This song has nothing to do with Press To Play, it was recorded in 1987 way after that album was released. It sounds different because it was produced by a different guy (Phil Ramone, Billy Joel's main producer) and orchestrated by George Martin. This was one of several songs recorded by Paul with Phil Ramone for a proposed album, Return To Pepperland, that eventually never came out and that was heavily bootlegged ever since. Some very fine songs were recorded for that album, some of those came out in later years and some remain officially unreleased to this day. Anyway, when the Return To Pepperland album was shelved Paul decided to publish Once Upon A Long Ago as a standalone single by late 1987 for the Christmas market, and promoted it heavily on TV in Britain as well as Europe (You can find many lipsync televised performances of this song by Paul, Linda and a "band", including future stable drummer Chris Whitten, on various TV shows in late 87/early 88). As a tie-in with this single release, Paul coincidentally released a greatest hits compilation title …All The Best!, which was promoted alongside the single. For some reason, the US version of this compilation does not feature the new song, which was otherwise present in pretty much the rest of the world's editions. The version you've listened to is not the original single version, the same that was actually included in the UK/Europe edition of …All The Best!, but an Extended Version which was released on the 12" maxi single version. If you want to listen to the original, more coincise and "less solos" version, I suggest you to check out The 7" Singles Box version on Spotify/RUclips. When time came in 1993 to re-release all of Paul's post-Beatles albums to date, remastered and with additional bonus tracks, for some reason it was decided to attach this song to Press To Play, even though the timeframe was wrong. Even more, they didn't release the proper version of the song, maybe because the …All The Best! album was still fairly recent and still on print, so they decided to go for a more "rare" version of the song. Last trivia: The original release of the Once Upon A Long Ago, in its various configurations, was indeed a hint at things to come. The B-side of the song was Back On My Feet, the first song written by Macca with Elvis Costello, and so the beginning of a songwriting collaboration that'll go on a few years and that will grace both artists' next releases (Flowers In The Dirt and Off The Ground, specifically for Paul). There were different 12" releases of this single as well, some of those containing surprising covers of old rock’n’roll songs that will grace Paul's next album, CHOBA B CCCP. So this single is already foreshadowing Paul's next releases from 1988 to 1993. What else to say on this song? Well, it is a great one. Definitely one of Paul's best songs of the 80s, for me. I especially like the transition from the electric guitar to the violin in the solo section, very well underlined in the video of the song
When i first heard this song, a story revealed itself in my head: During the chorus there are children playing in the grass, a stream running near by. It is "nature's plan" hand in hand with the children. During the verses: Children playing in the backyard, a parent working in the kitchen. But suddenly the children are no longer in the garden. Wailing sirens (guitars) can be haard.The parent walds out, sees the garden gate open. The parent steps out on the street, a group of people gathered near by, close to an ambulance. One of the children standing there. They walk through the people and see how a paramedic is putting a cloth on the other childs face. When the chorus sets in again the cloth is pulled away and we're back, the child laughing, lying in the grass, both children jump up and start runningwards to the sream. End of story. I can't "unthink" this story and I always start crying.
The abstract lyrics are sublime. It was released on the All the Best UK version and was not included on the US market. You are correct it was originally intended to be sung with Freddie Mercury. Yes it is just a time period thing. The variations are interesting in having the album version, a single, long version and an extended version. From Wikipedia The song was released in four versions: two different 12" singles feature "long" and "extended" versions (mixed by George Martin and Peter Henderson, respectively); the 7-inch single and the CD single (McCartney's first) feature an edit of the long version and a B-side from each of the two 12" singles, as well as "Back on My Feet", a b-side for all four iterations; and the album version featured on All the Best! contains an alternative ending. "Back on My Feet" was also the first released song from the songwriting collaboration between McCartney and Elvis Costello. Both 12" and CD singles also featured songs from McCartney's yet to be released cover album, Снова в СССР. "Once Upon a Long Ago" reached No. 10 in the United Kingdom Singles Chart. The single was not released in the United States nor included on the US version of All the Best!, although it did appear on the longer UK/Canada version. The song also appeared on the promotional album Never Stop Doing What You Love. It was later included on The 7″ Singles Box in 2022, which was the first time it had been included on any major US-released set. End of wikipedia quote Long version:4:34 Extended 6:06 The violin is played by the famous Nigel Kennedy Worth noting: The b-side 'Back On My Feet' - the first collaboration with Elvis Costello is a great song The 6:06 version is by far the best and has a scorching middle section plus it sounds better ending with a vocal fade out then just instrumentation. A favourite track for many Paul fans. Picking up tails and broken chords, puppy dog tails in the House of Lords... what's not to love about this song.
