The Long And Winding Road

Written by Lennon - McCartney

Album This song officially appears on the Let It Be (Limited Edition) LP.
Timeline This song has been officially released in 1970

Master release


Related interviews


Interview for the Evening Standard

Tuesday, April 21-22, 1970 • From Evening Standard



And It Happened Like This

Mar 01, 1993 • From Club Sandwich


The Club Sandwich Interview

Winter 1994 • From Club Sandwich



You Gave Me The Answer (2018)

2018 • From paulmccartney.com


The real Paul McCartney faces his demons

October 2018 • From MOJO


Paul McCartney: 'É tempo de falarmos a verdade'

Feb 22, 2019 • From O Estado de S.Paulo


Paul McCartney Is Still Trying to Figure Out Love

Nov 29, 2020 • From New York Times

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Song facts

From Wikipedia:

“The Long and Winding Road” is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1970 album Let It Be. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. When issued as a single in May 1970, a month after the Beatles’ break-up, it became the group’s 20th and last number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States.

The main recording of the song took place in January 1969 and featured a sparse musical arrangement. When preparing the tapes from these sessions for release in April 1970, producer Phil Spector added orchestral and choral overdubs. Spector’s modifications angered McCartney to the point that when the latter made his case in the English High Court for the Beatles’ disbandment, he cited the treatment of “The Long and Winding Road” as one of six reasons for doing so. New versions of the song with simpler instrumentation were subsequently released by McCartney and by the Beatles.

In 2011, Rolling Stone ranked “The Long and Winding Road” at number 90 on their list of 100 greatest Beatles songs.

Inspiration

Paul McCartney said he came up with the title “The Long and Winding Road” during one of his first visits to his property High Park Farm, near Campbeltown in Scotland, which he purchased in June 1966. The phrase was inspired by the sight of a road “stretching up into the hills” in the remote Highlands surroundings of lochs and distant mountains. He wrote the song at his farm in 1968, inspired by the growing tension among the Beatles. Based on other comments McCartney has made, author Howard Sounes writes, the lyrics can be seen as McCartney expressing his anguish at the direction of his personal life, as well as a nostalgic look back at the Beatles’ history. McCartney recalled: “I just sat down at my piano in Scotland, started playing and came up with that song, imagining it was going to be done by someone like Ray Charles. I have always found inspiration in the calm beauty of Scotland and again it proved the place where I found inspiration.”

Once back in London, McCartney recorded a demo version of “The Long and Winding Road” during one of the recording sessions for The Beatles. Later, he offered the song to Tom Jones on the condition that the singer release it as his next single. In Jones’ recollection, he was forced to turn it down since his record company were about to issue “Without Love” as a single.

The composition takes the form of a piano-based ballad, with conventional chord changes. McCartney described the chords as “slightly jazzy” and in keeping with Charles’ style. The song’s home key is E-flat major but it also uses the relative C minor. The opening theme is repeated throughout. The song lacks a traditional chorus, and the melody and lyrics are ambiguous about the opening stanza’s position in the piece. In this way, according to musicologist Alan Pollack, it is unclear whether the song has just begun, is in the verse, or is in the bridge.

In an interview in 1994, McCartney said of “The Long and Winding Road”: “It’s rather a sad song. I like writing sad songs, it’s a good bag to get into because you can actually acknowledge some deeper feelings of your own and put them in it. It’s a good vehicle, it saves having to go to a psychiatrist.” He also told his biographer Barry Miles in the 1990s that the song was “all about the unattainable; the door you never quite reach … the road that you never get to the end of”.

Recording – January 1969

McCartney premiered “The Long and Winding Road” on 7 January 1969 during the Beatles’ filmed rehearsals at Twickenham Film Studios. After they abandoned thoughts of returning to public performance, and instead decided to make a new album, the band recorded several takes of the song at their Apple Studio in central London on 26 January and again on 31 January. The line-up was McCartney on lead vocals and piano, John Lennon on six-string bass guitar, George Harrison on electric guitar played with a Leslie speaker effect, Ringo Starr on drums, and guest keyboardist Billy Preston on electric piano. Lennon, usually the band’s rhythm guitarist, made several mistakes on the recording.

