Every Night

One of the highlights of Paul McCartney’s début solo album, ‘Every Night’ was a love song inspired by Linda McCartney.

This came from the first two lines, which I’ve had for a few years. They were added to in 1969 in Greece (Benitses) on holiday.

McCartney first performed the song during The Beatles’ Get Back sessions at Apple Studios, on 21 and 24 January 1969. On the first occasion it was a brief solo rendition while the group was working on ‘Dig A Pony’, though the second had some poorly-played slide guitar accompaniment by John Lennon.

‘Every Night’ was recorded properly by McCartney on 22 February 1970 at EMI Studios, Abbey Road. He had booked a session to mix the songs ‘Valentine Day’ and ‘That Would Be Something’, and afterwards recorded ‘Every Night’ and ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’. ‘Every Night’ was mixed at the end of the session, but was redone on 24 February.

The lyrics for the song recounted how McCartney had found solace in the domesticity he enjoyed with his wife Linda. During The Beatles’ break-up McCartney struggled with depression and turned briefly to alcohol, but eventually found fulfilment and motivation in songwriting and family life. Like ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’, it revealed how Linda had become a stabilising influence upon him.

I didn’t think it was going to be an album. It was just me recording for the sake of it. Then I started trying to put a few songs in it, alongside the instrumentals. I got things like ‘Every Night’, and ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’, so it started to have validity as a collection.

Wings performed ‘Every Night’ at London’s Hammersmith Odeon in December 1979, at a series of all-star concerts in aid of victims of war-torn Cambodia. A highlights album featuring the recording was issued in 1981 as Concerts For The People Of Kampuchea.

‘Every Night’ was one of the songs recorded by McCartney for MTV Unplugged on 25 January 1991. It was subsequently released on Unplugged (The Official Bootleg). It also appeared on the live album Back In The US, released in North America in 2002, and the following year on its international counterpart Back In The World.

Going back to earlier songs, ‘Every Night’ could stand up to being remade. Other people have made good recordings of it, and I remember that when I played the McCartney album to Ringo he said that he preferred my original solo version, when I had first sung it to him.