In Macca’s arms, the pup he loved so much he wrote a hit about her
IT was written by Sir Paul McCartney as a paean to his English sheepdog.
But the Beatles’ 1968 song Martha My Dear might have ended up being called Knickers My Dear.
Two years earlier, the star had decided to fulfil his dream of owning a dog and contacted breeder Ann Davis.
Sir Paul, who was then dating Jane Asher, turned up in his Aston Martin DB6 at her home, where he posed with her sheepdog Cuddles before driving back to London with his new puppy, priced at ten guineas.
A few weeks later, the breeder received a telephone call asking if she could look after the pup while the Fab Four were travelling abroad.
The great-grandmother said yesterday: ‘He was very attached to the puppy and he didn’t want to leave it with his housekeeper.’ But when the dog arrived at her home in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, she was in for a shock when she was told what the star had called it.
‘Paul being Paul had decided to call the dog “Knickers”,’ the 84-year-old – Mrs Arch after remarrying – said.
The name is thought to have been coined after the pup had an accident on Sir Paul’s lap.
She added: ‘I told him that if I was going to look after her, I wasn’t standing at the back door shouting out “Knickers!” – so I called her Nicky.’
After keeping the pup for a month, she was returned to London, where Miss Asher had been ‘disgusted’ by the choice of name.
As a result, Knickers became Martha, and the future path of pop music (or at least a small part of it) was changed for ever.
The shaggy dog was a regular sight alongside Sir Paul and appeared in photoshoots with the other Beatles. Martha My Dear featured on the 1968 White Album, and Martha reportedly died at 15 in 1981.
Recalling the song, Sir Paul has said: ‘Whereas it would appear to anybody else to be a song to a girl called Martha, it’s actually a dog, and our relationship was platonic, believe me.’
In a 1997 biography, he said Martha resembled ‘a huge tangled ball of wool,’ adding: ‘She was a dear pet of mine. I remember John [Lennon] being amazed to see me being so loving to an animal. He said, “I’ve never seen you like that before”.
‘I’ve since thought, you know, he wouldn’t have. It’s only when you’re cuddling around with a dog that you’re in that mode.’
Now in retirement, Mrs Arch cherishes her meeting with the pop icon. She said: ‘He was so down-toearth, so approachable.’