In May 1969, Glyn Johns, who had been asked by the Beatles to compile and mix the Get Back album from the sessions, selected the 26 January recording. The 31 January take, which had slightly different lyrics and was recorded with Johns in an unofficial producer’s role, was used in the film, subsequently titled Let It Be.

Recording – April 1970

In early 1970, Lennon and Harrison asked the Beatles’ manager, Allen Klein, to turn over the January 1969 recordings to American producer Phil Spector, in the hope of salvaging an album to accompany the Let It Be documentary film. McCartney had become estranged from his bandmates at this time, due to his opposition to Klein’s appointment as manager. Several weeks were lost before McCartney replied to messages requesting his approval for Spector to begin working on the recordings. Spector chose to return to the same 26 January recording of “The Long and Winding Road”.

Spector made various changes to the songs. His most dramatic embellishments occurred on 1 April 1970, the last ever Beatles recording session, when he added orchestral overdubs to “The Long and Winding Road”, “Across the Universe” and “I Me Mine” at EMI Studios. The only member of the Beatles present was Starr, who played drums with the session musicians to create Spector’s characteristic Wall of Sound. Already known for his eccentric behaviour in the studio, Spector was in a peculiar mood that day, according to balance engineer Peter Bown: “He wanted tape echo on everything, he had to take a different pill every half-hour and had his bodyguard with him constantly. He was on the point of throwing a wobbly, saying ‘I want to hear this, I want to hear that. I must have this, I must have that.'” The orchestra became so annoyed by Spector’s behaviour that the musicians refused to play any further; at one point, Bown left for home, forcing Spector to telephone him and persuade him to come back after Starr had told Spector to calm down.

Spector succeeded in overdubbing “The Long and Winding Road”, using eight violins, four violas, four cellos, three trumpets, three trombones, two guitars, and a choir of 14 women. The orchestra was scored and conducted by Richard Hewson, a young London arranger who had worked with Apple artists Mary Hopkin and James Taylor. This lush orchestral treatment was in direct contrast to the Beatles’ stated intentions for a “real” recording when they began work on Get Back.

On 2 April, Spector sent each of the Beatles an acetate of the completed album with a note saying: “If there is anything you’d like done to the album, let me know and I’ll be glad to help … If you wish, please call me about anything regarding the album tonight.” All four of the band members sent him their approval by telegram.

Recording – Dispute over Spector’s overdubs

According to author Peter Doggett, McCartney had felt the need to accommodate his bandmates when accepting Spector’s version of Let It Be; but, following his announcement of the Beatles’ break-up in a press release accompanying the release of his debut solo album, McCartney, on 9 April, he repeatedly listened again to “The Long and Winding Road” and came to resent Spector’s additions. On 14 April, with manufacturing underway for Let It Be, he sent a terse letter to Klein, demanding that the harp be removed from the song and that the other added instrumentation and voices be reduced. McCartney concluded the letter with the words: “Don’t ever do it again.” Klein attempted to phone McCartney but he had changed his number without informing Apple; Klein then sent a telegram asking McCartney to contact him or Spector about his concerns. According to Klein, “The following day, a message was relayed to me [from McCartney] that the letter spoke for itself.” With Let It Be scheduled for release in advance of the film, Klein allowed the production process to continue with Spector’s version of “The Long and Winding Road” intact.

In an interview published by the Evening Standard in two parts on 21 and 22 April 1970, McCartney said:

The album was finished a year ago, but a few months ago American record producer Phil Spector was called in by John Lennon to tidy up some of the tracks. But a few weeks ago, I was sent a re-mixed version of my song “The Long and Winding Road” with harps, horns, an orchestra and women’s choir added. No one had asked me what I thought. I couldn’t believe it. I would never have female voices on a Beatles record.

