I Will

This lovely ballad was among the many tunes that McCartney wrote in Rishikesh, India in the spring of 1968.  He and singer-songwriter Donovan Leitch even spent some time together working on lyrics for it, but Paul eventually abandoned them.  It was not one of the songs that were demoed at George Harrison's house in Esher in May.

Yet, on September 16th, over three months into the sessions for the double album in the works, the tune resurfaced with a fresh set of lyrics inspired by Paul's anticipation of Linda Eastman's impending arrival in the UK.  With acoustic guitar in hand, Chris Thomas in the producer's chair and John and Ringo standing by to provide percussion, Paul launched into no less than sixty-seven takes of the number.  When all was said and done, take sixty-five was determined to be the best.  On the following day, Paul performed all of the necessary overdubs himself.  These included a harmony vocal in places, some lovely fills on a second guitar and, most interestingly, a clever vocal bass line in lieu of his usual electric bass guitar work.

The September 16th session has become rightfully known for the occasional ad libs between proper takes of the song.  Anthology 3 fades in a wonderful performance of Step Inside Love, which Paul had written as the theme song for Cilla Black's television show.  Once this concludes, a remark by John immediately prompts Paul into a silly ad libbed number called Los Paranoias.  In addition to continuing his percussion throughout, John tosses in a few odd vocalizations, as well.  But the most famous aside from the session is Can You Take Me Back.  The 50th anniversary edition of the "White Album" finally allows us to hear that entire number.  Of course, a snippet of it actually made its way (uncredited) onto the original album to serve as a segue between Cry Baby Cry and Revolution 9.

George may not have participated in the recording of I Will, but he did get to play it in 1994 during filming for the Anthology series.  As Ringo watches, George and Paul perform a bit of the song with ukuleles out in George's garden at Friar Park.

The song appeared on the Love Songs compilation in 1977.  And, in addition to Step Inside Love/Los Paranoias, Anthology 3 presents take one of the song from the original session.  A true rarity is the single released in the Phillipines in 1968, where the song was the B-side to Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.