I'll Follow the Sun

I wrote that in my front parlour in Forthlin Road. I was about 16. 

In the summer of 1960, the eighteen-year-old Paul McCartney was playing long sets of loud rock and roll in Hamburg. He relaxed during the breaks by playing the stage piano, casually informing those around him, ‘I’ve written a song.’

In fact, Paul had in fact written I’ll Follow the Sun two years earlier. He later recalled:

‘I’ll Follow The Sun’ was one of those very early ones. I seem to remember writing it just after I’d had the flu… I remember standing in the parlour, with my guitar, looking out through the lace curtains.

Recording

In Hamburg, Paul ultimately decided that I'll Follow the Sun was too off-brand for the stage set. But by 1964 the Lennon and McCartney song factory was running low on stock. 

With a Christmas album release, Beatles for Sale looming, McCartney decided he could upcycle that old/new song.