Paul McCartney has shared the last time he met up with the muse of his early Beatles hit, All My Loving.
McCartney would write All My Loving, which featured on With the Beatles in 1963, while dating Jane Asher. The pair dated between 1963 and 1968, with the Wings frontman confirming the song is heavily influenced by her. Detailing the lead-up to writing All My Loving in his book, The Lyrics, McCartney confirmed that he and Asher had been considered an “item” by the press long before they made it official. The song is inspired by a particular moment between the pair as they found themselves chased by paparazzi and gossip columnists when attending the theatre.
McCartney recalled: “As far as the gossip columns were concerned, Jane and I were what they would call an ‘item’. So much so that we were in a theatre one night – I liked literature and theatre, and of course, she, as an actress, did too, which might have explained a good deal why I was drawn to her in the first place – and we were sitting there, and the lights went up for the interval.
“We had decided not to go to the bar, so we were just going to sit it out. Despite some of those huge early concerts, I really was ot used to the personal burdens imposed by fame, so we were just talking in our seats, and suddenly ten paparazzi came scampering in with those cameras going flash, flash, flash, like La Dolce Vita, and then, just as quickly, they all just scampered out again.
“They were like the Keystone Cops. But, oh my God, we were shocked. The theatre had probably tipped them off to get a bit of publicity for the play. But precisely because Jane was my girlfriend, I wanted to tell her there that I loved her, so that’s what initially inspired this song; that’s what it was.
“Listening to it so many years later, I do think it’s a nice melody. It starts with F-sharp minor, not with the root chord of E major, and you gradually work your way back. When I’d finished it, I felt, almost immediately, proud of it. I thought, ‘This is a good ‘un’.”
The “good ‘un” would serve as a major moment for The Beatles, who performed the song during their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. McCartney would eventually split from Asher, going on to marry Linda McCartney. While McCartney did not give a specific date for his last run-in with Asher, he does recall the last time he saw her.
He explained: “Many years later, long after we had lived together in St. John’s Wood, I ran into her when I was going to a doctor on Wimpole Street. I’d been walking down the street from Marleyborne, and I passed the house and thought, ‘Wow, great memories there.’
“Then I went further down the street to where my doctor was and I was just pressing the bell when I sensed someone behind me. I turned around, and it was Jane. I said, ‘Oh my God, I was just thinking about you and the house.’ That was the last time I saw her, but the memories don’t fade.”
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