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Sunday, February 22, 1970

Recording "Maybe I'm Amazed", mixing "That Would Be Something", "Valentine Day"

For Paul McCartney

Last updated on April 5, 2022


Master session

Location

  • Recording studio: EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road

Timeline

Master release

AlbumSome of the songs worked on during this session were first released on the "McCartney" LP

Some of the songs from this session also appear on:

During that 12 pm – 10 pm session at EMI Studios, Paul McCartney mixed two tracks recorded at his home in late December 1969 – “That Would Be Something” and “Valentine Day” – and recorded two new tracks.

The writing of “Every Night” was completed in May/June 1969, when Paul and his family were on holiday in Corfu. On this day, he tried recording it but would end up recording it again the day after.

Going back to earlier songs, ‘Every Night’ could stand up to being remade. Other people have made good recordings of it, and I remember that when I played the “McCartney” album to Ringo he said that he preferred my original solo version, when I had first sung it to him.

Paul McCartney – From interview with Club Sandwich, Winter 1994

Maybe I’m Amazed” was then recorded, overdubbed and mixed, during that single session. Phil McDonald is credited as the mixing engineer, but engineer Chris Thomas claimed he did some attempts at mixing it as well (he also declared that the track “sounded lots ballsier before Paul mixed it“).


[…] But then he sat down at the piano and came up with “Maybe I’m Amazed,” an impassionedly conceived, beautifully realized tribute to the woman who had just pulled him through his darkest moments. You help me sing my song / You right me when I’m wrong… Paul booked time at EMI to record that one, sneaking in as quietly as possible, then playing all the instruments himself. Another thoroughly composed song, “Every Night,” came together in the studio, too. John Kurlander, who had engineered so many Beatles sessions in the last few years, was on the board for these first solo sessions, too. Linda was there, of course, so were the kids, drinking their grape juice and chasing their toys around the control-room floor. If the absence of the other Beatles consumed him, Paul could look up, see his family, and feel reassured. “Paul was relaxed, bearded, cheerful,” Kurlander recalls. Linda didn’t sing or perform, but she had opinions about what she was hearing, and Paul was obviously listening to what she said. “It was definitely a family business now.

Paul booked his EMI sessions under a phony name to avoid alerting the press to his new project. But when onetime Beatles engineer Chris Thomas happened upon a mixing session and sat in long enough to get a good listen to “Maybe I’m Amazed,” he was astonished. “He’d played everything himself; wrote it, produced it. I was like, wow! Amazing!

From “Paul McCartney – A Life” by Peter Ames Carlin

Session activities

  1. Every Night

    Written by Paul McCartney

    Recording • Every Night was recorded on this date, but re-recorded the day after.

    Unreleased track

  2. That Would Be Something

    Written by Paul McCartney

    Mixing

    AlbumOfficially released on McCartney

  3. Valentine Day

    Written by Paul McCartney

    Mixing

    AlbumOfficially released on McCartney

  4. Maybe I'm Amazed

    Written by Paul McCartney

    Recording

  5. Maybe I'm Amazed

    Written by Paul McCartney

    Mixing

    AlbumOfficially released on McCartney


Staff

Musicians on "Maybe I'm Amazed"

Production staff


Going further

Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989

With 25 albums of pop music, 5 of classical – a total of around 500 songs – released over the course of more than half a century, Paul McCartney's career, on his own and with Wings, boasts an incredible catalogue that's always striving to free itself from the shadow of The Beatles. The stories behind the songs, demos and studio recordings, unreleased tracks, recording dates, musicians, live performances and tours, covers, events: Music Is Ideas Volume 1 traces McCartney's post-Beatles output from 1970 to 1989 in the form of 346 song sheets, filled with details of the recordings and stories behind the sessions. Accompanied by photos, and drawing on interviews and contemporary reviews, this reference book draws the portrait of a musical craftsman who has elevated popular song to an art-form.

Shop on Amazon

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

Shop on Amazon

If we modestly consider the Paul McCartney Project to be the premier online resource for all things Paul McCartney, it is undeniable that The Beatles Bible stands as the definitive online site dedicated to the Beatles. While there is some overlap in content between the two sites, they differ significantly in their approach.

Read more on The Beatles Bible

Paul McCartney writing

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