In my town, it was first available on an EP with Back On My Feet, and covers of Don’t Get Around Much Any More, and Midnight Special. It wasn’t the extended version you played. Very enjoyable EP.
A hidden gem - this song gets forgotten. That sax is dirty. McCartney is participating in those guitar solo's, and does piano, and plays bass, and sings - come one, that is genius!
Neither of which made Top 10 in Canada. Only Love Remains was his Top 10 hit for the mid-80s. But it wasn't his last. I was going to say it was Hope of Deliverance, but according to Wikipedia it is actually From a Lover to a Friend (2001) -- which I find hard to believe, because I don't remember hearing it on the radio.
@@Kieop In Austria his only top 10 hits of the 80s were Ebony & Ivory, Say Say Say and This One. From A Lover To A Friend would be a nice one, one of my favorites. In Austria the last was Hope Of Deliverance besides FourFiveSeconds.
The 80’s featured a lot of remixed versions of singles. Paul did it roughly ‘83-‘93. The Paul McCartney Collection reissues in ‘93 added usually 3 tracks per album based on their time period. So Spies Like Us and Once Upon.. don’t belong originally with PTP.
I've never heard this extended version before. I first encountered this song on All The Best. At the time, I was confused b/c it's a greatest hits compilation, but this was clearly a new song, so I figured he just felt like throwing it on there. It's not unprecedented to put out a greatest hits album and sneak a new song on there. It happens, so I didn't question it. Learning that he wrote it for Princess Bride, I think he put it on All the Best because he had no where else to release it when it didn't appear on the soundtrack. That makes sense to me. So when he later did the 1993 version of Press to Play it makes sense again that he would add it there, since it is from that time period and it's not like we're going to get an archive version of a greatest hits compilation. Anyway, that's my speculation. There is also a music video version and he performed it on Top of the Pops in 1987, so perhaps, he released it as a single to promote All the Best as well. ruclips.net/video/dFIMeyTK-sU/видео.html
Yeah this originally got released in 1987 as a non-album single with Paul’s first collaboration with Elvis Costello as the B-side: Back on My Feet. Definitely worth checking out that song as well. You can find it on the 7” singles collection if you need to find it on streaming. I’m assuming they just wanted to lump it in with one of the albums and so that’s how it got on the Press to Play bonus tracks.
This is the wrong version from what appears on the PTP 1993 Remaster, this is from the second 12” issue. I should have offered to send you the mp3 of the actual 1993 remaster.
Yeah, this is my one "keeper" from this album/batch of songs. But there's a shorter version of it that trims out some of the excess in this version. I think it gets better on later listens as well as you pick up all the little things in it.
It was on the UK version of All the Best compilation. It was a single released only there. They threw it on PTP collection in ‘93 for lack of a better place to put it. Sooo it is separate from the PTP recordings.
Now, this is a damn good song! The rest of all this crap, with the exception of Only Love Remains, sounds Real or Thoughtful on this project. I think McCartney can write meaningful songs. In this period, I feel he writes what Everybody else wants to hear and not how he feels himself. Sad... This is a good one.
Good song. Even though it was a new track at the time it should have been included on the U.S All the Best compilation instead of C Moon. The single had a great b-side "Back on My Feet" which would have fit nicely on Flowers in the Dirt.
If you continue you your very much appreciated McCartney journey I may be late with my attending or commenting due to my holidays. I'll be in Iceland the first two weeks of July. I'm looking forward to your Flowers in the Dirt experience.
We'll miss ya @nicklenz7030 It's all good. I've been extremely busy myself lately. It's been all I can do to get anything posted on the channel. I will continue my journey though.
This song has nothing to do with Press To Play, it was recorded in 1987 way after that album was released.
It sounds different because it was produced by a different guy (Phil Ramone, Billy Joel's main producer) and orchestrated by George Martin.
This was one of several songs recorded by Paul with Phil Ramone for a proposed album, Return To Pepperland, that eventually never came out and that was heavily bootlegged ever since. Some very fine songs were recorded for that album, some of those came out in later years and some remain officially unreleased to this day.