The band’s usual producer, George Martin, called the remixes “so uncharacteristic” of the Beatles. Johns, who was denied a production credit by Lennon, later described Spector’s embellishments as “revolting … just puke”.

McCartney asked Klein to dissolve the Beatles’ partnership, but was refused. Exasperated,[citation needed] he took the case to the High Court in London in early 1971, naming Klein and the other Beatles as defendants. Among the six reasons McCartney gave for dissolving the Beatles was that Klein’s company, ABKCO, had imposed changes to “The Long and Winding Road” without consulting McCartney. In his written affidavit, Starr countered this statement by saying that when Spector had sent acetates of Let It Be to each of the Beatles for their approval, with a request also for feedback: “We all said yes. Even at the beginning Paul said yes. I spoke to him on the phone, and said, ‘Did you like it?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, it’s OK.’ He didn’t put it down.” Starr added: “And then suddenly he didn’t want it to go out. Two weeks after that, he wanted to cancel it.” Author Nicholas Schaffner commented that, in light of McCartney’s contention in the High Court, it was surprising that he personally accepted the band’s Grammy Award for Let It Be in March 1971 – when the album won in the category Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special – and that he chose to feature his wife Linda’s voice so prominently on his post-Beatles recordings.

Speaking to music journalist Richard Williams soon after the overdubbing sessions, Spector said that he had asked whether any of the Beatles would like to help him produce the album, but none of them had wanted to. He later said he was forced into orchestrating “The Long and Winding Road” to cover the poor quality of Lennon’s bass playing; Spector also denied that McCartney was not consulted, saying that he had first contacted McCartney about the choice of musical arranger. In his book Revolution in the Head, Beatles scholar Ian MacDonald wrote: “The song was designed as a standard to be taken up by mainstream balladeers … It features some atrocious bass-playing by Lennon, prodding clumsily around as if uncertain of the harmonies and making many comical mistakes. Lennon’s crude bass playing on ‘The Long and Winding Road’, though largely accidental, amounts to sabotage when presented as finished work.” In 2003, Spector called McCartney’s criticism “hypocritical”, alleging that “Paul had no problem picking up the Academy Award [sic] for the Let It Be movie soundtrack, nor did he have any problem in using my arrangement of the string and horn and choir parts when he performed it during 25 years of touring on his own. If Paul wants to get into a pissing contest about it, he’s got me mixed up with someone who gives a shit.”

Release

The song was released on the Let It Be album on 8 May 1970. On 11 May, seven days before the album’s North American release, Apple issued “The Long and Winding Road” as a single in the United States with “For You Blue” on the B-side. The single was released in several European countries but not the United Kingdom. In the context of the recent news regarding the Beatles’ split, the song captured the sadness that many listeners felt.

In the US, “For You Blue” gained sufficient radio airplay for Billboard to chart the two songs together, as a double-sided hit. The record was similarly listed as a double A-side when it topped Canada’s singles chart. On 13 June 1970, it became the Beatles’ twentieth and final number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and held the top position for a second week. The band thereby set the all-time record for number of chart-topping singles on the Billboard Hot 100. The Beatles achieved this feat in a period of less than six-and-a-half years, starting with “I Want to Hold Your Hand” on 1 February 1964, during which they topped the Hot 100 in one out of every six weeks. “The Long and Winding Road” also topped the US charts compiled by Cash Box and Record World, giving the band their 22nd and 23rd number-one hits on those charts.

The single had a relatively brief run on the Billboard Hot 100 and its contemporary US sales were insufficient for gold accreditation by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In February 1999, “The Long and Winding Road” was certified platinum by the RIAA for sales of 1,000,000.

