Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance

“Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance” is a song written by Paul and Linda McCartney in 1972. It was originally intended for an eponymous film project that was to star the model and friend of Paul and Linda, Twiggy. However, the film was cancelled before production began.

Paul later reused the song and recorded it in 1973 for his television special “James Paul McCartney“. Despite this, the track remained officially unreleased for decades.

“Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance” was finally released in 2026, when it was included on the soundtrack album for the documentary “Man On The Run“, which explores Paul McCartney’s life and career during the 1970s and was directed by Morgan Neville.

Once Twiggy was established as a model she sought to expand her career by becoming an actress. She and Justin thought that William Faulkner’s ‘The Hanging Tree’ would make a good film project for her and decided to approach the Beatles for backing. They met John Lennon and Paul McCartney and she was to say, “For me it was like meeting God…… Paul was the one who was my hero; he was the one I’d stuck pictures of all over my desk at school and on my bedroom wall. At 13 it was him I’d screamed my head off for at the Finsbury Park Astoria. I was so excited to be meeting him at last, but trying to be cool. And he was lovely, just as I’d imagined, and he was the one I became most friends with. The Beatles did like the film idea, but we never managed to get it together”.

However, Paul suggested they contact movie director Ken Russell, and Twiggy was later to star in his film musical ‘The Boyfriend’ in 1971, for which she received two Golden Globe Awards. In 1968 there were plans for Twiggy to tour Russia and Granada Television intended making a documentary film of the trip. Unfortunately, it fell through. Twiggy said, “Paul actually wrote a song for that trip to Russia that didn’t come off – and it was ‘Back In The USSR’, which went on the Beatles’ White Album.”

After ‘The Boyfriend’, Twiggy sought further roles, and a film called ‘Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance’ was planned. The name was inspired by the Gene Kelly song ‘Broadway Melody’, which contains the words ‘gotta dance’ and the story was to be set on a cruise liner in the 1930s.

Once again, Paul wrote a song for Twiggy, this time the title song. The film was never made and Paul later used the number in his ‘James Paul McCartney’ television special.

From Sixties City – Bill Harry’s Sixties – articles from the creator of iconic 60s music paper Mersey Beat

McCartney writes for Twiggy!

PAUL McCARTNEY will write the music, “in Thirties style” for a forthcoming 90-minute TV musical starring Twiggy. McCartney, who has already written the title tune, “Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance,” will compose several other songs for the musical which goes before the cameras in California early in February.

Shooting schedule is six weeks. When the film is completed, it will be sold for screening in America and Britain. “Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance” was scripted from an original story by Twiggy’s producer/ manager Justin de Villeneuve, who co-produces with Bob Banner, one of America’s major TV producers.

Playing opposite Twiggy will be her Boy Friend co-star Tommy Tune, who will also choreograph the musical.

From Melody Maker – October 27, 1973

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