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"Teddy Boy" is a song by Paul McCartney included on his first solo album McCartney, released in April 1970. According to Ernie Santosuosso of The Boston Globe, it describes the way in which a close relationship between a widow and her grown son is destroyed by her new romantic interest.
Paul McCartney wrote "Teddy Boy" during the Beatles' 1968 visit to India. In 1970, McCartney described the song as, "Another song I started in India and completed in Scotland, and London gradually. This one was recorded for the Get Back film, but later not used."
January 1969
McCartney first played the song to the other Beatles on 9 January 1969. The Beatles did not return to the song until 24 January, recording several takes. This recording includes some instances of guitar feedback. During one rendition of the song, John Lennon is heard calling "do-si-do" and other square-dance steps, something both musicologist Walter Everett and Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn ascribe to Lennon's boredom with the song. Musicologist and writer Ian MacDonald writes that any attempts at recording the song "were sabotaged by Lennon's continuous burble of parody". MacDonald describes "Teddy Boy" as an "annoyingly whimsical ditty – notable solely for its key change from D major to F sharp major".
The Beatles recorded "Teddy Boy" again on 28 and 29 January.
December 1969 – February 1970
McCartney recorded the McCartney version of "Teddy Boy" at his home in Cavendish Avenue, St John's Wood. He began the album around Christmas 1969, recording on a recently delivered Studer four-track tape recorder, without a mixing desk, and therefore with no VU displays as a guide for recording levels. McCartney described his home-recording set-up as "Studer, one mike, and nerve". He had finished recording the basic track of "Teddy Boy" by 12 February 1970, when he brought his tapes to Morgan Studios. These tapes were transferred from four- to eight-track tape, adding an audible hiss to the recording. At Morgan Studios, McCartney completed the track by overdubbing drums, a bass drum and clapping.
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