Paul McCartney’s “Toss Off” Gems!
Paul McCartney routinely released songs throughout his career that never ended up on albums – at least not until special editions and bonus tracks became part of the “reissue” strategy in music.
It all began with The Beatles, who released “All You Need Is Love” and “Baby You’re A Rich Man” while fans waited for the release of what would turn the music world upside down:
Incredibly, those two classic songs were NOT included on “Sgt. Pepper” – instead ending up on “Magical Mystery Tour”, a collection of songs from their short film – and a few “odds and ends”…
“Daytime” Gem!
“Daytime Nighttime Suffering” was a song written by Paul McCartney and recorded with Wings. I just bought a book called “Paul McCartney: Recording Sessions 1969-2013” – focused on all his post Beatles music.
Perasi points out that Paul wrote “Suffering” over a weekend, after challenging the other Wings band members to write a b-side song by Monday!
It was the B-side to the 1979 single “Goodnight Tonight,” which was a big hit around the world – and again, NOT included on the upcoming Wings album at the time!
These two songs were released while fans waited for what was, ultimately, the final Wings album, “Back To The Egg.”
I posted a story about the soft commercial interest in the final Wings album, the truly under-rated “Back To The Egg.” While music at that time was going heavy into punk and the 80’s sound, this album was a traditional rock/pop release – and has held up really well over the years. See some of the music videos from the album here:
Considering that “Goodnight Tonight” was a big hit single, it’s a shame it wasn’t on “Egg”, and was instead one of Paul’s many “cold cuts” – songs not included on his album releases…it was finally included on the remastered CD years later as well as the collection “Wingspan: Hits and History.”
As I said, “Goodnight Tonight” was a big hit, with a fun music video released to support it.
Here is the “Goodnight Tonight” video:
According to the book “Band on the Run: A History of Paul McCartney & Wings” by Garry McGee, the writing of the song was as follows:
“When Wings was recording Back to the Egg, Paul had announced to the other band members that if they could come up with a good enough song, it would be recorded and put on B-side of the single. Such a generous gesture opened financial doors for the other band members, as the song could earn a small fortune as the flip side of a hit single. Each member–including Linda–spent the weekend trying to compose the song, but when Monday morning rolled around, Paul announced that he had written ‘the one.’ It was included as the B-side of ‘Goodnight Tonight’, which hit the top ten on both sides of the Atlantic in the spring of 1979 and went gold in the United States.”
“What Does She Get?”
Well, Paul spent the weekend recording this fun, high spirited and ultimately a bit of a raucous pop gem:
“What does she get for all the love she gave you
There on the ladder of regrets?
Daytime nighttime suffering is all she gets”
This song is fun, energetic – pure Paul – here is an audio-only version:
The song was recorded January and February 1979 as part of the “Egg” sessions. Here’s some fun trivia: McCartney’s son James, who was a baby at the time, can be heard crying about two minutes into the song.
According to wikipedia, McCartney cited the song as “one of my current favourites” in a 1984 interview with Oprah Winfrey, and I think it’s a fun “cold cut” that should be remembered!
“Cold Cuts” is a collection of McCartney bonus tracks, non-album cuts, and other material never officially released – it was supposed to come out several times, but never did…here is a look at some of the songs that were to appear on it:
Let me know what you think of “Daytime Nighttime Suffering!”