Critical reception

Let It Be received largely unfavourable reviews from music critics, many of whom ridiculed Spector’s use of orchestration, particularly on “The Long and Winding Road”. In his album review for Melody Maker, Richard Williams wrote that “Paul’s songs seem to be getting looser and less concise, and Spector’s orchestrations add to the Bacharach atmosphere. The strings add a pleasant fullness in places, but intrude badly near the end and the harps are too much.” Rolling Stone‘s reviewer, John Mendelsohn, was especially critical of Spector’s work, saying: “He’s rendered ‘The Long and Winding Road’ … virtually unlistenable with hideously cloying strings and a ridiculous choir that serve only to accentuate the listlessness of Paul’s vocal and the song’s potential for further mutilation at the hands of the countless schlock-mongers who will undoubtedly trip all over one another in their haste to cover it.” Mendelsohn said that while the song was a “slightly lesser chapter in the ongoing story of McCartney as facile romanticist”, “it might have eventually begun to grow on one as unassumingly charming” without Spector’s “oppressive mush”.

In 1973, musicologist and critic Wilfrid Mellers wrote: “The music has a tremendous expectancy … Whether or no Paul approved of the plush scoring of ‘The Long and Winding Road’, it works not because it guys the feeling but because the feeling has integrity.” MacDonald said: “With its heart-breaking suspensions and yearning backward glances from the sad wisdom of the major key to the lost loves and illusions of the minor, ‘The Long and Winding Road’ is one of the most beautiful things McCartney ever wrote. Its words, too, are among his most poignant, particularly the reproachful lines of the brief four-bar middle section. A shame Lennon didn’t listen more generously.”

According to Williams, writing in his book Phil Spector: Out of His Head, Spector’s mistake was in “taking McCartney at his face value” and emphasising the sentimental qualities that George Martin’s orchestral arrangements for the Beatles had successfully tempered. Williams added: “Some might say that this track, above all others, epitomises Paul McCartney, and that when Spector sent the saccharine strings sweeping in after the first line of vocal, he was merely highlighting the reality.” In a 2003 review for Mojo, shortly after the announcement that McCartney planned to issue “a string-less Let It Be“, John Harris opined: “As someone who experiences a Proustian rush every time the orchestra crash-lands in ‘The Long and Winding Road’, I can only implore him to think again. Besides, underneath all the Wagnerian gloop, John’s bass playing is horribly out of tune …” Referring to the version subsequently released without the controversial overdubs, Adam Sweeting of The Guardian said the song was “indubitably improved by the removal of Spector’s wall of schmaltz” but “still teeth-clenchingly mawkish”.

In 2011, Rolling Stone placed “The Long and Winding Road” at number 90 on its list of “The 100 Greatest Beatles Songs”. On a similar list compiled by Mojo in 2006, the song appeared at number 27. In his commentary for the magazine, Brian Wilson described it as his “all time favourite Beatles track”, saying that while the Beatles were “genius songwriters”, this song was distinguished by a “heart-and-soul melody”. Wilson concluded: “When they broke up I was heartbroken. I think they should have kept going.”

Other Beatles and McCartney versions

Since the original release in 1970, there have been six additional recordings released by McCartney. After he had resisted playing any of his Beatles songs with his band Wings, he included “The Long and Winding Road” in the set list for Wings’ 1975–76 world tour. A live version appeared on the 1976 album Wings over America.

McCartney re-recorded “The Long and Winding Road” for the soundtrack to his 1984 film Give My Regards to Broad Street. George Martin produced the track, which includes saxophone accompaniment and what authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter describe as a Las Vegas-style musical arrangement. A second new studio recording of the song was made by McCartney in 1989 and used as a B-side of single releases from his Flowers in the Dirt album, starting with the “Postcard Pack” vinyl format of “This One“.

On McCartney’s 1989–90 world tour in support of Flowers in the Dirt – his first world tour since 1975–76 – the song was performed with a musical backing that, in Kenneth Womack’s view, “clearly attempts to replicate” the strings added by Spector in 1970. The version released on the live album from the tour, Tripping the Live Fantastic, was the only song taken from McCartney’s two April 1990 shows at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

The 1996 Beatles’ outtakes compilation Anthology 3 includes the original 26 January 1969 take, without Spector’s overdubs. “The Long and Winding Road” provided the working title for Apple executive Neil Aspinall’s early version of the documentary film that became the 1995 TV series The Beatles Anthology. The title was changed in the 1990s after Harrison objected to the project being named after McCartney’s song.

