Recording: Smile Away by Paul and Linda McCartney

Studio B, CBS Studio Building, New York City
Producers: Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney

On 18 November 1970 Paul McCartney worked on the Ram song ‘Smile Away’.

It was the last of three consecutive days spent working on the song. ‘Smile Away’ was completed at A&R Recording in New York on 29 January 1971. The final overdubs included a new electric guitar solo and three vocal tracks.

On this day McCartney overdubbed a number of bass guitar parts.

To tell you the truth, there were eight bass tracks recorded for this song! When we started to record ‘Smile Away’, I thought the bass track didn’t sound good at all. Then I told Paul: ‘Should it really be like this?’ He answered ‘Can you give me more of it?’ We then both did our best to distort the heck out of the sound by different means, but the sound had to be ‘streamlined’. In the mix I push them like crazy.

This is the first time since ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ that Paul inserted the 1, 2, 3, 4 counting into a song. Of course, I left the bit in, and it’s so great to hear that kind of thing, I must admit.