Paul McCartney - Solo Ballads (1969-2026) | ALBUMS THAT SHOULD EXIST

 Paul McCartney - Solo Ballads (1969-2026) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Paul says: Here we are, with the last album in guest poster Mike Solof's eight album series of the best rockers and ballads from the solo careers of the four ex-Beatles. As I mentioned in the write up to the last album in this series, for Paul McCartney's solo rockers, McCartney has had a long and prolific career, so there's just more of his songs. That led to a solo rocker album just for him, and now this solo ballad album just for him.

As usual with this series, the songs generally come from the well-known studio albums. That's the case here. However, there's a surprise in that one song, "Best Love," is a Paul lead vocal on a song that appeared on an album by comedian Steve Martin (who also happens to be a surprisingly good banjo player, so it's a serious song). 

Also, four of the songs are special edits made by Mike, the ones with "[Mike's Mix 2026]" in their names. That's because some of these songs were a little rocking to truly qualify as ballads. So Mike edited them to make them sound more gentle and mellow. 

Although this series is over, Mike wanted to carry on making rocker and ballad best ofs for other musical acts. Hopefully you will see one result from that posted here soon. 

This album is 51 minutes long. 

01 I'm Carrying 
02 Once upon a Long Ago [Mike's Mix 2026] 
03 Waterfalls
04 With a Little Luck [Mike's Mix 2026]
05 Here Today 
06 Best Love (Steve Martin & Paul McCartney)
07 This One [Mike's Mix 2026] 
08 Maybe I'm Amazed [Mike's Mix 2026] 
09 My Love 
10 My Valentine 
11 Distractions
12 This Never Happened Before 
13 Wanderlust 

(all tracks Paul McCartney except where noted) 

Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers - "Best Love" (featuring Paul McCartney)

Rounder Records

Albums That Should Exist | Sara Bareilles: What’s Not Inside [Songs From the Musical Waitress] 2015- 2019

 We enjoyed the covers album Paul did before and this is no exception! Enjoy . . . . . 

Sara Bareilles - What's Not Inside - Songs from the Musical Waitress (2015-2019) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Paul Says : Here's a special album posting, courtesy of guest poster Mike Solof. A few weeks ago, we posted an album of cover versions by singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles. That was just a warm-up, to get newbies to appreciate the fact that she has a great singing voice. Here's the album that Mike was most interested in sharing.

Bareilles is best known for her hits "Love Song" and "Gravity" in 2007 and "Brave" in 2013. In 2015, she released an album of songs meant for a musical version of the 2007 Hollywood movie "Waitress." It was called "What's Inside: Songs from Waitress." This post does not include that album, but it includes all the important music related to her involvement in that musical. 

Probably the central focus here is a concert. She never toured in a way that matched the "Waitress" musical. But in 2015, she did exactly one concert like that. It was held at the New York City Center in New York City, on November 5, 2015. That concert is included here. This first song list is from that concert. It remains unreleased, but it was broadcast on the Internet at the time and bootlegged, so the sound quality is excellent.

But that's not all. Bareilles is very talkative, and there is a ton of between-song banter from that concert. So Mike made a "Music Only" version of the concert without any of the banter.

But wait, there's more. He also included an exact version of the concert, but as one huge mp3 for people who would prefer that. 

And there's still more. He included an .mp4 track of video footage of the entire concert. That's the first time this blog has included any video.

But wait, there's even more than that! In 2019, Bareilles released an album of songs related to the musical that didn't make the album, called "What's Not Inside - The Lost Songs from Waitress (Outtakes and Demos)." Since that's very obscure to find these days, Mike included that too.

On top of all that, Mike made a PDF file with lots more information and plenty of nice photos. So be sure to check that out.

Everything is included in one zip file. It's the largest file ever posted here, mostly due to the video of the concert. The total size is over 1 GB.

The full concert is an hour and 33 minutes long. The "music only" version of the concert is one hour long exactly. The 2019 EP is 22 minutes long.

Here's the track list to the full 2015 concert discussed above:

Songs from the Waitress Concert, New York City Center, New York City, 11-5-2015

01 What's Inside
02 Opening Up 
03 talk 
04 Door Number Three 
05 talk 
06 When He Sees Me [Dawn's Song] 
07 talk
08 I Didn't Plan It [Becky's Song]
09 talk 
10 Soft Place to Land
11 talk s)
12 Never Ever Getting Rid of Me
13 talk
14 Bad Idea (Sara Bareilles with Drew Gehling)
15 talk
16 You Matter to Me (Sara Bareilles with Drew Gehling)
17 talk
18 She Used to Be Mine 
19 talk
20 Everything Changes 
21 talk
22 King of Anything
23 Love Song 
24 talk
25 Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay 
26 talk
27 Brave
28 talk
29 Gravity [Acappella Version]
30 talk

Here's the track list from the "music only" version of that same concert:

01 What's Inside 
02 Opening Up
03 Door Number Three
04 When He Sees Me [Dawn's Song] 
05 I Didn't Plan It [Becky's Song] 
06 Soft Place to Land
07 Never Ever Getting Rid of Me
08 Bad Idea ( with Drew Gehling)
09 You Matter to Me
10 She Used to Be Mine
11 Everything Changes
12 King of Anything 
13 Love Song
14 Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay
15 Brave 
16 Gravity [Acappella Version]
17 talk 

Finally, here's the song list from the EP "What's Not Inside - The Lost Songs from Waitress (Outtakes and Demos)," released in 2019.

01 Happy Enough
02 Door Number Three
03 Knocked Up You 
04 Without a Believer
05 I Can't Wait
06 Falling in Love Pie 

07 She Used to Be Mine  

She Used To Be Mine from Waitress the Musical - Sara Bareilles - Live on Graham Norton

Sara Bareilles performs She Used To Be Mine from Waitress the Musical ahead of her starring run at the Adelphi Theatre in London from 27 Jan to 7 March 2020

”Gravity” by Sara Bareilles - Live @ The Warfield, SF

Sara Bareilles