Waterfalls

Written by: McCartney
Recorded: June-July 1979
Producer: Paul McCartney

Released: 16 May 1980 (UK), 26 May 1980 (US)

Paul McCartney: vocals, electric piano, keyboards

Available on:
McCartney II

The second single to be taken from Paul McCartney's second solo album, Waterfalls was written around the time of Wings' final album Back To The Egg.

While most of McCartney II was improvised in the studio, for Waterfalls he resurrected an old song in an attempt to revitalise the recording sessions.

Waterfalls could have been called I Need Love but that would have been too ordinary. I just had this waterfalls and lakes idea, from the notices you see in American tourist resorts, and it stuck.

Halfway through the album, making it all up as I went along, I got a bit bored. I had finished about eight tracks by then and I thought I would do something different. So I decided to do a song that was already written, a track left over from the last Wings album, and that was my favourite at the time. That's why it's included.

McCartney ended up retaining the working lyrics for the song, despite having initial misgivings over their quality.

The original lyrics were just working lyrics, gut lyrics, just spewed out. I thought I'd have to get serious and sensible and change them. Lyrics like that I don't trust. But in time, I got to like them and I thought I should add electric piano and a distant string synthesiser like a mad Swiss orchestra on a mountaintop. And it worked! A lot of people have rung up about that one and said that it's their favourite. So when you get such a good feeling, you think that perhaps it should be a single.

It was recorded initially with vocals and electric piano, and a synthesiser string part was subsequently overdubbed. The simple arrangement reflected the conteplative nature of the song's lyrics, although McCartney later revealed that he felt it underproduced. He cited Waterfalls, along with Every Night from the McCartney album, as one of the songs he would remake were he to revisit any from his past.

Waterfalls is basically saying don't go doing a load of dangerous stuff, 'cause I need you. And that's a kind of more mature thought for me than I would have been able to have done 20 years ago, 'cause I just didn't realise that it's not all gonna be here for ever. That's the kind of thing you realise when you pass 30.

As a side note, Waterfalls was the name of a two-bedroom cottage the McCartneys had purchased in June 1974 for £40,000. The property, near Rye in Sussex, included 160 acres of farmland and a variety of animals and pets: 11 horses and ponies, 10 sheep, 18 pheasants, ducks and hens, three dogs and an aviary of budgerigars.

Single release

Waterfalls was issued as the second single from McCartney II. Despite the success of its chart-topping predecessor Coming Up, it failed to chart in the US.

The single was issued in the UK on Friday 14 June 1980, as Parlophone R6037. It reached number seven in the charts. In the US it was released on 22 July as Columbia 1-11335m and it peaked at number 106. The b-side was Check My Machine.

Both versions of the single featured a painting of a waterfall by Christian Broutin; the rear cover had a photograph of McCartney taken by his wife Linda.

Two alternative versions of Waterfall were made for its release. A single edit was sent to radio stations, and the soundtrack to the video featured a longer electric piano introduction, but omitted an instrumental break and two choruses.

The promotional video was filmed in June 1980 and featured Olaf, a polar bear from Chipperfields Circus. Filming took place inside an aircraft hanger and involved more than a ton of polystyrene to give the appearance of snow.

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