“I Will” by The Beatles

"I Will" is Paul McCartney in miniature on the Beatles' 1968 double album, the White Album: one of the songs that came out of the band's stay in Rishikesh, India. The tune arrived easily, but the words didn't; by McCartney's account he and Donovan tried a set of moon-themed lyrics there, and he threw them out as not good enough, and he was still finishing plain, direct love-song lines when the band started recording back in London.

It's a tiny, tender thing. McCartney sings lead and backing parts, plays acoustic guitar and even sings the bass part with his voice, while John Lennon taps temple blocks and Ringo Starr keeps a light touch on drums and maracas. Ken Scott engineered. McCartney has called it one of his favorite melodies, a tune that came out complete.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.