Step Inside Love
From BeatlesWiki
Step Inside Love is a song written by Paul McCartney and given to Cilla Black to record. The Beatles, did, however, record their own version.
Contents |
Writing
The song was written specifically for Cilla Black to record, who was another Brian Epstein-managed act. Black had gotten her own TV show, and she needed a theme song for it, so Paul gave this song to her specifcally for that purpose. After the show first aired on January 30, 1968, she released it as a single in April 1968, which got to number ten in the UK charts.
Recording
McCartney Demo
Paul recorded a simple acoustic guitar and vocals demo for Black in 1967 at his home on Cavendish Avenue, London. As Paul recalls in his authorized biography, Many Years From Now, "I ended up writing a few songs for Cilla, actually. Step Inside Love was a later one. Cilla Black was getting her first TV show with a guy called Michael Hurll and they came to see me backstage somewhere and asked me, would I write the theme tune for it, so I said yes. I did a little demo of it, with myself double-tracked, up at Cavendish, and that was it. I quite like the song, it's very cabaret, it suited her voice. It was just a welcoming song for Cilla." The original short demo worked for the first episodes of Cilla, but later, he had to write more verses and have Cilla record those. Michael Hurll recalls, "All he had given us was one verse and a chorus with him playing on guitar. We played it that way for the first couple of weeks and then decided that we needed a second verse. Paul came over to the BBC Theatre in Shepherd's Bush and sat with me and Cilla and worked on a second verse. It started off with the line, 'You look tired, love', because Cilla was tired after a lot of rehearsing and most of what he wrote related to what was going on that day."
Beatles Version
During the session for I Will on September 16, 1968, John, Paul, and Ringo recorded a spontaneous run-through of this song. This version was included with the improvisation Los Paranoias on Anthology 3. This version, however, was edited down to 2:31 when the original lasted more than six minutes.
Personnel (On The Beatles Version)
The Beatles
- Lead Vocals: Paul McCartney
- Lead Guitar: Paul McCartney
- Bongos: John Lennon
- Claves: Ringo Starr
Production
- Producer: Chris Thomas
- Engineer: Ken Scott
Available Versions
- McCartney Demo, October 1967, (Bootlegs)
- Demo with Cilla Black on lead vocals and McCartney on guitar, November 21, 1967, (Bootlegs)
- Run-through, September 16, 1968, (Bootlegs)
- Run-through edited version, September 16, 1968, (Anthology 3)
- Get Back session, January 31, 1969, (Bootlegs)
Available On
- Anthology 3, 1996.
