Paul McCartney Recorded a Cover of a Song George Martin Forgot He Produced
Paul McCartney has recorded plenty of covers of either famous songs or songs he’s really enjoyed. Many have connections to his favorite artists like Little Richard and Elvis Presley. Others were related to producer George Martin, who produced many tracks that Paul McCartney could record his own version of. One song Sir Paul recorded a cover of was originally produced by Martin, who completely forgot about it.
George Martin forgot he originally recorded Paul McCartney’s ‘No Other Baby’
“No Other Baby” was a single released by Paul McCartney on his 1999 cover album Run Devil Run. The track was written by Dickie Bishop and Bob Watson and recorded initially by Dickie Bishop and The Sidekicks in 1957. Other versions were recorded by The Vipers (1958) and Bobby Helms (1959).
In an interview with Laura Gross, McCartney admitted he wasn’t sure which version he listened to that made him like the song. He remembered hearing it in the 1950s and liking it enough that he wanted to record it.
“‘No Other Baby’ was a strange track because I didn’t have a record of it,” McCartney said. “I didn’t know who’d recorded it or who’d written it. But I knew I loved the song from late ’50’s. And so that was one I pulled out my envelope, say, ‘Anyone know this?’ They said, ‘No.’ They had really no idea. I’d barely knew it. But I just remembered it and remembered the verses. It’s just a simple song. And I always wanted to do it. We used to do it at soundchecks actually on the, on the, on the tour we used to do it.”
The former Beatle said he later found out that he listened to the version by The Vipers. Paul McCartney also discovered that longtime Beatles producer George Martin had worked with The Vipers and produced their version of “No Other Baby”.
“I found out lately that it was recorded by an English group who were like a skiffle group. Was before rock ‘n’ roll for us here. And they were called the Vipers. They were like a favorite little skiffle group of ours. Funny though, I was talking to George Martin on the phone the other day and I said, I was telling him about ‘No Other Baby,’ I said, ‘Do you know who this song is by?’ He said, ‘I doubt we even did it.’ I’ve since found out, it was by the Vipers, you know. And I suddenly realized while I was talking to George, ‘Wait a minute, George, you recorded the Vipers.’ He said, ‘Yes, I did.’ I said, ‘Well, this song’s called ‘No Other Baby,’’ ‘How does it go?’ He said, I said, ‘I don’t want no other,’ he said, ‘Oh yes, I remember it.’ So it turned out we talked about, coming full circle. George actually recorded the original thing.”
How did ‘No Other Baby’ perform on the charts?
It’s hard to blame George Martin for forgetting about “No Other Baby”, as not many remembered this song except for Paul McCartney. It’s one of the more obscure tracks from his cover album, but he still decided to release it as a single in the U.K. It wasn’t a hit in the U.K., only reaching No. 42 on the U.K. Singles chart.
The album, Run Devil Run, performed much better, reaching No. 12 on the U.K. Albums chart and No. 27 on the U.S. Billboard 200. “No Other Baby” didn’t become one of McCartney’s biggest hits, but it has a fascinating story.
