The eight songs Paul McCartney couldn’t live without
Desert Island Discs is a British institution that surpasses even the most impressive credentials. The show has played host to some of the world’s brightest minds and most creative figures, each sharing their most cherished collection of songs. It has become an enduring platform, giving audiences a rare glimpse behind the curtain and offering a unique view of icons through their musical choices. Such is the prestige of the programme that even The Beatles’ own Paul McCartney found himself rivalled by its legacy.
So when the iconic radio show reached its landmark 40th year, the BBC invited the Liverpudlian star to take part and create one of the series’ most cherished moments. It remains one of the moments when we are offered real insight into McCartney’s life more directly after the split of the Fab Four.
In a memorable 1982 episode, McCartney shared the eight tracks that he simply couldn’t live without, each reflecting his musical journey, influences, and significant people in his life. Host Roy Plomley guided McCartney through his Beatles beginnings and beyond, making this interview particularly special. Here, choosing songs as his most prized possessions, McCartney offered a rare, intimate look into his world—especially impactful as he was then in the throes of his remarkable solo career.
Plomley—who had helmed the show for four decades by then—invited guests to select eight songs they would take if stranded on a desert island. Over the years, Desert Island Discs has featured everyone from legendary rock stars to world leaders, each sharing a deeply personal narrative through music. In 1982, it was McCartney’s turn to reveal himself to the public in a way he hadn’t before, using his song choices to tell his story.
In addition to the eight songs in their luggage, guests are also asked to pack one book and one luxury item. For his book selection, McCartney picked his wife’s photography book, Linda’s Pictures. After Macca picked his luxury item, which was, of course, a guitar, it’s fair to assume from his selections that he was planning on playing a lot of rock and roll—as would his musical selections.
After questions on his ability to survive on a desert island including being able to deal with loneliness and what he would enjoy escaping from in his own life—not that much, it turns out. Attention then quickly turns to The Beatles, and McCartney admitted that he held no copies of his records with the Fab Four, a situation that has surely changed today. Soon enough, the first song to be picked came up, and it was a choice that was very dear to McCartney’s heart.
“The first one is Elvis Presley’s ‘Heartbreak Hotel‘,” selects McCartney, “To me, it sorta takes me back to when I was first buying records. Up until that point, it had been sorta Billy Cotton, and ‘swing’, and ‘bee-bop’ and stuff. Suddenly, rock and roll burst on the scene and Elvis was one of the first people who really made me take an interest. I remember being at school when this record came out.” Presley has often been cited as a key figure in The Beatles’ development, and his breakthrough into British audiences could be seen as one of the pivotal moments in British music history, Beatles or otherwise.
It’s a remark that follows the story of how his wife, Linda McCartney, tracked down the original bass from the recording and bought it for McCartney as a gift. While Macca admits he can’t quite play the stand-up traditional instrument, it’s a sincere mark of pride for the music enthusiast. It’s just one of many personal tidbits that McCartney shares with Plomley, who acts, to all intents and purposes, as a guiding figure throughout the interview.
Plomley then takes McCartney back to his childhood in Liverpool, reflecting on his working-class upbringing and parentage. His mother, who tragically passed away when Paul was in his early teens, was a nurse, and his father was a “cotton salesman” and, more importantly, a wonderful musician who taught McCartney in his own way.
“He used to tell me the old thing of, if you go to a party, it’s handy to be able to play piano because you get all the drinks bought for you,” remembers McCartney lovingly.
The bassist then reveals that his first instrument wasn’t a guitar at all, but his father’s old trumpet. After his father acquired false teeth and set it aside, McCartney eagerly took it up. However, he quickly abandoned the trumpet when he realised he couldn’t sing while playing it. “Brilliant thinking,” Plomley quips, as McCartney recounts his early struggles with the instrument.
The next disc to be packed in McCartney’s survival bag was Chuck Berry’s ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’, which the singer admitted encapsulated Berry as an artist. In fact, Macca suggests the eight songs he was picking were a reflection of the artist as a whole. He was keen to select songs which represented the artist’s entire collection, “With Chuck Berry, I chose ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’ because it just sums him up really.” If Presley might be considered an influence on The Beatles then Berry simply has to be regarded as one of the foundational stones of their meteoric rise. Not only did the group cover him from time to time, but they would routinely share their admiration for the star.
McCartney then takes Plomley through The Beatles’ very early beginnings, from The Quarrymen to Johnny and The Moondogs to The Silver Beetles and onwards to stardom, which we’ve never witnessed since. It’s a touchingly candid walk through history as McCartney retells the heights and pitfalls of Beatlemania as one might their father about a local football game. A few names and a few places will ring out for Beatles fans, but otherwise, it is a beautiful, gentle journey down the history of rock and roll.
The following selection from The Beatle can’t quite be classed as that, but Benjamin Britten’s iconic ‘Courtly Dances’ shows McCartney’s ever-widening musical gaze. After talking Plomley through the Hamburg years, the next choice sees a return to rock and roll with Gene Vincent’s ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula’, which was the first record McCartney ever bought. “So it’s a special record for me. Big impression,” he explained.
The next point in the conversation is the writing partnership between John Lennon and himself. McCartney reveals that while starting out in school smoking pipefuls of Typhoo tea, the pair had always had an organic relationship and one that was best served without rules and restrictions. They were a partnership that thrived on enthusiasm and respect for one another.
It’s a precursor to McCartney’s fifth and probably most poignant selection as only two years after his murder, he picks as his favourite song to be cast with as John Lennon’s ‘Beautiful Boy‘. He says: “I haven’t chosen any Beatles records, but if we had more than eight, I probably would have. I haven’t chosen any of my records so to sum up the whole thing, I have chosen one of John Lennon’s from Double Fantasy, which I think is a beautiful song very moving to me. So, I’d like to sum the whole thing by playing ‘Beautiful Boy’.”
McCartney then discusses the sensationalism of The Beatles and played down the idea of being frightened by Beatlemania and jokes: “Even when we were getting death threats and stuff on American tours, we used to just take it with a pinch of salt. Mind you, it was Ringo that actually got the death threats and I don’t think he took it with a pinch of salt.”
The next selections focus on McCartney’s adoration for the forefathers of rock and roll as he picks up The Coasters’ effort ‘Searchin”—a song the band picked up “in The Cavern days”—and the undeniably influential ‘Tutti Frutti’ from Little Richard. “Again, I’ve chosen just one to sum him up. But I like a lot of stuff he does, and he’s a friend of mine from the Hamburg days.” Some influences may be hidden from view, but the work of these two acts can be felt in everything The Beatles did in their early days.
The final record choice is one rooted in his home life: “This one is a song that was written by my fad, he only ever wrote one song to my knowledge and erm I once said to him, ‘Dad, you know that song you wrote?’, He said ‘I didn’t write a song, son’,” McCartney recalls. “I said, ‘You did, remember ‘Walking in the Park with Eloise’?
“He said, ‘Oh, I didn’t write it, son. I made it up’.” McCartney then explains how he and some friends of his (AKA Country Ham) made a little recording of the song to share with his father. It’s a touching tribute and a reminder that music, for McCartney, is his very lifeblood. Without it, desert island or otherwise, there wouldn’t be much reason for going on.
It’s a selection and a sentiment that completes one of the most personal and genuinely touching moments of both Desert Island Discs and Paul McCartney’s astonishing careers.
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