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Released in 1970

Oo You

Written by Paul McCartney

Last updated on April 14, 2022

Album This song officially appears on the McCartney LP.

Timeline This song was officially released in 1970

Master album

Related sessions

This song was recorded during the following studio sessions:

Related song

Related interview

“Oo You” is a track from Paul McCartney’s debut solo album, “McCartney“, released in April 1970.

The first three tracks were recorded at home as an instrumental that might someday become a song. This, like Man We Was Lonely, was given lyrics one day after lunch just before we left for Morgan Studios, where it was finished that afternoon. Vocals, electric guitar, tambourine, cow bell and aerosol spray were added at Morgan and it was mixed there. On the mix, tape echo was used  to move feedback from guitar from one side to another.

Paul McCartney, from the press release of “McCartney”, April 1970

An instrumental version, mixed with a track named “Don’t Cry Baby“, was released in the “McCartney – Archive Collection” in 2011. Some early takes of “Oo You” have also been bootlegged.

From PopMatters, 2010:

“Oo You” opens side B of the McCartney album, and despite the fact that it is such a great, bluesy little rocker, it isn’t discussed much. […]

Not surprisingly, “Oo You” started out as an instrumental track. McCartney’s opening suggestion of “More guitar” might lead you to think that someone else was playing the electric guitar on it, but like the tambourine, cowbell, and “aerosol spray” heard on the track, it was all Paul. Reportedly ad-libbed on the spot, it was written and recorded on the same day as the album’s previous track, “Man We Was Lonely”. However, it wasn’t completed until a tape echo was used to move the guitar’s feedback “from one side to another”. On that same date of February 12th, 1970, McCartney also worked on “Junk”, “Singalong Junk”, “Hot As Sun”, and “Teddy Boy”.

Even though it seems to be ignored by McCartney himself, “Oo You” is critically praised all over the internet as one of the album’s best “deep cuts”. As a testament to this, there are many amateur covers of it on YouTube.

From the press release of “McCartney”, April 1970

Lyrics

Look like a woman

Dress like a lady

Talk like a baby

Love like a woman.

Chorus. Oo you

Walk like a woman

Sing like a blackbird

Eat like a hungry

Cook like a woman

Chorus. Oo you

Look like a woman

Oo Dress like a lady

Oo Talk like a baby (golly golly golly goo-goo)

Love like a woman – oo – oo you.

Variations

Officially appears on

Bootlegs

See all bootlegs containing “Oo You”

Live performances

Paul McCartney has never played this song in concert.

Going further

Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989

With 25 albums of pop music, 5 of classical – a total of around 500 songs – released over the course of more than half a century, Paul McCartney's career, on his own and with Wings, boasts an incredible catalogue that's always striving to free itself from the shadow of The Beatles. The stories behind the songs, demos and studio recordings, unreleased tracks, recording dates, musicians, live performances and tours, covers, events: Music Is Ideas Volume 1 traces McCartney's post-Beatles output from 1970 to 1989 in the form of 346 song sheets, filled with details of the recordings and stories behind the sessions. Accompanied by photos, and drawing on interviews and contemporary reviews, this reference book draws the portrait of a musical craftsman who has elevated popular song to an art-form.

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