Paul McCartney played every instrument on “Maybe I’m Amazed,” the song he wrote for Linda McCartney as The Beatles were coming apart. Linda added backing vocals. In a recording largely built by one musician, the woman at the center of the song was also part of its sound.
The song appeared on McCartney, Paul’s first solo album, in April 1970. Behind its declaration of love was a relationship that Paul later described in terms of two people wanting to escape the lives they had known.
Two People Looking for a Different Life
In an account published on his official website, Paul recalled wanting to get away from what The Beatles had become. Linda, meanwhile, wanted to leave the restrictions of New York society behind. Their relationship offered each of them a way toward something different.
“I was hoping to escape, she was hoping to escape.”
That shared experience helps explain the song’s place in their early life together. Paul remembered writing it at his piano in London, with the music reflecting his feelings toward Linda. The account is personal and specific: the song came from a relationship already taking shape while his life with The Beatles was changing.
Speaking to Billboard in 2001, Paul explained that he had wanted to go deeper than a straightforward declaration of love. Even the hesitation in the title mattered. He described the word “maybe” as the voice of a man not quite ready to admit what he felt.
Linda’s Place in a Solo Recording
For much of McCartney, Paul worked at home with a four-track recorder. He later recalled setting up in his London living room, making music during the day and stopping in the evening. The album’s modest working arrangements were a change from the elaborate productions of his Beatles years.
“Maybe I’m Amazed” was recorded differently. On February 15, 1970, Paul recorded the song in Studio Two at EMI Studios on Abbey Road. He built the arrangement with piano, drums, bass, organ and electric guitars. Linda contributed backing vocals and handclaps.
Engineer Alan Parsons later remembered being impressed by Paul recording all those instrumental parts in a day. The performance was captured in February; the album followed that April. Its credits named Paul for instruments and vocals, and Linda for harmonies.
Linda’s contribution also extended to the song’s visual presentation. The promotional film featured her photography, bringing her work as a photographer into the presentation of the music Paul had written for her.
On the recording, Linda could be heard alongside him. In the film, listeners could see photographs she had taken.