Fuh You

Album: Egypt Station (2018)
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Songfacts®:

  • Paul McCartney collaborated with OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder on this cheekily titled song. In addition to OneRepublic's hit songs such as "Apologize" and " Counting Stars," Tedder has also written tunes for the likes of Beyoncé ("Halo"), Adele ("Rumour Has It"), Leona Lewis ("Bleeding Love") and Ellie Goulding ("Burn"). So when Egypt Station producer Greg Kurstin suggested he work with Tedder on some songs, the Beatle legend knew he had a good track record.
  • Speaking to DIY Magazine, McCartney explained that he listened to a lot of songs Tedder worked on (especially Beyoncé's "Halo"), and liked what he heard. He then contacted the American producer by phone who asked him what he hoped to come out of their collaboration. When Macca replied "A hit," Tedder responded, "Yeah! Now you're talking my language! The world loves a hit!'"
  • McCartney recalled the story of writing this near-the-knuckle love song with Tedder, "We were just thinking of ideas and little pieces of melody and chords and the song just came together bit by bit. And then I would try and make some kind of sense of the story. So it was like, 'Come on baby now. Talk about yourself. Tell the truth, let me get to know you' and basically I wanna know how you feel, you make me wanna go out and steal. I just want it for you."

    "So that was the basic idea," he continued, "and it developed from there... sort of a love song, but a raunchy love song. There you go - fuh you."
  • "Fuh you" is arguably the closest McCartney has ever gone to an out rightly offensive song title. However he has form for sailing close to the wind dating back to The Beatles White album track "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?." Four years later The Wings' single "Hi Hi Hi" was banned by the BBC for what they described as "Inappropriate sex and drugs references."
  • Ryan Tedder warned Paul McCartney that "Fuh You" would annoy some of his older fans but gather up some younger admirers. "I told him, I was like, 'This is gonna p--s off about half of your fan base, and then a bunch of people who are like millennials, like me or younger, are just gonna think it's catchy as hell and love it," he recalled to ABC Radio. "Which is basically what it's doing!"
  • The heartwarming, black-and-white music video follows a lovestruck teenage boy on a successful date. We see him dancing through the streets of McCartney's home city Liverpool, with a grin on his face, singing along to the song's lyrics.
  • McCartney attempted to clear up confusion over the track's name, explaining to GQ that he didn't want to use the F-word in the title as he's "got eight grandchildren."

    He added that the track came about when the songwriting session was coming to a close and he and Tedder were "getting a bit hysterical in the studio" having been confined there for a long time. McCartney suggested light-heartedly that he sings, "I just wanna shag you." They laughed then he added "No, I'll tell you what we can do is, I can make it questionable as to what it is I'm singing."

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