Introduction and Chapter 1
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Wings' logo​

From 1971 to 2000 ex-Beatle Paul McCartney had a little band, a band that tried to take on the world; this band came close, but sadly it flew to close to the sun and melted. Wings had number ones, films, and Grammies; however trend chasing, label fall out, member changes, and the poor reception of their latter albums sealed their fate. This is the story of the 2nd Band, the band that went over the world; this is (Paul McCartney and) Wings.

Chapter 1: The Long and Winding Road (April 10th 1970 to June 1st 1971)​
On April 10th 1970, after tensions regarding the Beatles album Let It Be Paul McCartney left the Beatles; everyone now knew that the Beatles were no more, though they blamed Paul for the break up at the time. On April 12th Paul broke with EMI and Apple and signed a worldwide releasing deal with CBS; CBS Records would release Paul's material overseas and Columbia Records would release his material in the United States. Paul's first proper solo album was released worldwide on April 17th 1970; its title was McCartney

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McCartney's Album art​
Genre(s): Rock, lo-fi
Singles: Maybe I'm Amazed/Every Night (Reached number 1 in the United States, Canada, and West Germany)
Teddy Boy/Junk (Was number 30 in the US and Number 25 in the UK)
Ooh You/That Would Be Something (Europe only) (Reached number 18 in the UK)

Track listing:
1. The Lovely Linda
2. That Would Be Something
3. Valentine Day
4. Every Night
5. Hot as Sun/Glasses
6. Man We Was Lonely
7. Junk

8. Ooh You
9. Rock N Roll Spingtime
10. Teddy Boy
11. Maybe I'm Amazed
12. Kreen-Akrore


Despite hitting number one on the Billboard Album Charts, McCartney was not well received by critics; Rolling Stone Magazine, as an example, called it awful and derided it as being, "Full of Filler". His former bandmates weren't very warm toward McCartney either, "It (McCartney) makes The Shaggs look good; half the fucking thing is reject songs, hell most of the shit with lyrics we rejected during recording sessions" - John Lennon

"Maybe I'm Amazed and That Would be Something are great, everything else doesn't really do anything for me; I think the problem is that Paul's to isolated from other musicians." - George Harrison

Paul then went on to record his next album; he decided to record it exclusively in the US in the following studios: Columbia Recording Studio in New York, CBS Television City in Hollywood (Oh Woman, Oh Why, Monkberry Moon Delight, and Eat at Home only), and the CBS 30th Street Studio. Paul McCartney attempted to make this album critic friendly, and so the music hall and instrumental tracks were gone; also on the album were songs that were meant as jabs at John (3 Legs and Too Many People). The album, named Ram, was released on March 14 1971.

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Genre(s): Rock, Hard Rock, Blues Rock, Proto-Punk, Sympthonic Rock
Singles: Another Day/Oh Woman, Oh Why
Uncle Albert,Admiral Halsey/Heart of the Country
3Legs/Too Many People
Backseat of My Car/Monkberry Moon Delight
Eat at Home/Ram on

Track list
1. Another Day
2. Heart of the Country
3. Eat at Home
4. Ram On
5. Uncle Albert, Admiral Halsey

6. Monkberry Moon Delight
7. 3Legs
8. Oh Woman, Oh Why
9. Too Many People
10. Dear Boy
11. Smile Away
12. Back Seat of My Car

Reviews of Ram were more positive than of McCartney, reviews were overall mixed; some claimed Paul tried too hard to please critics. Some critics claimed Paul was ripping of John's loud and heavy style with tracks like Oh Woman, Oh Why, Smile Away, Too Many People, and Monkberry Moon Delight; some critics liked it, however Paul's old bandmates didn't like Ram at all. John was the angriest at the album as he viewed the majority of the songs on LP as an attack on him; Ram achieved number 2 on the US Billboard Chart and number 1 on the UK Albums chart and Uncle Albert, Admiral Halsey/Heart of the Country achieved number one on the US Billboard. Feeling as though he couldn't cut it as a solo musician, Paul formed Wings on June 1st 1971; Wings' 1971-1972 lineup went as follows:

