Wild Honey Pie

“Wild Honey Pie” is a Beatles’ a very short track on their “White Album”, of course. This is also a Paul McCartney solo with no effort from the other Beatles. The band also recorded a song with a similar title, “Honey Pie“. However, these two songs are completely different.

White Album (1968)

Paul McCartney: lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitars, bass drum, also other percussion

Track Source

White Album

Wild Honey Pie

The track is just experimental psychedelic folk with vocal repeats of “Honey Pie”. Then at the end of the “song”, we hear, “I love you oooo…..” Indeed, The Beatles would often do something off-the-cuff and in many cases not even finish the song. This appears to be one of them crazy moments.

“We were in an experimental mode, and so I said, ‘Can I just make something up?’ I started off with the guitar and did a multitracking experiment in the control room or maybe in the little room next door. It was very home-made; it wasn’t a big production at all.

I just made up this short piece and I multitracked a harmony to that, and a harmony to that, and a harmony to that, and built it up sculpturally with a lot of vibrato on the strings, really pulling the strings madly. Hence, ‘Wild Honey Pie’, which was a reference to the other song I had written called Honey Pie. It was a little experimental piece.”

Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles

Recording Studio

The recording of “Wild Honey Pie” took place on the 20th August, 1968, at the EMI Studios in London. This was after the “Mother Nature’s Son” session and both these tracks saw Paul McCartney perform alone, of course. This is because George Harrison was on holiday in Greece while John Lennon and Ringo Starr were working on other “White Album” songs.

Obviously, Paul McCartney intended this as a filler track between songs on an otherwise perfect Beatles’ album.

In fact, they nearly excluded the song from the album. However, Paul McCartney said that George Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd, “liked it very much so we decided to leave it on the album”.

So, what are your opinions on this track?