Hey Diddle

“Hey Diddle” was first recorded as an instrumental basic track on October 26, 1970, at Columbia Studios in New York, during the Ram sessions.

Paul McCartney revisited the song several times in the following years. In 1973, he rehearsed it for the James Paul McCartney television special, and in July 1974 he overdubbed country-style elements with the intention of including it on the unreleased Cold Cuts rarities album.

A separate home recording was made at the McCartney residence in Campbeltown, Scotland, on June 6, 1971. Performed together with “Bip Bop,” this version was later issued on the 2001 compilation Wingspan: Hits and History. Both songs closed the collection, marking the first official release of “Hey Diddle.”

Further mixes appeared in later reissues: the Dixon Van Winkle Mix on the 2012 Ram Archive Collection, and the Ernie Winfrey Mix on the 2014 Venus and Mars reissue. In 2018, the Wild Life Archive Collection included a previously unreleased demo home recording of the song.

In understanding how lyrics come about, you have to appreciate the stage of life of the writer. Today, I might write totally differently, but when you have little kids, as I did at this time, you’re often composing ditties like ‘Her Majesty’ or ‘Hey Diddle’ or something like this.

You’re just not sitting there trying to be too meaningful. I used to do these little songs just to amuse the kids. But the truth is I still write for kids. Maybe it means I’ve never fully grown up, but I’ve got one that’s called ‘The Bouncy Song’, and one, I confess, called ‘Running Around The Room’, which is another family classic. Then we have one that goes, ‘Fishes, fishes, fishes swimming in the sea’. There are quite a few of them from when the kids were growing up – songs I didn’t release.

Paul McCartney – From “The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present“, 2021

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Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 2) 1990-2012

This new book by Luca Perasi traces Paul McCartney's post-Beatles output from 1990 to 2012 in the form of 250 song entries, filled with details about the recordings, stories behind the sessions and musical analysis. His pop albums, his forays into classical and avant-garde music, his penchant for covering old standards: a complete book to discover how these languages cross-pollinate and influence each other.The second volume in a series that has established itself as a unique guide to take the reader on a journey into the astonishing creativity of Paul McCartney.Read our exclusive interview with Luca Perasi

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