In 2003, McCartney persuaded Starr and Ono (as Lennon’s widow) to release Let It Be… Naked. McCartney said that his long-standing dissatisfaction with the released version of “The Long and Winding Road” was partly the impetus for the new version. The album included a take of the song from 31 January 1969. With no strings or other added instrumentation, it was closer to the Beatles’ original intention than the 1970 version. This take is also the one seen in the film Let It Be and on the Beatles’ 2015 video compilation 1. Starr said of the Let It Be… Naked version: “There’s nothing wrong with Phil’s strings [on the 1970 release], this is just a different attitude to listening. But it’s been 30-odd years since I’ve heard it without all that and it just blew me away.”

“The Long and Winding Road” has continued to be a staple of McCartney’s post-Beatles concert repertoire. In July 2005, he performed the song to close the Live 8 concert in London. On his 2009 tours, McCartney played it as part of a nostalgia-filled set that included tributes to Linda, Lennon and Harrison. In the case of “The Long and Winding Road”, the performance was accompanied by screen-projected photos taken by Linda of the family’s Arizona ranch, including the horse trail she and McCartney rode shortly before her death. […]

It doesn’t sound like [Ray Charles] at all, because it’s me singing and I don’t sound anything like Ray, but sometimes you get a person in your mind, just for an attitude, just for a place to be, so that your mind is somewhere rather than nowhere, and you place it by thinking, Oh, I love that Ray Charles, and think, Well, what might he do then? So that was in my mind, and would have probably had some bearing on the chord structure of it, which is slightly jazzy. I think I could attribute that to having Ray in my mind when I wrote that one.

It’s a rather sad song. I like writing sad songs, it’s a good bag to get into because you can actually acknowledge some deeper feelings of your own and put them in it. It’s a good vehicle, it saves having to go to a psychiatrist.
Songwriting often performs that feat, you say it but you don’t embarrass yourself because it’s only a song, or is it? You are putting the things that are bothering you on the table and you are reviewing them, but because it’s a song, you don’t have to argue with anyone.

I was a bit flipped out and tripped out at that time. It’s a sad song because it’s all about the unattainable; the door you never quite reach. This is the road that you never get to the end of.

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

From The Usenet Guide to Beatles Recording Variations:

[a] stereo 26 Mar, 2 Apr 1970.
UK: Apple PXS 1 and PCS 7096 Let It Be 1970, Apple PCSP 718 The Beatles 1967-1970 1973.
US: Apple 2832 single 1970, Apple AR 34001 Let It Be 1970, Apple SKBO-3404 The Beatles 1967-1970 1973.
CD: EMI CDP 7 46447 2 Let It Be 1987, EMI CDP 7 97039 2 The Beatles 1967-1970 1993.

[b] stereo 1996. edited.
CD: Apple CDP 8 34451 2 Anthology 3 1996.

The original performance of this take, bootlegged since 1970, is heard in mix [b] from Anthology 3. The standard mix [a] removes the Beatles’ instrumental work and part of the vocal (the second bridge) in favor of orchestra and strings recorded in April 1970.

(This take is redated from 31 Jan based on Mark Lewisohn’s notes on Anthology 3. The take used in the film Let It Be is still dated to 31 Jan. No published evidence supports either date over the other.)

Those orchestral overdubs added to “The Long And Winding Road” would cause the ire of Paul McCartney when he finally listened to Phil Spector’s mix. On April 14, 1970, he would write the following letter to Allen Klein:

Dear Sir,

In future, no one will be allowed to add to or subtract from a recording of one of my songs without my permission.

I had considered orchestrating ‘The Long And Winding Road’ but I had decided against it. I, therefore, want it altered to these specifications:-

1. Strings, horns, voices and all added noises to be reduced in volume.
2. Vocal and Beatle instrumentation to be brought up in volume.
3. Harp to be removed completely at the end of the song and original piano notes to be substituted.
4. Don’t ever do it again.

