Walk with You

Song facts

From Wikipedia:

“Walk with You” is a song by Ringo Starr, released as a single from his 2010 studio album Y Not. It features fellow former Beatle Paul McCartney on backing vocals. The track was not originally conceived as a collaboration with McCartney, who originally only planned to play bass on “Peace Dream“.

The song was also used as Starr’s entry on the iTunes exclusive 4-track Beatles EP “4: John Paul George Ringo”, released in 2014.

In a promotional video, Starr said that “Walk With You” was originally intended to be a “gospelly” song. Starr called Van Dyke Parks and asked him to collaborate on writing a “God song,” but Parks said he did not write about God. They reworked the melody and completed the track as a song about the power of friendship. During the recording of “Peace Dream,” Starr played Paul McCartney several tracks he had completed for Y Not. McCartney developed the “trailing” duet in the melody of “Walk With You.“

From songfacts.com:

The song is a duet between Ringo and Paul McCartney, in which McCartney echoes Starr’s vocals one beat behind. “I had this little idea for a harmony on one of them,” McCartney told USA Today, “and I said, ‘You probably don’t want this, but let me show you this idea.’ And he liked it, and so I ended up singing some harmonies. He’s great to work with. He always was and always will be.” It was the first song ever to feature the two former Beatles bandmates singing in a duet.

From Billboard.com:

“It was weird the way that (“Walk With You”) happened,” engineer Bruce Sugar told this writer. Ringo initially asked Paul to come by and play bass on “Peace Dream.” The drummer then asked McCartney for one more, time permitting. McCartney listened to “Walk With You,” and Sugar recalls his response: “I don’t know if I want to play bass on it, but I think I could sing a part on it.” The producer and engineer adds, “I don’t think Ringo would have asked him to sing on the album. But he just kind of offered up. Me and Ringo just looked at each other and offered up the mic. And he just came up with that part, which was just brilliant. It made the whole song, really. So the song was done, but his vocals were after the song was done. It was great.”

Paul was doing the Grammys, so he came over to the house and was playing bass on ‘Peace Dream’. So I played him this other track [Walk With You] and Paul said, ‘Give me the headphones. Give me a pair of cans.’ And he went to the mic and he just invented that part where he follows on my vocal. That was all Paul McCartney, and there could be nothing better. He makes it bigger and he makes it fuller. It makes the song like a conversation between us, and that was Paul’s idea to do his part one beat behind me. That’s why he’s a genius and incredible bass player.

Ringo Starr, from The Guardian, November 20, 2009

Last updated on November 18, 2020

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