Mull of Kintyre (song)

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"Mull of Kintyre"

Single by Wings
B-side(s)	"Girls School"
Released	November 11, 1977
Format	7"
Recorded	September 1977
Genre	Rock
Length	4:45
Label	MPL, Capitol R6018
Writer(s)	Paul McCartney, Denny Laine
Producer(s)	Paul McCartney
Chart positions
#1 (UK Singles Chart) #1 (Germany) #33 (U.S. Billboard Hot 100)
Wings singles chronology
"Maybe I'm Amazed" (1977)	"Mull of Kintyre" (1977)	"With a Little Luck" (1978)
Wings Greatest track listing
"Jet" (11)	"Mull of Kintyre" (12)
Wingspan: Hits and History track listing
"Junior's Farm" (13)	"Mull of Kintyre" (14)	"Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" (15)

"Mull of Kintyre" is a popular 1977 song by former Beatle Paul McCartney and his band Wings. The song was penned by McCartney and bandmate Denny Laine in tribute to the picturesque Mull of Kintyre peninsula in Argyll, Scotland, where McCartney had owned a home and recording studio since the late 1960s.

The lyrics are an ode to the area's natural beauty and sense of home:

Mull of Kintyre

Oh mist rolling in from the sea,

My desire is always to be here

Oh Mull of Kintyre

McCartney explained how the song came into being:

“

"I certainly loved Scotland enough, so I came up with a song about where we were living; an area called Mull of Kintyre. It was a love song really, about how I enjoyed being there and imagining I was travelling away and wanting to get back there."^[1]

”

The song was recorded in August 1977 as part of the sessions for what would become the London Town album. Bagpipes from Kintyre's local Campbeltown Pipe Band were a prominent part of the recording. The advancement of Linda McCartney's pregnancy brought a halt to the overall sessions, and "Mull of Kintyre", backed with B-side "Girls School", was released as a single on 11 November 1977 independently of any album.

Its broad appeal was maximised by the pre-Christmas release and it became a Christmas number one single in the UK, spending 9 weeks at the top. It also became a massive international hit, dominating the charts in Australia and many other countries over the winter holiday period. It went on to become the first single to sell over two million copies in the UK, earning McCartney the first ever 'rhodium disc' and becoming the UK's best-selling single of all-time (eclipsing The Beatles' own "She Loves You") until overtaken by Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas" in 1984 (which also featured Paul on the B-Side). The song remains one of the UK's best-selling non-charity singles, beaten only by Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" (which topped the charts twice).

One place where it was not a major hit was the United States, where it only managed to make it to #33 in the Billboard Hot 100, and that was as the B-side of "Girls School", not the A-side. As a consequence, McCartney has not played "Mull of Kintyre" during his subsequent concert tours of America, only adding it back on forays into Canada. The millionth copy of the disk included a special certificate to meet Paul. However, it was sold to actor Dan Aykroyd, who would meet Paul many times in the future anyway (such as when McCartney contributed the title track to Aykroyd's 1985 film Spies Like Us).

The song has been parodied by Frank Sidebottom as "Mull of Timperley".