Signed

Paul McCartney

c.c. Phil Spector
John Eastman

A few weeks ago, I was sent a remixed version of my song ‘The Long And Winding Road’ with harps, horns, an orchestra, and a women’s choir added. No one had asked me what I thought. I couldn’t believe it. I would never have female voices on a Beatles record. The record came with a note from Allen Klein saying he thought the changes were necessary. I don’t blame Phil Spector for doing it, but it just goes to show that it’s no good me sitting here thinking I’m in control because obviously I’m not. Anyway, I’ve sent Klein a letter asking for some things to be altered, but I haven’t received an answer yet.

Paul McCartney – Interview with Ray Conolly, from the “Evening Standard”, April 16, 1970

Allen Klein decided – possibly having consulted the others, but certainly not me – that Let It Be would be re-produced for disc by Phil Spector.

So now we were getting a ‘re-producer’ instead of just a producer, and he added on all sorts of stuff – singing ladies on The Long And Winding Road – backing that I perhaps wouldn’t have put on. I mean, I don’t think it made it the worst record ever, but the fact that now people were putting stuff on our records that certainly one of us didn’t know about was wrong. I’m not sure whether the others knew about it. It was just, ‘Oh, get it finished up. Go on – do whatever you want.’ We were all getting fed up.

Paul McCartney – Anthology

I spoke to Paul on the phone and said, ‘Did you like it?’, and he said, ‘Yeah, it’s OK.’ He didn’t put it down. And then suddenly he didn’t want it to go out. Two weeks after that, he wanted to cancel it.

Ringo Starr

We were never asked if it was okay to put all that stuff (orchestra/backing vocals) on ‘The Long And Winding Road’. If I had been asked, and someone had said, ‘Is it okay to do it, I’d like to do it like this,’ then I might have said, ‘Yeah, it’s okay to do it.’ But I was moaning about it because I was just presented with this finished record. Allen Klein said, ‘Phil (Spector) had mixed the record.’ In fact it says on the record, ‘Reproduced for disc, a new phase’. It wasn’t so much that I hate screaming violins and women singing, which is how it came out like. I love that. In fact, I really love Phil for that. He’s the master of that. But the point is, I hadn’t been asked. If I had put it on it, I wouldn’t have minded. But the thing is, it just appeared and they say it’s your new record and I’m saying, ‘What? Who did all that?’ That was the problem.

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

I thought the orchestral work on it was totally uncharacteristic. We had established a particular style of music over the years, generally overlaid music on most Beatles tracks, and I felt that what Phil Spector had done was not only uncharacteristic, but wrong. I was totally disappointed with what happened to Let It Be.

George Martin – From “The Beatles: Off the Record” by Keith Badman

Last updated on January 4, 2022

The book "The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present", published in 2021, covers Paul McCartney's early Liverpool days, the Beatles, Wings, and solo careers, by pairing the lyrics of 154 of his songs with first-person commentaries of the circumstances in which they were written, the people and places that inspired them, and what he thinks of them now.

"The Long And Winding Road" is one of the 154 songs covered.

Lyrics

The long and winding road
That leads to your door
Will never disappear
I've seen that road before
It always leads me here
Lead me to you door

The wild and windy night
That the rain washed away
Has left a pool of tears
Crying for the day
Why leave me standing here
Let me know the way

Many times I've been alone
And many times I've cried
Any way you'll never know
The many ways I've tried

But still they lead me back
To the long winding road
You left me standing here
A long long time ago
Don't leave me waiting here
Lead me to your door

But still they lead me back
To the long winding road
You left me standing here
A long long time ago
Don't keep me waiting here
Lead me to your door
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Officially appears on


Let It Be (Limited Edition)

LP • Released in 1970

3:38 • Studio versionA • Stereo

Paul McCartney :
Piano, Vocals
Ringo Starr :
Drums
John Lennon :
Bass
George Harrison :
Guitar
George Martin :
Producer
Richard Hewson :
Orchestra arrangement
Phil Spector :
Producer
Peter Bown :
Recording engineer
Glyn Johns :
Recording engineer
Unknown musician(s) :
Eighteen violins, Four cellos, Four violas, Fourteen vocalists, Harp, Three trombones, Three trumpets

