Off The Beatle Track

Within the Beatles’ catalog are a few (some? several?) songs on which only one Beatle appears, either as a singer or as both a singer and a musician. I’ll attempt to list all those songs in this post.

As I customarily do, I’ll begin by guessing on how many songs appear on the list: six. I can think of four, possibly five, off the top of my head, and I suspect I’m missing one or two.

On to the list:

1. Yesterday (1965): Paul. Yesterday was buried deep on side 2 of the Help! album. Since Paul rarely speaks about this hidden gem, we don’t know much about how he wrote it, but we do know that he’s the only Beatle on the record. He sings and plays guitar, joined by a string quartet playing a George Martin score. It holds the twin distinctions of being the band’s first “solo” song and the first Beatle track with strings.
2. Within You Without You (1967): George. Noted for blending Eastern and Western instruments, this track features Indian and English musicians, among whom was only one member of the English rock band The Beatles.
3. Wild Honey Pie (1968): Paul. On the eight albums before The White Album, The Beatles had two songs featuring only one Beatle. On The White Album, they had five! Was that a symptom or a cause of the eventual breakup? Paul sings and plays guitar and drums on this brief track.
4. Blackbird (1968) Paul. Just Paul accompanying himself on guitar, tapping his feet in jaunty two-tone shoes, and some EMI bird sound effects.¹
5. Julia (1968): John. This track written for his mother marks John’s only appearance on this list. John accompanies himself on guitar, without tapping his feet. Paul’s voice can be heard over the studio intercom on take 2 teling John it was a “great take,” to which John replies, “It was perfect.”
6. Mother Nature’s Son (1968): Paul. This one surprised me. There are drums on the track, but no Ringo. We all know the story about Ringo’s walking out of the Back in the USSR session, resulting in Paul’s playing the drums.² Apparently Paul was consumed by the urge to record this track while John and Ringo were working on Yer Blues, so Paul played the drums–and timpani–himself.
7. Good Night (1968): Ringo. John wrote this White Album closer, which features Ringo accompanied by an orchestra scored by George Martin and a chorus of non-Beatle backing vocalists.
8. Her Majesty (1969): Paul. Fitting, I guess, that the last track on their last recorded album is also the last track on this list, on which Paul plays acoustic guitar and sings.

The final tally: Five from Paul (four of which are from the sometimes tense 1968-69 sessions) and one each from John, George, and Ringo.

We can’t avoid the Paul-shaped elephant in the room. A charitable reading of this list would be that Paul was writing so many songs, especially in 1968 and 1969, that he couldn’t wait to record them because another one would surely follow soon. A less charitable reading would be that he didn’t always feel the need to engage his bandmates when he was ready to record.

But wait: There’s more?

I largely (but not solely) relied on the terrific Beatles Bible to compile this list. Some fans believe that only one Beatle appears on I’ve Just Seen a Face (1965, Paul) and Martha My Dear (1968, also Paul). But The Beatles Bible says otherwise, and that’s good enough for me.

Did I miss any? Email me at beatletrack@gmail.com.

1. The video also shows a few seconds of Francie Schwartz sitting next to Paul in the studio, listening in headphones while he records. ↩︎
2. The excellent Gimme Some Truth podcast has convincingly disproven the notion that Paul also played drums on Dear Prudence. ↩︎