“Paul had been in New York doing some songs at A&R Studios. He and George Martin had written out a chart for Uncle Albert, and I encouraged Paul to conduct the musicians. ‘You’re nuts, I don’t want to do that,’ he said. But I got him to do it. I told the musicians, who were kind of New York snobs, ‘Listen, Paul is going to conduct, and he’s from England.’ That’s all I told them. I didn't say anything more. Later on, they were in the bathroom, saying things like ‘Was that Paul McCartney… the Beatle?!’

“It was the second album he did after the McCartney album. His child Mary was in the studio a lot. I never had a playpen in the control room before. Paul could pretty much play anything. He’s a terrific piano player, he can play drums, and he’s not the worst bass player in the world. [Laughs]

“He was very confident of what he was doing. There wasn’t any tentativeness to him or anything like that. You couldn’t bullshit him. If something didn’t sound right, you had to express your feelings. You might have been putting your head in the chopping block, but it was better than not speaking up.”