Beautiful Night

Song facts

“Beautiful Night” is a song written by Paul McCartney and released on McCartney’s 1997 album “Flaming Pie“. It features Ringo Starr on drums, and George Martin added orchestration to it. From the album liner notes:

Working on the Anthology prompted Paul to suggest that he and ringo renew a collaboration not experienced for ten years. “Beautiful Night” was a decade old itself, and a recording made in New York had been on the shelf, unused, since 1986. With Paul at the piano and Ringo on drums (playing, incidentally, a replica arrangement of his own kit, which Paul had bought and modeled on Ringo’s set up after the “Real Love” session) the song came together comfortably. Wanting to play some guitar on the end, Paul also introduced a new element to his composition, the uptempo finale. Finally, the recording was enhanced by an orchestral arrangement scored by George Martin and overdubbed at Abbey Road on St. Valentine’s Day 1997.

I unearthed this old song for when Ringo was coming, changed a few lyrics and it was really like the old days, I realized that we hadn’t done this for so long, but it was very comfortable. And it was still there.

Paul McCartney, from the “Flaming Pie” liner notes

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. The recording then remained the same for nine months before Paul decided to have it enhanced by an orchestral arrangement, scored by George Martin and recorded in Studio One at Abbey Road on 14 February 1997.

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

Ringo Starr, in Club Sandwich N°83, Autumn 1997:

Tell me how you came to work with Paul again, this time round.

He had this song he wanted me to play on. And that’s what happened – I went down to his studio and we played on the track. What’s it called?

‘Beautiful Night’!

Yeah, I’m sorry! He invited me to play on ‘Beautiful Night’ and I said “Sure”. I think it’s a beautiful track. […]

You are also singing on ‘Beautiful Night’.

I’m singing on the return at the end, yeah. He said, “You can sing this” and I said “Okay, thanks. What notes are they?” and sang them. When we go and do his song he’s in charge. I mean, I can give him everything I’ve got, but he’s written the song and he has a programme for it. If I do something that changes it and he likes it, then we’ll do that. But he is Mr McCartney when we do his song. And I’m Mr Ringo when we do mine. We’re just musician buddies. […]

Ringo Starr, in Club Sandwich N°83, Autumn 1997

“Beautiful Night” was released as the third and final single from “Flaming Pie”, and peaked at number 25 in the UK Singles Chart.

A promotional video directed by Julien Temple was shot in late October 1997, and premiered during the first airing of The Oprah Winfrey Show. The video had to be re-edited as a brief glimpse of a woman skinnydipping caused a minor controversy. Also appearing in the video were Ringo Starr, Linda McCartney (her final appearance in a music video) and the band Spud (although they are shown performing with McCartney, they did not contribute to the recording of the track).

“Beautiful Night” was remastered in 2016 for inclusion on the “Pure McCartney” compilation, and then in 2020 for the “Flaming Pie Archive Collection“, both times by engineer Alex Wharton. As explained on the Steve Hoffman forum:

It’s interesting that for both ‘Pure McCartney’ in 2016 and the new 2020 remaster the polarity is different. Which means something went wrong in the final mastering stage of the original 1997 issue. Because ‘Pure McCartney’ worked from a compressed and limited 1997 master, and this 2020 remaster from a tape without that compression and limiting.

by forum resident “mindgames”

Last updated on August 2, 2023

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