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

About

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

Last updated on April 5, 2022

Songs recorded

Staff

Musicians on "Maybe I'm Amazed"

Paul McCartney:

Piano, Electric guitar, Bass, Vocals, Organ, Drums, Backing vocals, Producer

Linda McCartney:

Backing vocals

Production staff

Paul McCartney:

Producer

Phil McDonald:

Mixing engineer, Recording engineer