Paul McCartney reveals the 154 songs to appear in his new lyrics book, including an unreleased Beatles track
25 August 2021, 11:08 | Updated: 25 September 2023, 13:02
By Mayer Nissim
The book will feature 'Tell Me Who He Is' from the early 1960s, which The Beatles never properly recorded.
Paul McCartney has revealed which 154 tracks will feature in his upcoming lyrics "memoir" The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present.
Rather than write a traditional pop autobiography, The Beatles legend has chosen to present his life as a collection of his song lyrics edited and introduced by the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon.
One of the songs to be included among is 'Tell Me Who He Is', which is being billed as a Beatles track, albeit one the band never recorded.
McCartney found the handwritten lyrics for the song, believed to date to the early 1960s, while he was writing the book.
"More often than I can count, I’ve been asked if I would write an autobiography, but the time has never been right," McCartney said.
"The one thing I’ve always managed to do, whether at home or on the road, is to write new songs."
He continued: "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."
As well as the lyrics themselves, the book will included handwritten lyric sheets, previously-unseen photographs, drafts, drawings, and a new commentary from Paul for every song.
And to coincide with the book – which is released on November 2 and available for pre-order now – the British Library will host a free display called Paul McCartney: The Lyrics from November 5 2021 to March 12, 2022.
The Beatles - Back In The U.S.S.R. (2018 Mix / Lyric Video)
If you want to know which McCartney songs you're getting in the book, then the full list of all 154 is as follows:
Volume One
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
Volume Two
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
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
This year is proving to be a bumper one for Beatles fans, with the upcoming release of Peter Jackson's six-hour, three-part Get Back miniseries airing on Disney+ on November 25, 26 and 27, which will be accompanied by its own 240-page book.
What's more, The Beatles are strongly rumoured to be re-releasing Let It Be in a deluxe multi-disc edition packed with previously unreleased songs, potentially including the "original" unreleased versions of the Get Back album from 1969 and 1970 before it was controversially remixed by Phil Spector.