Anyway, when the Return To Pepperland album was shelved Paul decided to publish Once Upon A Long Ago as a standalone single by late 1987 for the Christmas market, and promoted it heavily on TV in Britain as well as Europe (You can find many lipsync televised performances of this song by Paul, Linda and a "band", including future stable drummer Chris Whitten, on various TV shows in late 87/early 88).
As a tie-in with this single release, Paul coincidentally released a greatest hits compilation title …All The Best!, which was promoted alongside the single.
For some reason, the US version of this compilation does not feature the new song, which was otherwise present in pretty much the rest of the world's editions.
The version you've listened to is not the original single version, the same that was actually included in the UK/Europe edition of …All The Best!, but an Extended Version which was released on the 12" maxi single version.
If you want to listen to the original, more coincise and "less solos" version, I suggest you to check out The 7" Singles Box version on Spotify/RUclips.
When time came in 1993 to re-release all of Paul's post-Beatles albums to date, remastered and with additional bonus tracks, for some reason it was decided to attach this song to Press To Play, even though the timeframe was wrong.
Even more, they didn't release the proper version of the song, maybe because the …All The Best! album was still fairly recent and still on print, so they decided to go for a more "rare" version of the song.
Last trivia: The original release of the Once Upon A Long Ago, in its various configurations, was indeed a hint at things to come. The B-side of the song was Back On My Feet, the first song written by Macca with Elvis Costello, and so the beginning of a songwriting collaboration that'll go on a few years and that will grace both artists' next releases (Flowers In The Dirt and Off The Ground, specifically for Paul). There were different 12" releases of this single as well, some of those containing surprising covers of old rock’n’roll songs that will grace Paul's next album, CHOBA B CCCP.
So this single is already foreshadowing Paul's next releases from 1988 to 1993.
What else to say on this song?
Well, it is a great one. Definitely one of Paul's best songs of the 80s, for me.
I especially like the transition from the electric guitar to the violin in the solo section, very well underlined in the video of the song
thats why it sounds way better. Sorry not sorry.
@@ricardo_miguel13 That's your opinion. For me it just sounds different, there is no better or worse
An amazing song by the master of melody. This song is one of the best of his 80's catalogue.
When i first heard this song, a story revealed itself in my head: During the chorus there are children playing in the grass, a stream running near by. It is "nature's plan" hand in hand with the children. During the verses: Children playing in the backyard, a parent working in the kitchen. But suddenly the children are no longer in the garden. Wailing sirens (guitars) can be haard.The parent walds out, sees the garden gate open. The parent steps out on the street, a group of people gathered near by, close to an ambulance. One of the children standing there. They walk through the people and see how a paramedic is putting a cloth on the other childs face. When the chorus sets in again the cloth is pulled away and we're back, the child laughing, lying in the grass, both children jump up and start runningwards to the sream. End of story. I can't "unthink" this story and I always start crying.
The abstract lyrics are sublime. It was released on the All the Best UK version and was not included on the US market. You are correct it was originally intended to be sung with Freddie Mercury. Yes it is just a time period thing.
The variations are interesting in having the album version, a single, long version and an extended version.
From Wikipedia
The song was released in four versions: two different 12" singles feature "long" and "extended" versions (mixed by George Martin and Peter Henderson, respectively); the 7-inch single and the CD single (McCartney's first) feature an edit of the long version and a B-side from each of the two 12" singles, as well as "Back on My Feet", a b-side for all four iterations; and the album version featured on All the Best! contains an alternative ending. "Back on My Feet" was also the first released song from the songwriting collaboration between McCartney and Elvis Costello. Both 12" and CD singles also featured songs from McCartney's yet to be released cover album, Снова в СССР.
"Once Upon a Long Ago" reached No. 10 in the United Kingdom Singles Chart. The single was not released in the United States nor included on the US version of All the Best!, although it did appear on the longer UK/Canada version. The song also appeared on the promotional album Never Stop Doing What You Love. It was later included on The 7″ Singles Box in 2022, which was the first time it had been included on any major US-released set.
End of wikipedia quote
Long version:4:34 Extended 6:06
The violin is played by the famous Nigel Kennedy
Worth noting: The b-side 'Back On My Feet' - the first collaboration with Elvis Costello is a great song
The 6:06 version is by far the best and has a scorching middle section plus it sounds better ending with a vocal fade out then just instrumentation.
A favourite track for many Paul fans. Picking up tails and broken chords, puppy dog tails in the House of Lords... what's not to love about this song.
