Wings Greatest
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Wings Greatest | ||
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| Compilation album by Wings | ||
| Released | 1 December 1978 | |
| Recorded | November 1970 - January 1978 |
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| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 54:28 | |
| Label | Parlophone/EMI | |
| Producer(s) | Paul McCartney "Live And Let Die" co-produced with George Martin |
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| Professional reviews | ||
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| Wings chronology | ||
| London Town (1978) |
Wings Greatest (1978) |
Back to the Egg (1979) |
Wings Greatest is a 1978 compilation album by Wings and the first official retrospective release from Paul McCartney's post-Beatles career. It was compiled after McCartney's decision to leave EMI's American label, Capitol Records, for a six-year stay for Columbia Records, though he remained with EMI worldwide during his US sabbatical from Capitol.
Wings Greatest is notable for including many of McCartney's post-1970 single-only releases, including "Another Day" (actually a "Paul McCartney" song, not a "Wings" recording), "Live And Let Die", "Junior's Farm", "Hi Hi Hi" and "Mull Of Kintyre". In addition to "Another Day", "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" was originally credited to "Paul & Linda McCartney" and from their 1971 album Ram.
Despite the fact that McCartney had amassed enough hits by late 1978 to fill a double album of hits, he kept it down to a single disc for commercial reasons. Thus, several songs would be overlooked for Wings Greatest. Indeed, not one song was excerpted from 1975's Venus and Mars, despite "Listen To What The Man Said" being a #1 US hit.
As on Wings over America, songs that originally were credited to "Paul and Linda McCartney" were listed solely by "Paul McCartney" on Wings Greatest (but only on "With a Little Luck" & "Let 'em In").
The album was promoted by a TV commercial in the UK, which featured several members of the public (played by actors) singing Wings tunes in public places. At the end a dustman, waiting in his lorry at a set of traffic lights (in Abbey Road), sings to himself an out of tune rendition of "Band On The Run", at which point Paul, Linda and Denny pull up alongside and Paul shouts out "You're a bit flat mate !". The driver leans out his window and says "Funny, I only checked them this morning!"
Although Wings Greatest has since been superseded by 1987's All the Best! and 2001's Wingspan: Hits and History, it still stands a representative sampler of Wings' flight.
In 1993, Wings Greatest was remastered and reissued as part of "The Paul McCartney Collection".
[edit] Track listing
All songs by Paul & Linda McCartney, except where noted.
- "Another Day" – 3:42
- First released as Paul McCartney's first solo single in February 1971
- "Silly Love Songs" – 5:52
- "Live And Let Die" – 3:11
- First released as a single in June 1973
- "Junior's Farm" – 4:21
- First released as a single in October 1974 and originally credited to "Paul McCartney & Wings"
- "With a Little Luck" (Paul McCartney) – 5:45
- "Band On The Run" – 5:10
- Originally credited to "Paul McCartney & Wings"
- "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" – 4:48
- Originally credited to "Paul & Linda McCartney" on 1971's Ram
- "Hi Hi Hi" – 3:07
- Originally released as a single in December 1972
- "Let 'Em In" (Paul McCartney) – 5:09
- "My Love" – 4:08
- "Jet" – 4:06
- Above two songs originally credited to "Paul McCartney & Wings"
- "Mull of Kintyre" (Denny Laine/Paul McCartney) – 4:43
- Originally released as a single in November 1977
