If I Take You Home Tonight

Song facts

Take a listen to that melody and you will hear an indelible harmonic signature

Elvis Costello – From The New Yorker, October 18, 2021

“If I Take You Home Tonight” is a song written by Paul McCartney during the sessions for Kisses On The Bottom, but left unused. It was finally recorded by Diana Krall, who participated to Kisses On The Bottom, and released on its album Wallflower released in 2015.

From Soundonsound.com, May 2012:

Among the suggestions producer [of Kisses On The Bottom] Tommy LiPuma made was that Paul McCartney contribute some of his own compositions to this album of standards. These would not be revised versions of well-known, old-style songs such as the Beatles’ ‘Honey Pie‘ or Wings’ ‘You Gave Me The Answer‘, but newly penned numbers. While fitting in with the overall style, these would also help to differentiate McCartney’s project from the nostalgic efforts of artists such as Rod Stewart and Robbie Williams.

“Paul played me a piano demo of ‘Only Our Hearts‘ during my first visit to Hog Hill Mill,” LiPuma recalls. “Not familiar with all of the Wings and later material, I thought the song may have been from that period, but he told me he had written it during the past few years. I liked it, and when I said it might be a good idea for Paul to write a few more originals that fit with the style of the new album, I think that inspired him and he subsequently wrote ‘My Valentine‘ during a vacation in Morocco.” […]

At least one more original was recorded but eventually not used, as LiPuma mentions: “I wouldn’t be surprised if he eventually re-records ‘If I Take You Home Tonight’, which is another relatively new composition. It’s a good song but it was still being developed and I wasn’t sure if it would fit stylistically with everything else we had done.”

Interview of Diana Krall, February 2015:

How did Paul McCartney’s “If I Take You Home Tonight” end up [on Wallflower]?

The day after Hurricane Sandy we did a rough, but it didn’t fit on [his 2012 LPKisses on the Bottom]. Years later I found the sheet music and [drummer] Karriem Riggins said, “You should do that.” I thought it was a tall order to do a new McCartney song. I asked Paul if he was OK if I should change the direction — I’m not one for changing gender in a song — but he thought it sounded really modern to keep it the way he wrote it.

I worked with Paul McCartney on “Kisses on the Bottom,” he wrote two new songs for the album — “My Valentine” was one and then another song that didn’t fit the record. I still had a copy of the music and I asked him if he was O.K. if I did the song for my record and he said “Sure,” so we recorded that and it came out just gorgeous. It’s a new Paul McCartney song that’s never been recorded that I’m pretty honored to have.

Diana Krall, from oregonlive.com, April 9, 2014

Last updated on November 7, 2021

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