The Song Paul McCartney Wrote When He and Linda ‘First Got Together’

Paul McCartney has written many love songs in his career, often dedicated to the women in his life, including his first wife, Linda. The two were married for over 30 years and were inseparable. He wrote several songs about Linda, and he wrote one around the time they first got together. 

Paul McCartney didn’t care that people called him ‘soppy’ for writing love songs

Many of McCartney’s best love songs include “Maybe I’m Amazed,” “Eight Days a Week,” and “Michelle.” In an interview with Billboard, the former Beatle said he is aware of the criticism he’s received for the number of love songs he writes. However, he doesn’t care what they think and considers himself lucky to have plenty of love in his life. 

“Over the years, people have said, ‘Aw, he sings love songs, he writes love songs, he’s so soppy at times.’ I thought, Well, I know what they mean, but people have been doing love songs forever,” McCartney explained. “I like ’em, other people like ’em, and there’s a lot of people I love — I’m lucky enough to have that in my life.”

Paul McCartney wrote ‘The Lovely Linda’ when the pair first got together

“The Lovely Linda” is the opening track on McCartney’s first solo outing, McCartney. The song isn’t too complex as it is an ode to Linda and how she always had “flowers in her hair.” Paul McCartney shared that the track includes audio of him and Linda hanging out around the house, with noises like a squeaking door. The track was never finished, but he decided to release it on the album anyways. 

“That was when Linda and I first got together. The record is me playing around the house. You hear her walking through the living room doorway out to the garden, and the door squeaks at the end of the tape. That’s one of the songs from my personal experience, with ‘the flowers in her hair.’ She often used to wear flowers in her hair, so it’s a direct diary. I was always going to finish it, and I had another bit that went into a Spanish song, almost mariachi, but it just appeared as a fragment and was quite nice for that reason. It opened the McCartney album, so it’s evocative of it now.”

The former Beatle called one song the ‘definitive one for Linda’

Many of Paul McCartney’s love songs are about Linda, but he said “My Love” is the “definitive one.” “My love” debuted on Wings’ 1973 album Red Rose Speedway. McCartney recalled the recording session being unique because guitarist Henry McCullough went off script and introduced a guitar solo that made its way onto the record. 

“We had an interesting moment on the session where we were going to cut it live at Abbey Road Studios, and the guitar player came over to me right before the take — we knew what we were going to do as a band, and the orchestra was arranged — and he said, ‘Do you mind if I try something different on the solo?’” McCartney told Billboard. “It was one of those moments where I could have said, ‘I’d rather you didn’t, stick to the script,’ but I thought he sounded like he’s got an idea, and I said, ‘Sure.’ He came out with the really good guitar solo on the record; it’s one of the best things he played. So that was like, ‘Wow.’”