Watch Paul McCartney perform ‘For No One’ solo in the studio
He may not have been the angstiest (John Lennon) or the most likely to ascend to the astral plane (George Harrison), but Paul McCartney was arguably the most prolific Beatle. During his time with the Fab Four, his talent as a songwriter was matched only by his astonishing work ethic. Let’s not forget that Bob Dylan once dubbed Paul the only Beatle he’d ever really been in awe of. If that doesn’t convince you of his worth, then this recording of him singing ‘For No One’ from Revolver might just do the trick.
The story of ‘For No One’ begins in a chalet in the Swiss alps. Paul and his then partner Jane Asher were on a skiing holiday. The Beatle was 22 years old and a very inexperienced skier. “I’d done a bit of skiing in Help! and quite liked it, so I went back and ended up in a little bathroom in a Swiss chalet writing ‘For No One’,” he recalled in Anthology. “I remember the descending bassline trick that it’s based on, and I remember the character in the song – the girl putting on her make-up.”
Whether due to the song’s Alpine origins or just plain boredom, Paul was keen to try something a bit different with ‘For No One’: “Occasionally we’d have an idea for some new kind of instrumentation, particularly for solos… On ‘For No One’ I was interested in the French horn, because it was an instrument I’d always loved from when I was a kid. It’s a beautiful sound, so I went to George Martin and said, ‘How can we go about this?’ And he said, ‘Well, let me get the very finest.'”
Martin proceeded to note down the melody Paul had hummed during his demo recording. On reading the notation, French horn player Alan Civil realised he’d been handed quite the challenge. “We came to the session and Alan looked up from his bit of paper: ‘Eh, George? I think there’s a mistake here – you’ve got a high F written down. Then George and I said, ‘Yeah,’ and smiled back at him, and he knew what we were up to and played it. These great players will do it. Even though it’s officially off the end of their instrument, they can do it, and they’re quite into it occasionally. It’s a nice little solo.” Even John Lennon was impressed. Speaking to Playboy in 1980 (as noted in All We Are Saying), Lennon named ‘For No One’ “A nice piece of work” by McCartney and “one of my favourites of his.”
If you’re in need of a reminder of what made Paul’s songwriting so perfect, check out this rare footage of him performing ‘For No One’ solo at Abbey Road Studios. Even without Martin’s orchestration, it is clearly the product of a songsmith working at the peak of their ability.
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