Showing posts with label Band on the Run. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Band on the Run. Show all posts

Sunday, June 26, 2022

Paul McCartney: Top 100 Songs

Paul McCartney

Top 100 Songs

Rock singer/songwriter and bassist James Paul McCartney was born on June 18, 1942 in Liverpool, England. He was a founding member of the Beatles (1960-70) before going solo in 1970 and also working with Wings (1971-79). This list contains his work as a solo artist, with Wings (W), and those Beatles’ songs (B) on which he was the lead singer or shared vocals.

Click here to see other acts’ best-of lists.

Spotify Podcast:

Check out the Dave’s Music Database podcast Paul McCartney – The Best of the Beatles, 1962-1970 based on this list. Premiere: June 22, 2022 at 7pm CST. Tune in every Tuesday at 7pm for a new episode based on the lists at Dave’s Music Database.

Awards:

Top 100 Songs

Dave’s Music Database lists are determined by song’s appearances on best-of lists as well as chart success, sales, radio airplay, streaming, and awards. Songs which hit #1 on various charts are noted. (Click for codes to singles charts.)

DMDB Top 1%:

1. Hey Jude (1968) B #1 US, UK
2. I Want to Hold Your Hand (1963) B #1 US, UK
3. Yesterday (1965) B #1 US
4. Let It Be (1970) B #1 US
5. She Loves You (1963) B #1 US, UK
6. A Day in the Life (1967) B
7. Eleanor Rigby (1966) B 1 UK
8. Can’t Buy Me Love (1964) B #1 US, UK
9. Penny Lane (1967) B #1 US
10. Get Back (1969) B #1 US, UK

11. We Can Work It Out (1965) B #1 US, UK
12. Ebony and Ivory (with Stevie Wonder, 1982) #1 US, UK
13. Paperback Writer (1966) B #1 US, UK
14. Say, Say, Say (with Michael Jackson, 1983) #1 US
15. Day Tripper (1965) B #1 UK
16. Silly Love Songs (1976) W #1 US
17. I Saw Her Standing There (1963) B
18. Maybe I’m Amazed (1970)
19. Band on the Run (1973) W #1 US

DMDB Top 2%:

20. And I Love Her (1964) B

21. My Love (1973) W #1 US
22. The Long and Winding Road (1970) B #1 US
23. Hello Goodbye (1967) B #1 US, UK
24. Love Me Do (1962) B #1 US
25. Michelle (1965) B
26. Mull of Kintyre (1977) W #1 UK
27. Live and Let Die (1973) W
28. Lady Madonna (1968) B
29. Coming Up (live, 1980) W #1 US
30. All My Loving (1963) B

31. Blackbird (1968) B
32. Eight Days a Week (1964) B #1 US
33. Wonderful Christmas Time (1979)

DMDB Top 5%:

34. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (1968) B
35. With a Little Luck (1978) W #1 US
36. Jet (1973) W
37. Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey (with Linda McCartney, 1971) #1 US
38. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) B
39. Here, There and Everywhere (1966) B
40. Got to Get You into My Life (1966) B

41. Four Five Seconds (with Rihanna & Kanye West, 2015)
42. Listen to What the Man Said (1975) W #1 US
43. Let ‘Em In (1976) W
44. Another Day (1971)
45. The Girl Is Mine (with Michael Jackson, 1982)
46. Back in the U.S.S.R. (1968) B
47. No More Lonely Nights (1984)
48. Helter Skelter (1968) B
49. Goodnight Tonight (1979) W
50. Junior’s Farm (1974) W

DMDB Top 10%:

51. Take It Away (1982)
52. She’s a Woman (1964) B
53. Helen Wheels (1973) W
54. Hi, Hi, Hi (1972) W 55. Magical Mystery Tour (1967) B
56. Drive My Car (1965) B
57. P.S. I Love You (1962) B
58. She’s Leaving Home (1967) B
59. Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End/Her Majesty (1969) B
60. Pipes of Peace (1983) #1 UK

61. Mary Had a Little Lamb (1972) W
62. My Brave Face (1989)
63. Venus and Mars Rock Show (1975) W
64. Spies Like Us (1985)

DMDB Top 20%:

65. Oh! Darling (1969) B
66. So Bad (1983)
67. Hope of Deliverance (1992)
68. The Fool on the Hill (1967) B
69. Birthday (1968) B
70. The World Tonight (1997)

71. Girls’ School (1977) W
72. Getting Closer (1979) W
73. Press (1986)
74. Arrow Through Me (1979) W
75. When I’m 64 (1967) B
76. Give Ireland Back to the Irish (1972) W
77. This One (1989)
78. Here Today (1982)
79. I’ve Had Enough (1978) W
80. Letting Go (1975) W

81. Let Me Roll It (1973) W
82. Figure of Eight (1989)
83. C Moon (1972) W
84. Rocky Racoon (1968) B
85. London Town (1978) W
86. Long Tall Sally (1964) B
87. Dance Tonight (2007)
88. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five (1973) W
89. Ever Present Past (2007)
90. Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey (1964) B

91. Sally G (1974) W
92. I’m Down (1965) B
93. Getting Better (1967) B
94. Waterfalls (1980) W
95. Fixing a Hole (1967) B
96. Put It There (1989)
97. Mrs. Vandebilt (1973) W

Beyond the DMDB Top 20%:

98. Ball Room Dancing (1982)
99. Freedom (2001)
100. You Never Give Me Your Money (1969) B

Resources and Related Links:

First posted 6/18/2012; last updated 6/26/2022.
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Saturday, June 8, 1974

Paul McCartney & Wings hit #1 with “Band on the Run”

Band on the Run

Paul McCartney & Wings

Writer(s): Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney (see lyrics here)

Released: April 8, 1974

First Charted: April 13, 1974

Peak: 11 US, 12 CB, 11 HR, 12 RR, 22 AC, 1 CL, 3 UK, 11 CN (Click for codes to singles charts.)

Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.4 UK, 2.0 world (includes US + UK)

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 18.0 video, 177.21 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

Paul McCartney’s planned working vacation to Lagos, Nigeria, took a turn when guitarist Henry McCullough and drummer Danny Seiwell abruptly quit. As he said, “It was literally an hour before we were getting into the plane.” TB By necessity, the album was nearly a solo effort, although his wife Linda McCartney and Denny Laine were still on board. On the title cut for the album alone, McCartney played guitar, bass, drums, and synth. He also sang lead and backing vocals. SG

Nigeria was also “not the tropical paradise that McCartney had envisioned. Instead, it was a country recovering from a civil war and controlled by a military junta. Infrastructure had crumbled. Disease was rampant. And rather than relaxing in finery, McCartney had to make do with a studio that only had one eight-track recorder.” SG In addition, they ended up going during rainy season and Paul and Linda got robbed at knifepoint after ignoring locals’ advice and going out walking by themselves. Among the losses: “a notebook full of song ideas and a few demo tapes, including the original ‘Band on the Run’ demo.” SG

Paul also said, “in Lagos, these guys were really sensitive about…people ripping off their music. They couldn’t understand why we had come to Lagos. We told them there was no dirty motive behind it.” TB “Afrobeat god Fela Kuti…confronted McCartney at the studio, and McCartney had to play him the new Wings songs just to reassure him that they didn’t sound even remotely Afrobeat-esque.” SG

“The resulting album is easily the best non-Beatles thing McCartney has ever done, and its title track might be a best-case scenario for what can happen when you push big stars out of their comfort zones.” SG The song “should be a mess.” SG It “doesn’t have a clear plotline, but it’s a story about a musical group escaping from jail.” SG Critic Robert Christgau characterized it as a song “about the oppression of rock musicians by cannabis-crazed bureaucrats.” WK

It was partly inspired by improved relations with his ex-Beatles bandmates after they severed ties in March 1973 with manager Allen Klein, WK who McCartney had always hated. SG In one of the business meetings, George Harrison said “if we ever get out of here” in reference to the feeling like the Beatles were imprisoned by their record company problems. Paul thought it would be a good line for a song. WK

The song is “certainly indulgent: a three-part suite of unfinished ideas” SG – a slow ballad, a funk-rock style piece, and a country-esque section. WK There’s a 60-piece orchestra recorded in London, with orchestration by Tony Visconti, who’d worked with T-Rex and David Bowie. However, “all three parts have serious hooks, and even if they have nothing to do with each other melodically, McCartney knits them together with complete confidence.” SG “When the tension of the second bit gives way to the orchestra crashing in, it really does sound like a moment of liberation.” SG

Resources:

  • FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 366.
  • SF Songfacts
  • SG Stereogum (5/21/2019). “The Number Ones” by Tom Breihan
  • WK Wikipedia

Related Links:

First posted 6/26/2022.

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Wednesday, December 5, 1973

Paul McCartney & Wings released Band on the Run: December 5, 1973

Originally posted December 5, 2011.



“The consensus of critics, as well as cold hard sales figures, says that Band on the Run was Paul McCartney’s most successful solo album.” RG “Neither the dippy, rustic Wild Life nor the slick AOR flourishes of Red Rose Speedway earned Paul McCartney much respect, so he made the self-consciously ambitious Band on the Run to rebuke his critics. On the surface, Band on the Run appears to be constructed as a song cycle in the vein of Abbey Road, but subsequent listens reveal that the only similarities the two albums share are simply superficial.” STE

“McCartney’s talent for songcraft and nuanced arrangements is in ample display throughout the record, which makes many of the songs – including the nonsensical title track – sound more substantial than they actually are. While a handful of the songs are excellent – the surging, inspired surrealism of Jet is by far one of his best solo recordings, Bluebird is sunny acoustic pop, and Helen Wheels captures McCartney rocking with abandon – most of the songs are more style than substance. Yet McCartney’s melodies are more consistent than any of his previous solo records, and there are no throwaways; the songs just happen to be not very good.” STE

“Still, the record is enjoyable, whether it’s the minor-key Mrs. Vandebilt or Let Me Roll It, a silly response to John Lennon’s ‘How Do You Sleep?,’ which does make Band on the Run one of McCartney’s finest solo efforts. However, there’s little of real substance on the record,” STE although it should be noted that the album is “an artistic triumph over very trying conditions – the defection of two-fifths of Wings.” RG Still, “no matter how elaborate the production is, or how cleverly his mini-suites are constructed, Band on the Run is nothing more than a triumph of showmanship.” STE



Awards:
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