Lead singer, bassist, Pianist, Producer: Paul McCartney
Backup singer, guitarist: Denny Lane
Drummer: Denny Seiwell
Backup singer: Linda McCartney
 
Chapter 2
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(Wings after a concert in Cardiff, December 6th 1972; Long Tall Sally was the first song they sang and Tutti Frutti was the last)

"Fasten your Seat Belts everyone, you're in for one hell of a road trip" Paul McCartney at the Cardiff concert 12/6/72 at 3:00 GMT


Chapter 2: First Flight (June 1st 1971 - September 15th 1973)
With a new band, Paul McCartney attempted to get George Martin to be his band's producer; Martin said no, but he did wish him luck. On June 26th Wings began to record their new album, Paul decided to record most of it live; Wild Life's recording went largely without incident despite the fact that it was the first time McCartney had recorded with a band since 1969. Columbia's executives hyped the album like there was no tomorrow, as they believed that the last two albums were failures because Paul was working solo, and CBS' executives had wild predictions for how much the album would sell, it got so crazy that in an interview with the BBC CBS executive Walter Yetnikoff claimed Wings would be "Bigger and better than the Beatles," and "The jewel in CBS' crown"; Wild Life was released on December 7th 1971 and despite getting to number 10 on the US albums chart, it received mixed to negative reception.

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(Pictured: The CBS Records, CBS Coronet, and CBS/SONY release of Wild Life; the US Columbia release had the text "Paul McCartney and Wings: Wild Life" on the picture)
Wild Life
Genre: Rock
Singles: Mumbo/Wild Life
I Am Your Singer/Bip Bop
Love is Strange/Dear Friend (Charted at Number 34 in the US and UK)

Track list
1. Mumbo
2. Bip Bop
3. Love is Strange
4. Wild Life

5. Some People Never Know
6. I Am Your Singer
7. Tomorrow
8. Dear Friend

Wild Life was called boring and rushed by Rolling Stone; Robert Peel mocked Yetnikoff's claims that Wings would be big, "If Wings is CBS' big crown jewel, you lot might want to go back to signing Orchestras. "

McCartney got so worried that he'd get sacked from Columbia so he began to look for offers from other labels, but it was to no avail; Wings then went on tour during February 1972, traveling colleges in the UK (Columbia would later release recordings from the University tour on the Cold Cuts album). From March to December 1972, Red Rose Speedway was recorded; George Martin brought on to produce and the album and this time Columbia decided to only release 2 singles from the album. Yetnikoff was fired from CBS after the fiasco and Wild Life fell off the Billboard Album Chart after 3 weeks.

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Red Rose Speedway
Genre: Rock
Singles: My Love/Country Dreamer (reached number 1 on the Billboard Singles Chart)
Hi,Hi,Hi/C Moon (Number 28 on the Billboard Singles Chart)

Tracklist:
1. Big Barn Bed
2. My Love
3. Tragedy
4. Country Dreamer
5. Best Friend
6. Jazz Street

7. I Would Only Smile (Denny Lane lead vocals)
8. Seaside Woman (Linda McCartney lead vocals)
9. Little Lamb Dragonfly
10. 1882
11. C Moon
12. Hi, Hi, Hi

Red Rose Speedway received mixed to positive reviews as most thought it was a better album than Wild Life, many critics compared it to Lennon and Harrison's material; despite the comparisons, Red Rose Speedway got to Number 1 on the Billboard Albums Chart (Ending at Number 33), Number 2 on the UK album chart (Ending at number 1), Number 2 in Australia, and Number 13 on the Oricon LP Chart (Ending at 50).


Aside from Red Rose Speedway's release Paul and Linda wrote Six o' Clock for Ringo's self titled 1973 album, they also preformed on the album as well; they wrote Live and Let Die for the film of the same name, it charted at number one in the US and Britain; and were approached to star in an episode of The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries, they turned it down due to scheduling. After their 1973 tour of Europe and the UK, Wings began recording Band on the Run on August 15, 1973 in Jamaica and the Bahamas; by this time a certain Mouse was looking at the band with interest, and on September 15th 1973, a man from that Mouse's house would call Paul McCartney to Burbank...

