Top of the Pops 2

Billy:
River of Dreams is something I woke up singing, and - I was married to my second ex-wife at the time - and I said, was I walking in my sleep last night? and she said no, I don't think so. I had this dream I was sleepwalking, and I had this thing going on in my head - it's a three chord song.

Billy:
[Talking about River of Dreams] I still don't know a lot of what that song is about. I'm trying to figure it out.

Billy:
[Talking about Just the Way you Are] The drummer didn't like playing it, and felt like it was going to become a lounge classic, so we almost didn't put it on the album.

Billy:
Still Rock and Roll to Me was written on the way into the studio. We had a recording session booked, and I had nothing written, so I was sitting in the back of a car, just writing this idea out. I had read a review about a new band, and I realised, after reading the review, I had no idea what their music actually sounded like.

Billy:
You don't know what something sounds like till you hear it.

Billy:
[Talking about My Life] It was one of those two way songs, you know. Kids turn around at one point or another, and they say to their parents, Well, I don't care what you say anymore, this is my life, I'm going to live my life, my way, and then, sometimes, the parents turn around and say to the kids, alright, i'm going to live my life now! You know, you go ahead with your own life. So, um, that was the sentiment behind it, that each genaration can say it to the other one.

Billy:
Baby Grand was written after I heard that Ray Charles was interested in doing a recording with me. He's been my idol - all my life, I've idolised Ray Charles

Billy:
The one thing that's been consistant in my life, through love and loss, and fortune and misfortune, has been the piano. And Ray dug it. He called me up, he'd heard the demo, and said let's do it. I was thrilled. I was scared, but I was thrilled!

Billy:
[Talking about Allentown] I actually read a story about the steel mills starting to close down, in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania, where the younger people always assumed that they'd have a job - it's the same job that their father's had, in the same factory, and when the steel industry took a dump, all of a sudden these people had diminished horizons.

Billy:
[Talking about Uptown Girl] I wrote it in tribute to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Frankie had this really high falsetto, always sounded like he was [high pitch] just about to crack! [Normal voice] This thing in his voice, almost as if somebody had grabbed a hold of the part of his body to make him sing a little higher, sounds like Cherie, and Big Girls Don't Cry [Higher pitch] Walk like a man, sing like a girl! [normal voice] I never could understand that one!

Steve:
Hello, I'm Steve Wright. It's Top of the Pops 2. It's the one you've been waiting for. This is the Top of the Pops 2 McCartney special.

Paul:
[Talking about Hi Hi Hi] That was banned in England, that. It was considered to be about sex and drugs. It wasn't, really - but it was quite mild, actually, but it was considered to be a little bit too dodgy, and it got banned, so what got played quite a bit in England was the B side, which was called C Moon, a little regee ditty

Paul:
[Talking about My Love] I sat down at the piano one day, and was noddling away - as you do!

Paul:
When you're a songwriter - well, certain songwriters anyway - you can have certain ambitions, like maybe you want to write for films, or maybe you want to try your hand at a TV... theme, or something like that. Just a little out of the ordinary.

Paul:
I found a list of EMI studios, and I was on the EMI record label - still am - and they had studios in, like China, Rio de Janerio, Lagos, and all these kind of funky places.

Paul:
[Discussing Band on the Run] It's basically a bust out of jail song!

Paul:
I love writing love songs, cause I'm a lover, baby!

Paul:
[Discussing Silly Love Songs] It's really an answer to my critics, who are saying, why do you write so many love songs? Because I love to!

Paul:
With a Little Luck was for the London Town album, which we rercorded out on a boat in the Caribbean. You would think, with a London Town album, we would record in London. No - too obvious!

Paul:
Coming up was a song that I did, up in my little studio in Scotland, one summer, where I was like a mad professor in my laborotry, working, playing the drum track, then playing the bass track, then singing a bit.

Paul:
[Talking about Coming Up] I enjoyed doing the video for it, which was me playing all the parts. It was about the first time, I think, that we locked off the camera, and placed in all these characters.