Souvenir

Song facts

“Souvenir” is a song from 1997 album “Flaming Pie”. From the liner notes:

Written during a relaxing holiday in Jamaica in January 1995, the later studio recording of ‘Souvenir’ saw Paul anxious to replicate the easy atmosphere of his original demo, which carried the additional sounds of a ringing telephone and tropical downpour. So the demo was laid into the multi-track tape as a guide for the studio recording and each element of the original was carefully listened to and replicated. The 78-rpm-like coda was added after Jeff and Paul saw co-engineer Jon Jacobs carrying a key-fob with a built-in sound sampler. The end vocal effect was added using this as the medium.

I had a sort of Wilson Pickett, R&B number in mind wit this. I could imagine some soul guy really getting to grips with it. It’s a favourite of mine and I’m looking forward, hopefully to some R&B singer doing it.

Paul McCartney, from the liner notes of “Flaming Pie”

I like some songs because they can get covered by a black singer. ‘The Long And Winding Road’ was written with Ray Charles in mind. This one was like Wilson Pickett. I could imagine someone really getting to grips with that one. I cut a demo of the track when I was on holiday in Jamaica and I was anxious that I stayed close to the feel of the original take when I started work on the track in England with Jeff Lynne. I said to Jeff, ‘Let’s take this demo but instead of what we normally do, take all the information off and renew it, and wreck it. Let’s make sure that everything that’s going on is at least as good and has the flavour of the demo.’ That song’s a little favourite of mine. I’m looking forward, I hope, to an R&B singer doing it. I would have loved it as a single but I knew that no one on earth would ever have chosen it as a single.

Paul McCartney, from Badman, Keith. The Beatles: Off The Record 2 – The Dream is Over

Mark Lewisohn, in Club Sandwich n°82, Summer 1997:

Pretty much everyone who’s anyone has covered a Paul McCartney song but the writer himself warms the most to soul recordings of his music. He will, occasionally, aim to spark this by imagining certain artists as he writes, thinking of Ray Charles with ‘The Long And Winding Road’ and Aretha Franklin with ‘Let It Be’. (Remarkably, both did indeed release their versions of these songs.) ‘Souvenir’ is cut of the same cloth, written by Paul during a particularly relaxing afternoon on holiday in Jamaica at the beginning of January 1995. A studio recording of Souvenir did not occur for another year, but Paul was nonetheless anxious to replicate the atmosphere of his original Jamaican demo, and to avoid, as Paul says, “introducing an uptight feeling to something relaxing”. The final touch – the scratchy 78rpm sound reminiscent of ‘Honey Pie’ – was added after Paul observed that his co-engineer Jon Jacobs carried with him a key-fob with a built-in sound sampler. The vocal effect was added to the end of the song using this as the medium.

“Souvenir” was remastered in 2016 for inclusion on the “Pure McCartney” compilation, and then in 2020 for the “Flaming Pie Archive Collection“, both times by engineer Alex Wharton. As explained on the Steve Hoffman forum:

It’s interesting that for both ‘Pure McCartney’ in 2016 and the new 2020 remaster the polarity is different. Which means something went wrong in the final mastering stage of the original 1997 issue. Because ‘Pure McCartney’ worked from a compressed and limited 1997 master, and this 2020 remaster from a tape without that compression and limiting.

by forum resident “mindgames”

Last updated on September 25, 2020

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