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Released in 1966

Theme From The Family Way

Written by Paul McCartney • George Martin • Instrumental

Last updated on December 31, 2022

Album This song officially appears on the The Family Way - Original Soundtrack Recording (Mono - UK) Official album.

Timeline This song was officially released in 1966

Timeline This song was written, or began to be written, in 1966, when Paul McCartney was 24 years old)

Master album

Related sessions

This song was recorded during the following studio sessions:

Related songs

“The Family Way” is a soundtrack album composed by Paul McCartney, produced and arranged by George Martin, and credited to the George Martin Orchestra. Released in January 1967 in the UK, it is considered the first solo effort by Paul McCartney, as it was the first time Paul didn’t share the songwriting credits with John Lennon.

No titles are given for any of the tracks on the LP, as they are basically variations on two themes – “Love In The Open Air” and “Theme From The Family Way“. But, over the years, those tracks were given titles, as explained in Eight Arms to Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium by Chip Madinger and Mark Easter:

Thirty-one musical cues are featured in the film, six of which are unrelated to the McCartney/Martin material. All twenty-four of the McCartney/Martin musical cues appearing in the film were bundled into thirteen tracks on both the UK and US soundtrack album LPs, with six of the tracks banding together a number of shorter musical cues. There is reason behind the cryptic cue IDs, as they roughly correlate to the film reel on which each cue appears, and the sequence of the cue on that reel. (For those keeping track, there are a few gaps in the sequencing: there is no Cue 2M2 or 2M3, film reels 3 and 9 contained no musical cues, and Cue 6M1 is the brief appearance of the theme music from the television drama Coronation Street). However, there is one variation in the film; Cue 7M1 (Tr. 9) fades out on the LP, but in the film it remains at full volume and cuts cold as the scene ends.

The LP label reads: The Family Way – Original Sound Track From The Film; no titles are given for any of the tracks, as they are all basically variations on the two themes – ‘Love In The Open Air’ and ‘Theme From The Family Way’. Six are featured on side one, with seven appearing on side two. The entire album runs just over a generous twenty-four minutes!

From Eight Arms to Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium by Chip Madinger and Mark Easter

“Theme From The Family Way” (also labelled “Cue 2M1 / 2M4“) is the first track of the soundtrack album and was the first of the two themes written by Paul McCartney, before leaving for holidays in France / Spain / Kenya in November 1966.

It was most unglamorous really. I rang our Nems office and said I would like to write a film theme, not a score, just a theme. John was away filming [How I Won The War] so I had time to do it. Nems fixed it for me to do the theme of The Family Way.

Paul McCartney – From New Musical Express – December 24, 1966

In the UK, Decca purchased the musical rights to the film and decided to release a single in addition to the album. But George Martin had also planned to release a single through EMI. A compromise was found. The Decca single, which was scheduled to be released on December 15, was pushed back for a week. George Martin recorded his own version of the two themes on December 15. The two singles were released on December 23, 1966, and were commercial failures.

The version of “Theme From The Family Way” released on 7″ by Decca was unique to this release and is an edit of Track 1 (0’00 to 1’35) and Track 13 (0’00 to 1’02) of the soundtrack album.

Variations

Officially appears on

See all official recordings containing “Theme From The Family Way”

Bootlegs

See all bootlegs containing “Theme From The Family Way”

Live performances

Paul McCartney has never played this song in concert.

Paul McCartney writing

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