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Released in 2014

Hope For The Future

Written by Paul McCartney

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Last updated on December 9, 2020

Album This song officially appears on the Hope For The Future (Digital EP) EP.

Timeline This song was officially released in 2014

Related sessions

This song was recorded during the following studio sessions:

Related song

Related interviews

“Hope For The Future” (initially named “Hope“) is a song written by Paul McCartney, released digitally on December 8, 2014, and on vinyl in January 2015. It was written to be part of the soundtrack for the video game “Destiny“, and appeared in the end credits of the game.

“Hope For The Future” was initially part of a musical suite – named “Music Of The Spheres” (which Paul McCartney contributed to) – which was finally shelved by Bungie, the studio designing “Destiny“. “Music Of The Spheres” was finally released in 2018; its latest track, named “The Hope“, contains “Hope For The Future“.

From paulmccartney.com, September 12th, 2014:

[…] Years in the making ‘Destiny’ is the biggest entertainment property of 2014. Earlier this week fans were queuing through the night to get their first glimpse. Stores across the world opened early in order to meet the demand. Made by Bungie, the studio behind ‘Halo’, and published by Activision, the company that brought you ‘Call of Duty’, ‘Destiny’ is expected to change the gaming industry. The hype surrounding this release demonstrates how the gaming industry has overtaken Hollywood.

The continuing success of this market and the scale of ‘Destiny’ is further underlined by the fact Paul McCartney has written the game’s end title theme song ‘Hope’, as well as working on the soundtrack. Throughout his career Paul has always looked at ways to reach new audiences with his music and has never been afraid to try out new ideas or platforms. This is the first time that Paul has ever written for a computer game and he has likely started yet another trend for the world of popular music. Paul teased fans with a tweet in 2012 confirming that he was working on a project with Bungie but this week following the games release the wait was over for fans when ‘Hope’ started to appear on the Internet. […]

From an interview with Bungie’s Community Manager Eric Osbourne:

How on Earth did you convince [Paul McCartney] to do music for a video game? How did you pitch this to him, and why do you think he did it? I’m guessing that there was an enormous check involved.

There was no check involved, big or otherwise. He’s in it for the creativity. He got a wonderful opportunity to reach an audience that wouldn’t typically be immersed in Paul McCartney. They might hear the name — of course he’s everywhere, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the Olympics, obviously he’s touring and recording nonstop — but he sees it as a way to reach a new audience that might not otherwise hear his music.

I was intrigued by the intricacy of the music because in a game if you go one route a certain piece of the music plays. I know from my kids and my grandkids, they just bury themselves in a game and I don’t think they’ve got time to listen to my music. Their agenda is pretty full with all the other stuff, you know, so I like the idea of infiltrating into their agenda.

Paul McCartney, from interview with NME, December 2, 2014

When you’re writing something like ‘Hope For The Future’, which is custom made, it is like doing a portrait for someone. You have to use your imagination and work out what they need, what they’re going to want and then what you want to give them. Then you’ve got to combine those three things into something that you still think maintains integrity. So in the game you’re basically trying to save Earth from the invaders, the aliens, so that suggested to me the ‘hope for the future’ idea and I went from there. Then I thought it is not just a game song, this will get played outside the game so it has got to be stand-alone too, you can’t have references to aliens or people will think ‘what’s he talking about?’ So it had to have its own stand alone meaning and integrity.

Paul McCartney – From paulmccartney.com, January 13, 2015

A trusted contributor of the Steve Hoffman Music Forums wrote:

A part of the song is coming from “Kiss Me Now” , an unreleased song from 1984 which was demoed by George Martin ( The part from 2.00 to 2.18 mn)

From forum resident Etcetera

To be noticed that it was reported that Paul McCartney recorded a song named “Hope” in 2012 for his “Kisses On The Bottom” album; it is not known if “Hope” and “Hope For The Future” are related or not.

When released in January 2015, the “Hope For The Future” included four different remixes. Two other remixes were released as part of a RecordStoreDay release in April 2015.

Lyrics

Some hope for the future

Some wait for the call

To say that the days ahead

Will be the best of all

We will build bridges

Up to the sky

Heavenly lights surrounding

You and I

From out of the darkness

Our future will come

If we leave the past behind

We'll fly beyond the sun

We'll be together

Sharing the load

Watching in wonder

As our lives unfold

Hope for the future

It's coming soon enough

How much can we achieve?

Hope for the future

It will belong to us

If we believe

If we believe

Hope shines brightest in the dark

When nothing's ever seen

Lighting undiscovered places

No-one's ever been

Some hope for the future

Some wait for the call

To say that our destiny

Will be the best of all

And we will build bridges

Up to the sky

And heavenly lights

Surrounding you and I

Hope shines brightest in the dark

Where nothing's ever seen

Lighting undiscovered places

No-one's ever been

Hope for the future

Hope for the future

Hope for the future

Variations

  • A Main
  • A1 Edit
  • A2 Video Mix
  • B Thrash version
  • C Beatsession Mix
  • D Jaded Mix
  • E Mirwais Mix
  • F Sweet Thrash (Remix 1)
  • G Sweet Thrash (Remix 2)

Officially appears on

See all official recordings containing “Hope For The Future”

Bootlegs

See all bootlegs containing “Hope For The Future”

Related film

Videos

Album Hope For The Future

Live performances

“Hope For The Future” has been played in 23 concerts and 4 soundchecks.

Latest concerts where “Hope For The Future” has been played

See all concerts where “Hope For The Future” has been played

Going further

Paul McCartney writing

Talk more talk, chat more chat

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Jon R Beauregard • 5 years ago

What is song on flip side hope for the future?

The PaulMcCartney Project • 5 years ago

Hi Jon, on the CD single for "Hope for the Future", several different mixes were included - see https://www.the-paulmccartney-project.com/album/hope-for-the-future/ - Thanks !

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