Paul McCartney Details Songs Featured in Upcoming ‘Lyrics’ Book

Paul McCartney will tell the stories behind 154 songs he wrote throughout his career in his upcoming book, The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, due out November 2nd. The tunes (detailed below) include titles from his work with the Beatles, Wings, and his own solo recordings. It also includes the words to an unrecorded Beatles song, “Tell Me Who He Is,” from the early Sixties; McCartney discovered the handwritten lyrics in a notebook while researching the book.

The anthology features McCartney’s handwritten lyrics, previously unpublished photos, drafts, and drawings. He accompanies each entry with commentary about his creative process.

“More often than I can count, I’ve been asked if I would write an autobiography, but the time has never been right,” McCartney, now age 79, wrote in the book’s foreword. “The one thing I’ve always managed to do, whether at home or on the road, is to write new songs. I know that some people, when they get to a certain age, like to go to a diary to recall day-to-day events from the past, but I have no such notebooks. What I do have are my songs, hundreds of them, which I’ve learned serve much the same purpose. And these songs span my entire life.” He also used some of this statement in a teaser video for the tome, which showed photos of the singer from throughout his life and was set to “Calico Skies,” a track on his recently reissued 1997 solo LP, Flaming Pie.

Beginning the week of publication, the British Library in London will host a free exhibition of the songwriter’s handwritten lyrics and photos. The showcase, dubbed Paul McCartney: The Lyrics, will be available to view from November 5th through March 13th.

Songs included in The Lyrics:  

Volume 1 

“All My Loving”
“And I Love Her”
“Another Day”
“Arrow Through Me”
“Average Person”
“Back in the U.S.S.R”
“Band on the Run”
“Birthday”
“Blackbird”
“Café on the Left Bank”
“Calico Skies”
“Can’t Buy Me Love
“Carry That Weight”
“Check My Machine”
“Come and Get It”
“Coming Up”
“Confidante”
“Cook of the House”
“Country Dreamer”
“A Day in the Life”
“Dear Friend”
“Despite Repeated Warnings”
“Distractions”
“Do It Now”
“Dress Me Up as a Robber”
“Drive My Car”
“Eat at Home”
“Ebony and Ivory”
“Eight Days a Week”
“Eleanor Rigby”
“The End”
“Fixing a Hole”
“The Fool on the Hill”
“For No One”
“From Me to You”
“Get Back”
“Getting Closer”
“Ghosts of the Past Left Behind”
“Girls’ School”
“Give Ireland Back to the Irish”
“Golden Earth Girl”
“Golden Slumbers”
“Good Day Sunshine”
“Goodbye”
“Got to Get You Into My Life”
“Great Day”
“A Hard Day’s Night”
“Helen Wheels”
“Helter Skelter”
“Her Majesty”
“Here, There and Everywhere”
“Here Today”
“Hey Jude”
“Hi, Hi, Hi”
“Honey Pie”
“Hope of Deliverance”
“House of Wax”
“I Don’t Know”
“I Lost My Little Girl”
“I Saw Her Standing There”
“I Wanna Be Your Man”
“I Want to Hold Your Hand
“I Will”
“I’ll Follow the Sun”
“I’ll Get You”
“I’m Carrying”
“I’m Down”
“In Spite of All the Danger
“I’ve Got a Feeling”
“Jenny Wren”
“Jet”
“Junior’s Farm”
“Junk”
“The Kiss of Venus”
“Lady Madonna”
“Let Em In”
“Let It Be”
“Let Me Roll It”
“Live and Let Die”
“London Town”
“The Long and Winding Road”
“Love Me Do”
“Lovely Rita”

Volume 2 

“Magneto and Titanium Man”
“Martha My Dear”
“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”
“Maybe I’m Amazed”
“Michelle”
“Mother Nature’s Son”
“Mrs. Vandebilt”
“Mull of Kintyre”
“My Love”
“My Valentine”
“Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five”
“No More Lonely Nights”
“The Note You Never Wrote”
“Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight”
“Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”
“Oh Woman, Oh Why”
“Old Siam, Sir”
“On My Way to Work”
“Once Upon a Long Ago”
“Only Mama Knows”
“The Other Me”
“Paperback Writer”
“Penny Lane”
“Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me)”
“Pipes of Peace”
“Please Please Me”
“Pretty Boys”
“Pretty Little Head”
“Put It There”
“Rocky Raccoon”
“San Ferry Anne”
“Say Say Say”
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”
“She Came in Through the Bathroom Window”
“She Loves You”
“She’s a Woman”
“She’s Given Up Talking”
“She’s Leaving Home”
“Silly Love Songs”
“Simple as That”
“Single Pigeon”
“Somedays”
“Spirits of Ancient Egypt”
“Teddy Boy”
“Tell Me Who He Is”
“Temporary Secretary”
“Things We Said Today”
“Ticket to Ride”
“Too Many People”
“Too Much Rain”
“Tug of War”
“Two of Us”
“Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey”
“Venus and Mars/Rock Show/Venus and Mars – Reprise”
“Warm and Beautiful”
“Waterfalls”
“We All Stand Together”
“We Can Work It Out”
“We Got Married”
“When I’m Sixty-Four”
“When Winter Comes”
“Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?”
“With a Little Help From My Friends”
“Women and Wives”
“The World Tonight”
“The World You’re Coming Into”
“Yellow Submarine”
“Yesterday”
“You Never Give Me Your Money”
“You Tell Me”
“Your Mother Should Know”