Session Recording:
Jan 26, 1969
Studio :
Apple Studios, 3 Savile Row, London

Session Orchestra overdubs:
Apr 01, 1970
Studio :
EMI Studios, Studio One, Abbey Road

Session Mixing:
Apr 02, 1970
Studio :
EMI Studios, Room 4, Abbey Road


The Long and Winding Road / For You Blue

7" Single • Released in 1970

3:38 • Studio versionA • Stereo

Paul McCartney :
Piano, Vocals
Ringo Starr :
Drums
John Lennon :
Bass
George Harrison :
Guitar
George Martin :
Producer
Richard Hewson :
Orchestra arrangement
Phil Spector :
Producer
Peter Bown :
Recording engineer
Glyn Johns :
Recording engineer
Unknown musician(s) :
Eighteen violins, Four cellos, Four violas, Fourteen vocalists, Harp, Three trombones, Three trumpets

Session Recording:
Jan 26, 1969
Studio :
Apple Studios, 3 Savile Row, London

Session Orchestra overdubs:
Apr 01, 1970
Studio :
EMI Studios, Studio One, Abbey Road

Session Mixing:
Apr 02, 1970
Studio :
EMI Studios, Room 4, Abbey Road


Let It Be

LP • Released in 1970

3:38 • Studio versionA • Stereo

Paul McCartney :
Piano, Vocals
Ringo Starr :
Drums
John Lennon :
Bass
George Harrison :
Guitar
George Martin :
Producer
Richard Hewson :
Orchestra arrangement
Phil Spector :
Producer
Peter Bown :
Recording engineer
Glyn Johns :
Recording engineer
Unknown musician(s) :
Eighteen violins, Four cellos, Four violas, Fourteen vocalists, Harp, Three trombones, Three trumpets

Session Recording:
Jan 26, 1969
Studio :
Apple Studios, 3 Savile Row, London

Session Orchestra overdubs:
Apr 01, 1970
Studio :
EMI Studios, Studio One, Abbey Road

Session Mixing:
Apr 02, 1970
Studio :
EMI Studios, Room 4, Abbey Road


1967-1970 (US version, 1973)

Official album • Released in 1973

3:38 • Studio versionA • Stereo

Paul McCartney :
Piano, Vocals
Ringo Starr :
Drums
John Lennon :
Bass
George Harrison :
Guitar
George Martin :
Producer
Richard Hewson :
Orchestra arrangement
Phil Spector :
Producer
Peter Bown :
Recording engineer
Glyn Johns :
Recording engineer
Unknown musician(s) :
Eighteen violins, Four cellos, Four violas, Fourteen vocalists, Harp, Three trombones, Three trumpets

Session Recording:
Jan 26, 1969
Studio :
Apple Studios, 3 Savile Row, London

Session Orchestra overdubs:
Apr 01, 1970
Studio :
EMI Studios, Studio One, Abbey Road

Session Mixing:
Apr 02, 1970
Studio :
EMI Studios, Room 4, Abbey Road


1967-1970 (UK version, 1973)

LP • Released in 1973

3:38 • Studio versionA • Stereo

Paul McCartney :
Piano, Vocals
Ringo Starr :
Drums
John Lennon :
Bass
George Harrison :
Guitar
George Martin :
Producer
Richard Hewson :
Orchestra arrangement
Phil Spector :
Producer
Peter Bown :
Recording engineer
Glyn Johns :
Recording engineer
Unknown musician(s) :
Eighteen violins, Four cellos, Four violas, Fourteen vocalists, Harp, Three trombones, Three trumpets

Session Recording:
Jan 26, 1969
Studio :
Apple Studios, 3 Savile Row, London

Session Orchestra overdubs:
Apr 01, 1970
Studio :
EMI Studios, Studio One, Abbey Road

