beautiful Night

    Written by Paul McCartney

    Recording

  2. Beautiful Night

    Written by Paul McCartney

    Recording • Run Through version

    AlbumOfficially released on Flaming Pie


Staff

Production staff


Going further

Eight Arms to Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium

We owe a lot to Chip Madinger and Mark Easter for the creation of those session pages, but you really have to buy this book to get all the details!

Eight Arms To Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium is the ultimate look at the careers of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr beyond the Beatles. Every aspect of their professional careers as solo artists is explored, from recording sessions, record releases and tours, to television, film and music videos, including everything in between. From their early film soundtrack work to the officially released retrospectives, all solo efforts by the four men are exhaustively examined.

As the paperback version is out of print, you can buy a PDF version on the authors' website

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Paul McCartney writing

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