Recording: Café On The Left Bank by Wings

Studio Two, Abbey Road Studios, London
Producer: Paul McCartney
Engineer: Geoff Emerick

Wings finished recording the London Town song ‘Cafe On The Left Bank’ on 25 October 1977.

It was the first recording session for the album since 3 August. The break was due to the birth of James McCartney and the recording of ‘Mull Of Kintyre’, as well as the departures of Wings guitarist Jimmy McCulloch and drummer Joe English.

To create a suitably Parisian mood, the decor of Abbey Road’s Studio Two was changed, and remained so for several weeks.

To get the atmosphere down at Abbey Road Studios, we had the whole place done out with like potted plants, and little café umbrellas, and little stripes, to make it look like a café on the Left Bank. And there was some visiting bloke from an American record company, and he kind of walked in all serious. It was half a joke to us really, having a big café in the studio, but it was nice, the atmosphere and everything. Anyway, this fella came in and he said, ‘This is very interesting, Paul. What temperature do you keep it at?’ So I said, ‘Oh a constant 68, constant, absolute constant 68.’ So I think he must have gone away and done a string of them up and down the West Coast.

Paul McCartney double-tracked his lead vocals, and added backing vocals with Linda McCartney and Denny Laine. McCartney then recorded a cowbell overdub.