Session Mixing:
Apr 02, 1970
Studio :
EMI Studios, Room 4, Abbey Road


Wings Over America

Official live • Released in 1976

4:29 • LiveL1

Paul McCartney :
Piano, Producer, Vocals
Linda McCartney :
Keyboard, Vocals
Denny Laine :
Bass, Vocals
Jimmy McCulloch :
Electric guitar, Vocals
Joe English :
Drums, Vocals
Mark Vigars :
Assistant mixing engineer
Phil McDonald :
Mixing engineer, Overdubs recording
Steve Howard :
Trumpet
Jack Maxson :
Recording engineer
Tom Walsh :
Assistant recording engineer

Concert From the concert in Kansas City, USA on May 29, 1976


Give My Regards To Broad Street (CD version)

Official album • Released in 1984

3:57 • Studio versionB • Stereo

Paul McCartney :
Piano, Vocal
George Martin :
Producer
Geoff Emerick :
Recording engineer (?)
Dave Mattacks :
Drums
Jon Jacobs :
Assistant engineer (?)
Herbie Flowers :
Bass
Stuart Breed :
Assistant engineer (?)
Dick Morrisey :
Sax
John Kelly :
Recording engineer (?)
Trevor Barstow :
Keyboards
The London Community Gospel Choir :
Backing vocals

Session Recording:
Between December 1982 and July 1984


Give My Regards To Broad Street (LP version)

Official album • Released in 1984

3:47 • Studio version • Stereo


Figure of Eight

CD Single • Released in 1989

Studio versionC


Flowers In The Dirt - Special Package

Official album • Released in 1990

3:51 • Studio versionC • From the video "Put It There"


Bootlegs


O.P.D.

Unofficial album • Released in 1969

3:44 • Studio version • From Glyn Johns' 2nd "Get Back" compilation

Session Mixing:
March - May 1969
Studio :
Olympic Sound Studios, London

Session Mixing:
May 09, 1969
Studio :
Olympic Sound Studios, London






Films


The Long and Winding Road

1990 • For Paul McCartney

Live performances

“The Long And Winding Road” has been played in 521 concerts and 10 soundchecks.

Latest concerts where The Long And Winding Road has been played




2015 ATA Management Conference & Exhibition (private show)

Oct 19, 2015 • USA • Philadelphia • Pennsylvania Convention Center




Going further


Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989

With 25 albums of pop music, 5 of classical – a total of around 500 songs – released over the course of more than half a century, Paul McCartney's career, on his own and with Wings, boasts an incredible catalogue that's always striving to free itself from the shadow of The Beatles. The stories behind the songs, demos and studio recordings, unreleased tracks, recording dates, musicians, live performances and tours, covers, events: Music Is Ideas Volume 1 traces McCartney's post-Beatles output from 1970 to 1989 in the form of 346 song sheets, filled with details of the recordings and stories behind the sessions. Accompanied by photos, and drawing on interviews and contemporary reviews, this reference book draws the portrait of a musical craftsman who has elevated popular song to an art-form.

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Contribute!

Have you spotted an error on the page? Do you want to suggest new content? Or do you simply want to leave a comment ? Please use the form below!

Bruce Neuschwander 1 year ago

Greetings,

My wife, Cindy, has just self-published 2B Determined, a children's book about shelter dogs who become sniffer dogs. It is now available in the Amazon Store:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C3MVCGL5
I am developing the website for chocolatepuddlepress.com and would like to use the first stanza of The Long and Winding Road as a streaming banner because it tenderly touches on one of the story's themes - the search for a forever home.
I am not able to find the copyright owner to request permission to use the stanza. Would you be so kind as to point me in the right direction.
Many thanks to Paul for being part of our lives; I am 72 and purchased Let It Be upon its release. I think that by displaying the stanza the words and theme will pass on to a younger generation.
Thanks for your help.
Bruce Neuschwander
Chocolate Puddle Press
1955 Diablo Road
San Luis Obispo CA 93405 USA


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