"I Was Paul" -
A birthday celebration of Paul McCartney...

 

 

"Till There Was You" - A Personal Remembrance

In 1964, I was performing in a group called the East Orange Variety Players in New Jersey which put on free shows for handicapped people in hospitals and senior health care facilities. One of the things we did was a medley of songs sung by the Beatles. When our group director decided who would sing several Beatles songs, I was chosen to be Paul McCartney. Three other friends played the other Beatles: Bob played John, Martin was George, and Raphael was Ringo -- and he played just like that animated drummer!

For my part, I especially liked the song Paul had recorded, "Till There Was You" from THE MUSIC MAN musical. So I lip-synched that song. We also did a few other Beatles songs and the one that got the biggest response was "She Loves You." That song always made the audience happy with big smiles on their faces. Many of them were in wheelchairs or on crutches. It was a real joy to impersonate the Beatles, with our wigs and non-electric guitars, some even with missing strings! That didn't matter to the audience since we were bringing them some lively fun music.

Our Beatles tribute made those hospital patients happy. I was happy too -- because I got to impersonate Paul, my favorite Beatle, who was born the same year as me. So I felt like we were sort of like mates.

"The Soho Serenade"

A few years earlier I wrote the words to a new song. I was thinking of the London district and also a recent record, "My Bonnie," with a solo by Tony Sheridan accompanied by the Beatles and I was also thinking of the Beatles early hit records: "Love Me Do" and "Please Please Me."

At that time I was dating an English girl by the name of Sadie. I dedicated the song to her. She was thrilled to receive the melody and words and said she would try to find a group to perform my song when she returned to England. I guess she never found that group. At least she never mentioned it in her many letters she wrote me after returning to England. Maybe she forgot all about my song I had given her. In any case, as far as I know “The Soho Serenade” was never sung in England.

After I returned to the U.S. in 1963, I prepared a lead sheet of "The Soho Serenade" and it was copyrighted in 1964. That was the same year The Beatles appeared for the first time in America on The Ed Sullivan TV Show.

The following year I went to a recording studio and had a demo record made of my song. Here I am proudly holding my demo 45 RPM record:

The song was beautifully sung by Ethel Regan at the local recording studio, with a nice small combo accompanying her. While at the studio one day, a few guys came in to talk with the record producer, Bill. I asked after they left if they were musicians and he told me they were members of an up-and-coming vocal group known as The Four Seasons. And Bill played my new song for them. But of course they had their own songs to record. Funny how things work out.

After trying repeatedly to get a recording company to release "The Soho Sereande," I just stopped trying and put the demo record away and forgot about it.

Then, 50 years later, when preparing my new CD, I decided to include "The Soho Serenade." It is now available for the first time on this album:

 

 

I'm finally sharing "The Soho Serenade," written thanks to the early Beatles recordings back in the early '60s.

I thank Paul McCartney for his popularity and letting me be him as I lip-synched the songs he sang back in the early 1960s.

So "Till There Was You" Paul, I never thought I would become a songwriter.
On your 80th birthday, I say - thanks mate!

-- Roger Lee Hall, ASCAP singer-songwriter, 2022

 

 

Other stories by Roger Lee Hall

"Dream World"
Songs, Poems and Stories

"Free As The Breeze"
A Songwriter's Songs and Sorrows

 

 

See also...

"Please, Please Me" - Memories of The Beatles

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