Cut Across Shorty (song)

Timeline This song has been recorded in 1987

Song facts

“Cut Across Shorty” is a song written by Marijohn Wilkin and Wayne P. Walker, made popular by Eddie Cochran. It was the B-side of his number 1 UK hit “Three Steps To Heaven“, in March 1960.

In 1987, Paul McCartney recorded “Cut Across Shorty” as part of the sessions for his Choba B CCCP album ; this performance remains unreleased. However, a fragment appears on a medley of several songs from the “Choba B CCCP” sessions, which leaked online in April 2010, presumably from cassettes from the legacy of former Wings roadie Trevor Jones, auctioned off by Christie’s in 1998.

Paul also played this song during the rehearsals for his 1991 “Unplugged” concert. This rehearsal was officially broadcast as part of the 1995 Oobu Joobu radio show.

If I’ve got an acoustic guitar in my hand, I tend to play certain types of songs. It all comes from playing to my own kids, although there’s a slightly different set of songs that I have for them. They used to ask me to play guitar when they were going to bed and I’d just sit there for five or ten minutes, to send them to sleep, playing things like ‘Cut Across Shorty’, the Eddie Cochran song, which I nearly did for Unplugged. I have a little batch of songs like that, for kids or for when I’m on my own or at a party, and they tend not to be songs I’ve written but from my teenage years, when I used to sit at home and practice. I used to learn ‘Pink Champagne’ so that if anyone asked if I could play a solo, I’d say, ‘Well, do you know “Pink Champagne”?’ They’re little relics from my teenage years, really.
Paul McCartney, from Club Sandwich 55/56, Winter 1990/91

Last updated on July 5, 2019

Lyrics

Now a country boy called Shorty
And a city boy named Dan
Had to prove who could run the fastest
To win miss Lucy's hand
Now Dan had all the money
And he also had the looks
But Shorty must have had something, boys
That can't be found in books

Well, a-cut across Shorty, Shorty cut across
That's what miss Lucy said
Cut across Shorty, Shorty cut across
It's you I wanna wed

Now Dan had been in training
A week before the race
He made up his mind Ol Shorty
Would end in second place
And Dan with his long legs a-flyin'
Left Shorty far behind
And Shorty heard him holler out
Miss Lucy, you'll soon be mine

But Shorty wasn't worried
There was a smile upon his face
He knew that he was a-goin' to win
'Cause Lucy had fixed the race
And just like that old story
About the turtle and the hare
When Dan crossed over the finish line
He found Shorty waiting there