I Will

I wrote quite a few songs in Rishikesh. I was doing a song, ‘I Will’, that I had as a melody for quite a long time. But, I didn’t have lyrics to it. I remember sitting around with Donovan, and may be a few others … And I played him this one and he liked it and we were trying to write some words. We kicked around a few lyrics … I kept searching for better words and I wrote my own set in the end, very simple words, straight love-song words, really. I think they’re quite effective.

Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles: Off the Record” by Keith Badman, 2008

From Wikipedia:

“I Will” is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, from their 1968 double album The Beatles (also known as “the White Album”). It was written by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon–McCartney) and features him on lead vocal, guitar, and “vocal bass”.

Background

“I Will” was one of the songs composed by the Beatles and their associates while in Rishikesh, India. Although the music came together fairly easily, the words were worked on in India, and remained unfinished even as recording began back in London. McCartney recalled that while in Rishikesh he and Donovan had written a set of lyrics with a “moon” theme, but he found them inadequate and so replaced them with “very simple words, straight love-song words”. Donovan could not recall writing any of the early lyrics for the song but said that he possibly assisted McCartney with the “shape of the chords”, in keeping with the “descending movements” in his own melodies.

McCartney also commented on “I Will”: “It’s still one of my favourite melodies that I’ve written. You just occasionally get lucky with a melody and it becomes rather complete and I think this is one of them; quite a complete tune.”

Recording

Recording for “I Will” took place at EMI Studios in London on 16 September 1968, with McCartney completing overdubs the following day. The basic track required 67 takes. George Harrison was not present at the session.

During take 19, McCartney ad-libbed an untitled song. Referred to as “Can you take me back?”, a 28-second segment of this ended up on side four of The Beatles, at the end of “Cry Baby Cry“, as what author Ian MacDonald described as “a sinister introduction to ‘Revolution 9‘”.

In take 29, McCartney, as an ad-lib, sung “won’t” in place of “will” during the first verse before John Lennon replies, “Yes you will.” McCartney chuckles after this ad-lib and then the song ends at this point. This take was included in the expanded box set of The Beatles released in 2018.

Release and reception

Apple Records released The Beatles on 22 November 1968, with “I Will” sequenced as the penultimate track on side two, between “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?” and “Julia“. In an interview for Radio Luxembourg to promote the release, McCartney emphasised the wide range of musical styles found on the double album. He said that “I Will” was a legacy of the Beatles having had to satisfy requests for styles such as rhumba during their pre-fame years in Hamburg.

Author Jonathan Gould identifies “I Will” as an effective “demure punchline” to the sexual suggestiveness of “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?”, and similar in mood and form to McCartney’s 1966 song “Here, There and Everywhere“. He also views it as lacking in genuine emotion, however, due to the lyrics and musical arrangement, and concludes: “This is one of the few instances in which the restraint Paul typically brought to his ballad singing blanches into something that sounds like simple indifference. ‘Who knows how long I’ve loved you?’ he asks, and it’s tempting to think, ‘Who cares?'” Howard Sounes welcomes the diversification of McCartney’s non-rock White Album contributions such as “Martha My Dear” and “Honey Pie” but he says of “I Will”: “[It] exemplified Paul’s weakness for the soft-centred love song. The melody was catchy, but the lyric, about loving his beloved forever and ever, etc., was the sickliest cliché, a taste of what was to come.”

Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of its release, Jacob Stolworthy of The Independent listed “I Will” at number 12 in his ranking of the White Album’s 30 tracks. He called the song “crystalline proof that no one can write a love song as effortlessly as McCartney”, adding that McCartney’s selection of it among his personal favourites is a tough choice to argue with. The song was sung in the 1994 film Love Affair, starring Annette Bening and Warren Beatty. […]

I was doing a song, I Will, that I had as a melody for quite a long time but I didn’t have any lyrics to it. I remember sitting around with Donovan, and maybe a couple of other people. We were just sitting around one evening after our day of meditation and I played him this one and he liked it and we were trying to write some words. We kicked around a few lyrics, something about the moon, but they weren’t very satisfactory and I thought the melody was better than the words so I didn’t use them. I kept searching for better words and I wrote my own set in the end; very simple words, straight love-song words really. I think they’re quite effective. It’s still one of my favourite melodies that I’ve written. You just occasionally get lucky with a melody and it becomes rather complete and I think this is one of them; quite a complete tune.

