Thinking of Linking

"Thinking of Linking" is an early song written by Paul McCartney and performed by McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr on Friday 23 June 1994.[1] This performance did not feature in the original The Beatles Anthology documentary series but was later included as part of extra footage when the documentary was released on DVD in 2003. The song has a brief guitar introduction, one verse and no chorus.

McCartney wrote the song when he was about 16 years old.[2] In 1988 Paul said "Thinking of Linking was terrible! I thought it up in the pictures, someone in a film mentioned it 'we're thinking of linking' and I came out of there thinking 'That should be a song. Thinking of linking, people are gonna get married, gotta write that!'"[2] In the same interview McCartney also refers to the song as "Pretty corny stuff!”.

Although the song was never completed beyond its one verse, it is historically significant as an example of one of the early songs that John Lennon and McCartney wrote together or separately before they had a publishing deal. Talking about such early songs, McCartney said "We wrote a few that never got published, before we went with a publisher, and I say, it's really now they're in here [his memory]. They never got put down anywhere so there's really only my memory that can sort of remember them, you know. So it's something I want to do something with actually, 'cause they're pretty rough songs, but they're not bad in a rock-a-billy kind of way".[3]

On Wednesday 29 January 1969 The Beatles performed an unrehearsed version of "Peggy Sue Got Married", which became a medley when John began singing words from "Thinking of Linking". This performance is brief and Sulphy and Schweighardt reported, 'Unfortunately, everyone seems to have half-forgotten the tune.'[4] Towards the end of this performance the distinctive introductory guitar chords can also be heard being played.