Remember When Paul McCartney Used a Soundtrack as an Excuse to Dust off Some Beatles Classics in the 80s?

When they broke up, the individual Beatles all had to decide how to deal with the musical legacy of their former group within their solo careers. Should they keep the Fab Four connection at arm’s length? Or should they embrace it? Paul McCartney was the most open to doing the latter. A 1984 soundtrack album even found him diving back into The Beatles catalog to rerecord several classics.

Macca Goes to the Movies

Paul McCartney was riding a hot streak in the early 80s. Albums Tug Of War and Pipes Of Peace reunited him with Beatles producer George Martin and established him as a solo force after his time in the 70s with Wings. Looking for a new challenge, he decided he’d try to make a movie.

Give My Regards To Broad Street, released to theaters in 1984, didn’t do very well at the box office or with critics. McCartney, who ended up as a screenwriter on the film, seemed to overstep his abilities and misjudge his audience’s willingness to follow him down any artistic venues.

For the soundtrack, McCartney delivered a few new songs. They included “No More Lonely Nights”, a hit single featuring Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour on guitar. But most of the album was padded with remakes, including several Beatles songs given fresh takes.

A Reluctant Ringo

McCartney assembled an all-star lineup of players for the Give My Regards To Broad Street sessions. They included Ringo Starr, although, notably, not on The Beatles’ covers. In an interview from that time period (per Beatles Bible), McCartney explained why Ringo bowed out on these occasions:

“Ringo wasn’t happy to get involved with it. We had some songs in the film where we wanted him to drum on them, but he didn’t want to attempt a new version. I can see it from his point of view, actually, because it would have been, ‘Did I drum good on version A or version B?’ and he didn’t even want a comparison. From my point of view, I’m looking at a song. I’m looking at one of my songs. I don’t want to be ashamed of anything I’ve written.”

On the album, McCartney included versions of “Yesterday”, “For No One”, “Here, There, And Everywhere”, “The Long And Winding Road”, “Eleanor Rigby”, and “Good Day Sunshine”. There were also several covers from his solo/Wings catalog, some of recent vintage (“So Bad” had been released just a year before as a single), some a little older (“Silly Love Songs”).

‘Broad’ Success

Paul McCartney had already been playing Beatles songs live since his tours with Wings in the mid-70s. Still, the decision to do studio takes on these hallowed classics was a bold one. He hedged his bets by mostly sticking close to the sonic blueprints of the originals.

Give My Regards To Broad Street, the soundtrack, actually performed quite well for Macca. The album smashed in Great Britain. And while it didn’t do quite as much business in America, “No More Lonely Nights” put him all over pop radio.

Still, it represented a bit of an artistic retreat. His next studio album, Press, in 1986, stumbled. He wouldn’t quite regain his artistic footing until the outstanding Flowers In The Dirt LP in 1989.

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