In my town, it was first available on an EP with Back On My Feet, and covers of Don’t Get Around Much Any More, and Midnight Special. It wasn’t the extended version you played. Very enjoyable EP.
A hidden gem - this song gets forgotten. That sax is dirty. McCartney is participating in those guitar solo's, and does piano, and plays bass, and sings - come one, that is genius!
11:52 11:52 11:52 11:52 11:52
This was Paul's last top ten hit in the UK.
I always liked it.
and Spies Like Us was his last in the US
Neither of which made Top 10 in Canada. Only Love Remains was his Top 10 hit for the mid-80s. But it wasn't his last. I was going to say it was Hope of Deliverance, but according to Wikipedia it is actually From a Lover to a Friend (2001) -- which I find hard to believe, because I don't remember hearing it on the radio.
@@Kieop In Austria his only top 10 hits of the 80s were Ebony & Ivory, Say Say Say and This One. From A Lover To A Friend would be a nice one, one of my favorites. In Austria the last was Hope Of Deliverance besides FourFiveSeconds.
The 80’s featured a lot of remixed versions of singles. Paul did it roughly ‘83-‘93.
The Paul McCartney Collection reissues in ‘93 added usually 3 tracks per album based on their time period. So Spies Like Us and Once Upon.. don’t belong originally with PTP.
I've never heard this extended version before. I first encountered this song on All The Best. At the time, I was confused b/c it's a greatest hits compilation, but this was clearly a new song, so I figured he just felt like throwing it on there. It's not unprecedented to put out a greatest hits album and sneak a new song on there. It happens, so I didn't question it. Learning that he wrote it for Princess Bride, I think he put it on All the Best because he had no where else to release it when it didn't appear on the soundtrack. That makes sense to me. So when he later did the 1993 version of Press to Play it makes sense again that he would add it there, since it is from that time period and it's not like we're going to get an archive version of a greatest hits compilation. Anyway, that's my speculation.
There is also a music video version and he performed it on Top of the Pops in 1987, so perhaps, he released it as a single to promote All the Best as well.
ruclips.net/video/dFIMeyTK-sU/видео.html
Yeah I'm not sure why Wikipedia lists this as one of the tracks to the Press to Play album but oh well. It was a good listen anyways.
Yeah this originally got released in 1987 as a non-album single with Paul’s first collaboration with Elvis Costello as the B-side: Back on My Feet. Definitely worth checking out that song as well. You can find it on the 7” singles collection if you need to find it on streaming.
I’m assuming they just wanted to lump it in with one of the albums and so that’s how it got on the Press to Play bonus tracks.
although the best version is not the single version but the all the best version
The shorter version from the All The Best compilation is better, without so many solos scattered around.
The unextended version is much better, and there's a cute animation that goes with it.
I really like this song but never heard the extended version before--enjoyed it a lot.
This is the wrong version from what appears on the PTP 1993 Remaster, this is from the second 12” issue. I should have offered to send you the mp3 of the actual 1993 remaster.
you can hear brian wilson as an influence in part of the arrangement-good tune
Yeah, this is my one "keeper" from this album/batch of songs. But there's a shorter version of it that trims out some of the excess in this version. I think it gets better on later listens as well as you pick up all the little things in it.
It was on the UK version of All the Best compilation. It was a single released only there. They threw it on PTP collection in ‘93 for lack of a better place to put it. Sooo it is separate from the PTP recordings.
Now, this is a damn good song!
The rest of all this crap, with the exception of Only Love Remains, sounds Real or Thoughtful on this project.
I think McCartney can write meaningful songs.
In this period, I feel he writes what Everybody else wants to hear and not how he feels himself.
Sad...
This is a good one.
BEST SONG OF THEM ALL!
Good song. Even though it was a new track at the time it should have been included on the U.S All the Best compilation instead of C Moon. The single had a great b-side "Back on My Feet" which would have fit nicely on Flowers in the Dirt.
the All The Best version is the difinitive version
If you continue you your very much appreciated McCartney journey I may be late with my attending or commenting due to my holidays. I'll be in Iceland the first two weeks of July. I'm looking forward to your Flowers in the Dirt experience.
We'll miss ya @nicklenz7030 It's all good. I've been extremely busy myself lately. It's been all I can do to get anything posted on the channel. I will continue my journey though.
Why were parts of it in mono (5:49 to, 6:56) then it jumps back into stereo? Sounds like it was piecemealed together by an amateur.
Pretty good tune but the bridge is lame - very lazy.