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Released in 1970

Glasses

Written by Paul McCartney • Instrumental

Last updated on August 13, 2025

Album This song officially appears on the McCartney LP.

Timeline This song was officially released in 1970

Timeline This song was written, or began to be written, in 1970, when Paul McCartney was 28 years old)

Master release

Related sessions

This song was recorded during the following studio sessions:

Related interviews

Other songs from the "McCartney" instrumental medley

“Glasses” is a fragment of a 3-parts instrumental track on Paul McCartney’s debut solo album, “McCartney“, released in April 1970 – the two other parts being “Hot As Sun” and a very few seconds of “Suicide“.

For “Glasses,” Paul used wine glasses filled with varying amounts of water to produce resonant tones, making them “sing.” The 1970 track reflected Paul’s ongoing interest in experimental sound, a curiosity that had been sparked in 1966 when Barry Miles and others introduced him to the works of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio, Cornelius Cardew, and other avant-garde composers.

ccording to “The McCartney Legacy: Volume 1: 1969 – 73” by Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair, the track was created entirely at Paul’s home. This contrasts with the recollection of Abbey Road engineer Phil McDonald, who stated in the “McCartney – Archive Collection” book:

The title “Glasses” was fun as we ended up with a huge amount of glasses all filled with water on a big table in Number 3. All glasses were meticulously filled with water to the desired pitch of the song. It seemed a very personal and warm album to do at the time, and good fun.

Phil McDonald – Engineer – From “McCartney – Archive Collection” book, 2011

When contacted, Adrian Sinclair confirmed that there are numerous errors in the Archive Collection book, and that all existing session paperwork clearly indicates no further recording work on the track beyond the December home sessions.

Wineglasses played at random and overdubbed on top of each other – the end is a section of a song called Suicide – not yet completed.

Paul McCartney – From the press release of “McCartney”, April 1970

In April 1967, during a ten-day visit to the United States to surprise his girlfriend Jane Asher for her 21st birthday, Paul — accompanied by Mal Evans — visited John and Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas, as well as Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys. During a jam session, Brian began experimenting with glasses filled with water. Paul may have kept memories of this visit to create “Glasses.”

Paul McCartney played cello, Brian Wilson tapped glasses filled with water, Michelle Phillips played drums and Papa John [Phillips] played buggle at a jam session in the Phillips’ home during Paul’s visit to Los Angeles. Paul also caught some recording sessions for The Beach Boy’s Smile Album.

From Teen Set magazine – Quoted in “Smile : the story of Brian Wilson’s lost masterpiece“, 2007

Brian then put a damper on the spontaneity of the whole affair by walking in with a tray of water-filled glasses, trying to arrange it into some sort of session.

Mal Evans – from his diary – From Here, there and everywhere (thetimes.co.uk), March 20, 2005
From the press release of “McCartney”, April 1970

Paul McCartney revisited his wine glasses technique in 1995 and in 2005. In 1995, for the Oobu Joobo radio program, he and Linda recorded an improvisation with Linda playing the wine glasses:

Inspired by Mozart’s ‘Glass Menagerie Music For Glass Harmonica‘, this bit was recorded “at the end of a rehearsal session.” In a new attempt at using a technique first heard on the McCartney LP, Linda plays wine glasses as Paul plays piano, trying to determine the key.

From “Eight Arms to Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium” by Chip Madinger and Mark Easter

In 2005, in the PBS TV special Chaos and Creation at Abbey Road, Paul demonstrated how the technique works, using a 4-track Studer machine, recording two tracks of wine glasses, one track of harmonium, and a second track of harmonium while singing the lyrics of his 1973 hit “Band On The Run“.

From Chaos and Creation at Abbey Road, 2005

Variations

Officially appears on

Bootlegs

Going further

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

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.

Buy on Amazon

The McCartney Legacy: Volume 1: 1969 – 73

The McCartney Legacy: Volume 1: 1969 – 73

In this first of a groundbreaking multivolume set, THE MCCARTNEY LEGACY, VOL 1: 1969-73 captures the life of Paul McCartney in the years immediately following the dissolution of the Beatles, a period in which McCartney recreated himself as both a man and a musician. Informed by hundreds of interviews, extensive ground up research, and thousands of never-before-seen documents THE MCCARTNEY LEGACY, VOL 1 is an in depth, revealing exploration of McCartney’s creative and personal lives beyond the Beatles.

Buy on Amazon
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