Paul McCartney reveals the 154 songs to appear in his new lyrics book, including an unreleased Beatles track

25 August 2021, 11:08 | Updated: 25 September 2023, 13:02

The book will feature 'Tell Me Who He Is' from the early 1960s, which The Beatles never properly recorded.

Paul McCartney has revealed which 154 tracks will feature in his upcoming lyrics "memoir" The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present.

Rather than write a traditional pop autobiography, The Beatles legend has chosen to present his life as a collection of his song lyrics edited and introduced by the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon.

One of the songs to be included among is 'Tell Me Who He Is', which is being billed as a Beatles track, albeit one the band never recorded.

McCartney found the handwritten lyrics for the song, believed to date to the early 1960s, while he was writing the book.

Paul McCartney - The Lyrics (Coming 2nd November)

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"More often than I can count, I’ve been asked if I would write an autobiography, but the time has never been right," McCartney said.

"The one thing I’ve always managed to do, whether at home or on the road, is to write new songs."

He continued: "I know that some people, when they get to a certain age, like to go to a diary to recall day-to-day events from the past, but I have no such notebooks.

Read more: New Paul McCartney documentary trailer teases unheard Beatles music

"What I do have are my songs, hundreds of them, which I’ve learned serve much the same purpose. And these songs span my entire life."

As well as the lyrics themselves, the book will included handwritten lyric sheets, previously-unseen photographs, drafts, drawings, and a new commentary from Paul for every song.

And to coincide with the book – which is released on November 2 and available for pre-order now – the British Library will host a free display called Paul McCartney: The Lyrics from November 5 2021 to March 12, 2022.

The Beatles - Back In The U.S.S.R. (2018 Mix / Lyric Video)

QUIZ: How well do you know Paul McCartney?

If you want to know which McCartney songs you're getting in the book, then the full list of all 154 is as follows:

Volume One

• All My Loving
• And I Love Her
• Another Day
• Arrow Through Me
• Average Person
• Back In the U.S.S.R.
• Band On The Run
• Birthday
• Blackbird
• Café on the Left Bank
• Calico Skies
• Can’t Buy Me Love
• Carry That Weight
• Check My Machine
• Come and Get It
• Coming Up
• Confidante
• Cook of the House
• Country Dreamer
• A Day In The Life
• Dear Friend
• Despite Repeated Warnings
• Distractions
• Do It Now
• Dress Me Up as a Robber
• Drive My Car
• Eat at Home
• Ebony and Ivory
• Eight Days a Week
• Eleanor Rigby
• The End
• Fixing A Hole
• The Fool On The Hill
• For No One
• From Me to You
• Get Back
• Getting Closer
• Ghosts of the Past Left Behind
• Girls' School
• Give Ireland Back to the Irish
• Golden Earth Girl
• Golden Slumbers
• Good Day Sunshine Goodbye
• Got to Get You Into My Life
• Great Day
• A Hard Day’s Night
• Helen Wheels
• Helter Skelter
• Her Majesty
• Here, There and Everywhere
• Here Today
• Hey Jude
• Hi, Hi, Hi
• Honey Pie
• Hope of Deliverance
• House of Wax
• I Don’t Know
• I Lost My Little Girl
• I Saw Her Standing There
• I Wanna Be Your Man
• I Want to Hold Your Hand
• I Will
• I’ll Follow the Sun
• I’ll Get You
• I’m Carrying
• I’m Down
• In Spite of All the Danger
• I’ve Got a Feeling
• Jenny Wren
• Jet
• Junior’s Farm
• Junk
• The Kiss of Venus

Volume Two

• Lady Madonna
• Let ‘Em In
• Let It Be
• Let Me Roll It
• Live and Let Die
• London Town
• The Long and Winding Road
• Love Me Do
• Lovely Rita
• Magneto and Titanium Man
• Martha My Dear
• Maxwell’s Silver Hammer
• Maybe I’m Amazed
• Michelle
• Mother Nature’s Son
• Mrs. Vandebilt
• Mull of Kintyre
• My Love
• My Valentine
• Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five
• No More Lonely Nights
• The Note You Never Wrote
• Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight
• Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
• Oh Woman, Oh Why
• Old Siam, Sir
• On My Way to Work
• Once Upon a Long Ago
• Only Mama Knows
• The Other Me
• Paperback Writer
• Penny Lane
• Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me)
• Pipes of Peace
• Please Please Me
• Pretty Boys
• Pretty Little Head
• Put It There
• Rocky Raccoon
• San Ferry Anne
• Say Say Say
• Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
• She Came in Through the Bathroom Window
• She Loves You
• She’s a Woman
• She’s Given Up Talking
• She’s Leaving Home
• Silly Love Songs
• Simple as That
• Single Pigeon
• Somedays
• Spirits of Ancient Egypt
• Teddy Boy
• Tell Me Who He Is
• Temporary Secretary
• Things We Said Today
• Ticket to Ride
• Too Many People
• Too Much Rain
• Tug of War
• Two of Us
• Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey
• Venus and Mars/Rock Show/Venus and Mars - Reprise
• Warm and Beautiful
• Waterfalls
• We All Stand Together
• We Can Work It Out
• We Got Married 
• When I’m Sixty-Four
• When Winter Comes
• Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?
• With a Little Help From My Friends
• Women and Wives
• The World Tonight
• The World You’re Coming Into
• Yellow Submarine
• Yesterday
• You Never Give Me Your Money
• You Tell Me
• Your Mother Should Know

This year is proving to be a bumper one for Beatles fans, with the upcoming release of Peter Jackson's six-hour, three-part Get Back miniseries airing on Disney+ on November 25, 26 and 27, which will be accompanied by its own 240-page book.

What's more, The Beatles are strongly rumoured to be re-releasing Let It Be in a deluxe multi-disc edition packed with previously unreleased songs, potentially including the "original" unreleased versions of the Get Back album from 1969 and 1970 before it was controversially remixed by Phil Spector.