Paul McCartney – From “Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now” by Barry Miles, 1997

We’ve always been a rock & roll group, I suppose, you know. It’s just that we’re not just completely rock & roll. That’s what I was trying to say before about ‘Obladi,’ ‘USSR,’ they’re all different kinds of things. We’re not just completely one kind of group. ‘Cuz like, when we played in Hamburg, we didn’t just do rock all evening ‘cuz we had to have these sort of fat old businessmen coming in and saying… (jokingly) or THIN old businessmen, as well, were coming in and saying ‘Play a mambo. Can you do a rhumba?’ And we couldn’t just keep saying no, you know, so we had to get into mambos and rhumbas a bit. So this kind of thing is like a pretty sort of smootchy ballad– ‘I Will.’ But we have to do that kind of stuff, you know, so we always played alot of kind of things. I don’t know if it’s getting off the subject, but that’s why there’s great variety in this LP– ‘cuz in everything we do, you know, we just haven’t got one bag, The Beatles, you know. And ‘cuz on one hand you’ll get something like ‘I Will’ and then you’ll get ‘Why Don’t We Do It In The Road,’ you know. Just completely different things– completely different feelings and… But it’s me singing both of them. It’s the same fella. Uhh, and I’ve wrote both of them, you know. So you can’t explain it. I don’t know why I do ‘Why Don’t We Do It In The Road’ shouting it like that… and then do this sort of smootchy laughing American ‘Girl From Ipenema.’

Paul McCartney – From interview with Radio Luxembourg, 1968

There’s a theory that the most interesting love songs are ones about love gone wrong. I don’t subscribe to it. This is a song about the joy of love. […]

When I sit down to try and write a song, I’m often thinking, ‘Oh, I wish I could capture that feeling of first being in love.’ This song was started in February 1968, when I was in India with Jane Asher. As I recall, the melody had been around for a while, and the music came together quite quickly. It’s still one of my favourites of the melodies I’ve written. The words took a bit longer. That seems strange, I know, because it’s a pretty basic set of ideas. The folk singer Donovan, who spent some time with us on our trip to visit Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, helped with an early version of the lyric, but it didn’t quite pass muster. It was even more basic, all moon/June stuff.

Yet again, just because I was involved with Jane at the time doesn’t mean this song is addressed to, or about, Jane. When I’m writing, it’s as if I’m setting words and music to the film I’m watching in my head. It’s a declaration of love, yes, but not always to someone specific. Unless it’s to a person out there who’s listening to the song. And they have to be ready for it. It’s almost definitely not going to be a person who’s said, ‘There he goes again, writing another of those silly love songs.’ So, this is me in my troubadour mode.

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

Lyrics

Variations

• A Mono version • From "The Beatles (Mono)"
• A2009 2009 mono remaster • From "The Beatles in Mono (2009)"
• A2014 2014 remaster • From "The Beatles In Mono (Vinyl boxset - 2014)"
• B Stereo version • From "The Beatles (Stereo)"
• B2009 2009 stereo remaster • From "The Beatles • The Original Studio Recordings (2009)"
• C Take 1 • From "Anthology 3"
• C2016 Take 1. 2016 remaster • From "Anthology 3 (2016 remaster)"
• D 2018 stereo mix • From "The Beatles (50th anniversary boxset)"
• E Take 13 • From "The Beatles (50th anniversary boxset)"
• F Take 29 • From "The Beatles (50th anniversary boxset)"

Officially appears on

Bootlegs

Live performances

“I Will” has been played in 42 concerts and 1 soundchecks.

Latest concerts where “I Will” has been played

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