Recording: Hey Diddle by Wings; Wide Prairie by Linda McCartney

Sound Shop Studio, Nashville
Producers: Linda McCartney, Paul McCartney
Engineer: Ernie Winfrey

Wings worked on two songs on 8 July 1974 at Nashville’s Sound Shop Studio.

The first was ‘Hey Diddle’, which had been recorded during the Ram sessions at New York’s Columbia Studios on 26 October 1970.

Paul McCartney had seen the Cates Sisters, Marcy and Margie, perform at the Grand Ole Opry on 28 June 1974. He booked them to add fiddle on this day to ‘Hey Diddle’ and the next song, ‘Wide Prairie’ by Linda McCartney. For the latter they were joined by violinists Vassar Clements and Johnny Gimble.

The Cates Sisters had performed the previous night in Pennsylvania, but drove 600 miles to attend the recording session, which began at 8pm.

The session, for us as musicians, was typical – the Nashville way. Listen to the song a couple of times, write a chord chart as you listen, start playing along, experimenting and getting ideas with the producer. When you find something he likes, start putting tracks down.

On ‘Hey Diddle’, the Cajun lick we played came naturally. Paul and everyone thought it was an obvious fit. The other lick we played towards the end of the song was an idea from Paul. He sang it to us and had us work it in. After we got the track recorded, we doubled it.

At one point during the session, Paul came out in the studio and said they had a great idea for a title – ‘One Hand Clapping’. At the time I didn’t know if he meant it for a song title, album, or what. But we all had a big laugh about it.

The session was also attended by trombonist and arranger Tony Dorsey, who discussed ideas with Paul for ‘Wide Prairie’ and ‘Bridge Over The River Suite’. The overdub session took place on 11 July.