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the Mouse that eyed Wings
 
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Chapter 3
Personal Note: Sorry for the delay, had a lot of stuff on my plate.

Chapter 3: Band members on the Run (September 15th 1973 - April 8th 1974)
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Pictured: Wings' Band on the Run (1974)

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Pictured: The US/Capitol album art for John Lennon (1974); John had broken with EMI in 1972 but he owed Capitol one more album, so it was released in the UK by Warner Bros. Records.


The McCartney's had left Jamaica to go to Burbank on September 15th, 1973 to discuss business with Don Tatum; attendance at Walt Disney World was slow and the company wanted to boost the park's figures and at the same time, new hotels were being built and planned.

"Paul, you gotta preform at Disney World, we've got a new Zoo we're building there; it'll be a win-win, you get promotion and we get promotion; what do you say" Tatum
"We have to record our record though, do you have a studio to accommodate that?" Paul McCartney
"Sure, here at Burbank we do cast recordings." Tatum
"Sure, thing then; only thing is, under our contract with Columbia, any album or the like has to be issued through Columbia. So if a live album gets put out, it has to go through Columbia." Paul McCartney
"Alright" Tatum
"We gotta finish the album first, so how far ahead is the construction of the zoo?" Linda McCartney
"It's around 70% complete, and we are adding a stage area for your band; we have deal?" Tatum
"Yes." Paul and Linda
"It's settled, thank you" Tatum

With that, the remainder of Band on the Run was recorded at the Walt Disney Productions Soundstages in Burbank; Band on the Run was mixed on December 13th, then released on January 5th, 1974. When he heard about the concert at Disney World's Zoo, Discovery Island, Henry McCullough and Denny Seiwell left Wings.


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Band on the Run
Genre: Rock
Singles: Helen Wheels/Peggy Sue
Jet/Let Me Roll It
Mrs. Vanderbilt/Mamunia (UK and Japan only)
Band on the Run/Nineteen-Hundred and Eighty-Five (reached #1 on the Billboard hot 100)

Tracklist:
Band on the Run
Jet
Bluebird
Let Me Roll It
Mrs. Vanderbilt

Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)
Helen Wheels
No Words
Mamunia
Nineteen-Hundred and Eighty-Five

With McCullough gone, Linda played keyboards (At first she tried playing Lead Guitar); the lineup was basically: Linda McCartney on keyboards and Back up Vocals; Denny Lane on rhythm guitar and back up vocals; and Paul on bass, lead guitar, drums, and lead vocals.

Band on the Run was a successful album as it had reached #1 on the Billboard Album Chart and received rave reviews; its songs would be staples of radio for years, including Radio Disney.

Feeling Wing's lineup was insignificant for live material, Paul auditioned for new members; Jummy McCulloch and Joe English joined the band on March 3rd 1974 as lead guitarist and drummer respectively. On April 8th, Wings preformed at Discover Island; they sang 20 songs, though to the disappointment of most people, no Beatles songs. The concert was recorded, but no material was issued from it until 1986's Cold Cuts; however footage filmed from the concert was used in Rockshow, footage was shown on news reports, and an acelate was made for a live album (Produced by McCartney himself). The reason no live album was made was because Disney's executives thought that the tapes sounded poor, with the sounds of wild life and audience members in the background; despite this in 1978 Disney hired Phil Spector to improve the sound, the results pleased Tatum but horrified Paul and Linda. The Discovery Island Opening Concert's live album would be released in 1999 on Walt Disney Records; the release used McCartney's mixes, which contrasts to Cold Cuts, which used Spector's mixes.

Walt Disneyworld Discovery Island Opening Concert:
Band on the Run
Tragedy
Mamunia
No Words
Bip Bop
1882
Teddy Boy
Junk
Maybe I'm Amazed
Soily *
Oh Woman, Oh Why
Monkberry Moon Delight
Mary Had a Little Lamb *
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Chim Chim Cheree *
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (Paul/Denny) *
Cruella De Ville (Denny) *
Jet
Seaside Woman (Linda)
Hi, Hi, Hi


* Was included on Cold Cuts

The concert was well received and it gave Paul the idea and confidence to go on a world tour, the would go... Over the World.
 
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