Walking In The Park With Eloise

From eil.com:

In downtime from a mid 70s Wings Nashville recording session the idea was mooted of an album of Macca songs that had been left off previous albums or had yet to find a home. ‘Walking In The Park With Eloise’ was recorded around this time (with a view to going on the album) and was said to be inspired by a conversation between Chet Atkins (who plays on the record) and Paul McCartney about their respective fathers. With that in mind Paul duly dusted off this jazz/twenties inspired ditty which was actually written by his father James ‘Jim’ McCartney – he must have been attached to the song as years later Paul chose it as one of his Desert Island Discs.

While in Nashville we recorded about five tracks… one is a song written by Paul’s dad called “Walking In The Park With Eloise”, just music. When Paul was a little boy, about 10, even younger, he remembers sitting at the foot of the piano while his dad was playing this song. We were having dinner with Chet Atkins, the guitar player, one night in Nashville, and Paul had being playing a lot of his music for Chet and he said, “here, here’s one that my dad wrote long time ago” – and he started playing it.

Chet got talking to Paul, saying that the song should be recorded and that would be nice for his dad and so on. We thought, why not? So we got Chet playing on it and Floyd Cramer the piano player and Chet himself got together a nice little band called Country Hams with lots of other Nashville people. So there’s this single called “Walking In The Park With Eloise” by Country Hams coming out on EMI in a couple of weeks.

Linda McCartney – Interview with Sounds, October 5, 1974

What was your dad’s reaction to you and Wings recording ‘Walking in the Park with Eloise’?

Paul: Oh, he loved it. He really loved it. He wouldn’t ever admit he’d ‘written’ it. He said it was just a piece he played on the piano that he’d ‘made up’. And I said, ‘Well, we call that writing these days!’ I think he meant that he didn’t physically write something out in notation. 

The recording of the song happened when I was in Nashville. I mentioned it to Chet Atkins and he said, ‘We should record that for your dad!’ So, it was Chet’s idea. We got a couple of guys together and recorded it. Then I played it to dad, who was very happy to hear the tune he ‘didn’t write’.

PaulMcCartney.com: Was it something that he’d played for many years?

Paul: Yeah, it was just something that he’d made up on our piano. He usually played all the ‘old standards’, that’s why I’ve got such a rich background knowledge of them. He never read any music, it was all by ear. I think it all sunk in when I was little, before I could even reach the piano! 

It gave me an interest in those kinds of songs. I’d hear Fred Astaire’s stuff on the TV or radio – [singing] ‘Heaven, I’m in Heaven!’ And I would learn to appreciate the skill made in making that song. I figured out how he’d done it, what tricks he used. A lot of my music education was just that, hearing tricks that other composers had used and thinking, ‘Oh, I love that. I’ll do it too’. For instance, the song ‘Bésame Mucho’ starts off in a minor key and goes into a major. What a great trick!

PM.com: You mentioned that ‘Walking in the Park with Eloise’ was recorded in Nashville. We’ve visited the Loveless Café there, where there’s a sign advertising ‘Country Hams’. Is this where the inspiration for the band name ‘The Country Hams’ came from?

Paul: Yeah, exactly. And that parking lot is where I met up with Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed. We went and ate there – I seem to remember the peach preserve was their speciality.

PM.com: What a nice piece of music history! There should be a little plaque in the car park.

Paul: ‘This is where Paul met Jerry and Chet!’

Paul McCartney – From Paul McCartney | News | You Gave Me The Answer – Walking in the Park with Eloise, September 27, 2024

Officially appears on

Bootlegs

Live performances

Paul McCartney has never played this song in concert.

Going further

WHAMMO! • 4 years ago

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