Sir Paul McCartney has revealed that he still feels emotional listening to a song he wrote for fellow Beatle John Lennon after the famous band broke up.

Sir Paul, 79, was speaking about the track Dear Friend, which features on Wild Life, the debut album from Paul McCartney And Wings, a band formed in 1971 after The Beatles had split.

In a Q&A featured on PaulMcCartney.com, Sir Paul said of the song: “That’s sort of me talking to John after we’d had all the sort of disputes about The Beatles break up.

“I find it very emotional when I listen to it now.

“I have to sort of choke it back.”

“This was me reaching out”

He added: “I remember when I heard the song recently, listening to the roughs (remastering works-in-progress) in the car. And I thought, ‘Oh God’. That lyric: ‘Really truly, young and newly wed’.

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“Listening to that was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s true’. I’m trying to say to John: ‘Look, you know, it’s all cool. Have a glass of wine. Let’s be cool’.

“And luckily we did get it back together, which was like a great source of joy because it would have been terrible if he’d been killed as things were at that point and I’d never got to straighten it out with him.

“This was me reaching out. So, I think it’s very powerful in some very simple way. But it was certainly heartfelt.”

Lennon was shot dead in 1980 at the age of 40.

A reissue of Wild Life as a limited edition half-speed mastered vinyl pressing will be released on 4 February just over 50 years since the original album.

Wild Life had eight tracks, including Mumbo, and Bip Bop, and Sir Paul said it was recorded in “barely more than a week”, with most of the songs captured in a single take.

Asked if there were songs he had forgotten about before remastering the album, Sir Paul said: “Yeah, absolutely.

“Well, to tell you the truth, I don’t listen to my old albums much, you know. I just don’t.

“So, I mean, to me it’s very strange that I would dare to do a track like Mumbo. To open an album with a track that hasn’t got any lyrics, it’s like, ‘Whoah!’ I mean, I think it’s kind of cool now. Like, wow, okay.”

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