Somebody Who Cares

Song facts

“Somebody Who Cares” is a song from 1982 album “Tug Of War“, written the day (February 8th, 1981) before it was recorded at AIR Studios, Montserrat.

I played the album to my kids and out of all the hooks on this record, my four-year-old boy, James, sings ‘Somebody Who Cares’ and I don’t know why he chose that hook from the whole album. He’s a baby and he now knows ‘Somebody Who Cares’ and so he goes around humming it… We decided we wanted the distinctive Spanish guitar sound on the session. I had written it the day before, out in Montserrat. We used to have the weekends off, because I like to do that, otherwise you just work yourself into the ground. I like a break and then you come back so fresh. On this Sunday afternoon, I sat outside and just got my guitar and went off into a corner. I knew that Steve Gadd and Stanley Clarke were coming in the next day and we were going to do a session. So instead of just doing one of the songs that I had written, I thought that it would be really nice if I wrote something fresh and I’d play it fresh to them and we’ll all be up to the same time on the thing. So I wrote ‘Somebody Who Cares’, took it to the session but I still didn’t have a middle. So I said, ‘Hang on a couple of minutes, I’ve got a bit of a song, it’s gonna be good. Give me about an hour. Go and have a cup of tea.’ So I sat around for an hour, got the middle bit, which I was happy about and went back into the studio. Stanley started ad-libbing a bit on his bass, and I started off on my acoustic.

Paul McCartney, from Badman, Keith. The Beatles: The Dream Is Over – Off The Record 2 (p. 303)

From an interview with Newsweek, May 1982:

Did you have John Lennon in mind [when writing the Tug Of War album]?

No. But halfway through it, John was killed. I can’t believe it to this day, I can’t even say those words…But “Here Today” is the only song specifically about that. Obviously, “Tug of War” ties in…And so does “Somebody Who Cares.” I remember being aware of John’s death while writing it.

From an interview with Club Sandwich, 1982:

Andy Mackay – “Somebody Who Cares” – that beautiful song, I like that.

Paul – I wrote it out one Sunday afternoon. In Montserrat we used to take weekends off just to kinda have some holiday as well as recording, and this Sunday afternoon I was anticipating Steve Gadd’s arrival, and Steven and Stanley Clarke were coming in, and I liked the idea of writing something for them coming, you know, so it would be fresh for everyone.

Andy Mackay – The theme, in as much as I can work out a theme, is the one you have dealt with in quite a lot of songs, isn’t it, sort of resignation and optimism, sort of somewhere mixed up.

Paul – Somewhere there is someone who is going to take care of things, do you mean? I can’t think where I have used it before; I’m sure I have, though.

Andy Mackay – “Let It Be” is the same, that sort of line of thought.

Paul – That’s right, faith I suppose you’d call it.

Last updated on May 9, 2020

Lyrics