Teddy Boy (song)

"Teddy Boy" is a song by Paul McCartney included on his first solo album McCartney, released in April 1970. According to Ernie Santosuosso of The Boston Globe, it describes the way in which a close relationship between a widow and her grown son Teddy boy is destroyed by her new romantic interest.

Background

Paul McCartney wrote "Teddy Boy" during the Beatles' 1968 visit to India.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In 1970, McCartney described the song as, "Another song I started in India and completed in Scotland, and London gradually. This one was recorded for the Get Back film, but later not used."Template:Sfn

Recording

January 1969

Template:Template other McCartney first played the song to the other Beatles on 9 January 1969.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Beatles did not return to the song until 24 January, recording several takes.Template:Refn This recording includes some instances of guitar feedback.Template:Sfn During one rendition of the song, John Lennon is heard calling "do-si-do" and other square-dance steps, something both musicologist Walter Everett and Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn ascribe to Lennon's boredom with the song.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Musicologist and writer Ian MacDonald writes that any attempts at recording the song "were sabotaged by Lennon's continuous burble of parody".Template:Sfn MacDonald describes "Teddy Boy" as an "annoyingly whimsical ditty – notable solely for its key change from D major to F sharp major".Template:Sfn

The Beatles recorded "Teddy Boy" again on 28 and 29 January.Template:Sfn

December 1969 – February 1970

McCartney recorded the McCartney version of "Teddy Boy" at his home in Cavendish Avenue, St John's Wood.Template:Sfn He began the album around Christmas 1969,Template:Sfn recording on a recently delivered Studer four-track tape recorder, without a mixing desk,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and therefore with no VU displays as a guide for recording levels.Template:Sfn McCartney described his home-recording set-up as "Studer, one mike, and nerve".Template:Sfn He had finished recording the basic track of "Teddy Boy" by 12 February 1970, when he brought his tapes to Morgan Studios.Template:Sfn These tapes were transferred from four- to eight-track tape, adding an audible hiss to the recording. At Morgan Studios, McCartney completed the track by overdubbing drums, a bass drum and clapping.Template:Sfn

Release and reception

The Beatles

The Beatles asked engineer Glyn Johns to mix an LP from their January 1969 recordings.Template:Sfn Johns selected take two of "Teddy Boy" from 24 January for his first mix of Get Back.Template:Sfn Authors Doug Sulpy and Ray Schweighardt view this selection as "poor judgement" on the engineer's part.Template:Sfn Johns mixed the track for stereo on 10 March 1969 at Olympic Sound Studios.Template:Sfn Bootleg copies of the mix circulated under titles such as Hot as Sun and Kum Back.Template:Sfn In October 1969, Ernie Santosuosso obtained a version of Johns' Get Back and reviewed it for The Boston Globe, writing of "Teddy Boy" that "'Mama, Don’t Worry, Your Teddy Boy’s Here' offers a persistent repetition of theme larded with square dance calls and deft guitar chord changes."Template:Sfn As there was no footage of the Beatles playing "Teddy Boy" in the Let It Be film, Johns removed it from his second version of Get Back, replacing it with "Across the Universe" and "I Me Mine".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Lewisohn writes that it is also possible that on 4 January 1970 McCartney told Johns that he was about to re-record the song for his solo album.Template:Sfn

Due to the Beatles' dissatisfaction with Johns' two attempts, Lennon passed the Get Back tapes on to Phil Spector.Template:Sfn Although Johns omitted "Teddy Boy" from the LP, Spector, assisted by engineers Peter Brown and Roger Ferris, made two mixes of the song on 25 March 1970.Template:Sfn He kept one at its full lengthTemplate:Sfn and edited another down from 7:30 to 3:10.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Refn This mix, which Sulpy and Schweighardt describe as a "butchered version",Template:Sfn has never been officially released.Template:Sfn A later mix included on the 1996 compilation album Anthology 3 comprises three portions of the 28 January take joined to two segments of the 24 January take.Template:Sfn

McCartney

In his album review for the Chicago Tribune, Robb Baker wrote that "'Teddy Boy' exists only as a bad example of the story song genre that McCartney usually does so well."Template:Sfn Jared Johnson of The Morning Call said that the Beatles' version as heard on bootlegs had "substance, force and conviction", while "The finished product, though more refined, is shallow and superficial, threatened with fading away into nothingness."Template:Sfn According to Santosuosso, the song "tells of filial alienation from a widowed mother who falls in love again. The recurring refrain is the guts of this song."Template:Sfn

Personnel

McCartney

Personnel per Howard Sounes:Template:Sfn

• Paul McCartneyTemplate:Snd lead vocals, guitar, bass, drums
• Linda McCartneyTemplate:Snd backing vocals

Anthology 3

Personnel per Ian MacDonald:Template:Sfn

• Paul McCartneyTemplate:Snd vocal, acoustic guitar
• John LennonTemplate:Snd vocal
• George HarrisonTemplate:Snd lead guitar
• Ringo StarrTemplate:Snd drums