A solo recording by Paul McCartney, ‘Wild Honey Pie’ was a singalong written in Rishikesh, India, and recorded at the end of the session for ‘Mother Nature’s Son’.

[‘Wild Honey Pie’] was just a fragment of an instrumental which we were not sure about, but Pattie Harrison liked it very much, so we decided to leave it on the album.
Paul McCartney

In the studio

‘Wild Honey Pie’ was recorded on 20 August 1968, during the second and final session for ‘Mother Nature’s Son’. McCartney also recorded another demo, ‘Etcetera’, during the same session, but the song remains unreleased.

We were in an experimental mode, and so I said, ‘Can I just make something up?’ I started off with the guitar and did a multitracking experiment in the control room or maybe in the little room next door. It was very home-made; it wasn’t a big production at all. I just made up this short piece and I multitracked a harmony to that, and a harmony to that, and a harmony to that, and built it up sculpturally with a lot of vibrato on the strings, really pulling the strings madly. Hence, ‘Wild Honey Pie’, which was a reference to the other song I had written called ‘Honey Pie’. It was a little experimental piece.
Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles


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