Friday, February 20, 2009

Top 10 Paul McCartney Solo Songs (Wings Included)

As a life long Beatles and Paul McCartney fan, I have really been enjoying the SiriusXM station devoted to his solo work. Here is a list of ten of my favorite McCartney songs. Like most of my lists, there really is no order to this.

Here are what I consider to be among Paul McCartney's best:

10. Fine Line - This song is from McCartney's last album "Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard." A good song all around.

9. Here Today - An homage to John Lennon, it ended up on "Tug Of War", the album he released after Lennon's murder.

8. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five - It's tempting to choose "Band On The Run" from the same album. But this one edges out for me just based on the piano work and sense of urgency that pervades this entire album. The story of this album's recording in Nigeria is legendary and just helped push McCartney that much further.

7. My Brave Face - This was a single from his 1989 album, Flowers in the Dirt. Written by McCartney with Elvis Costello, their collaboration resulted in some of McCartney's strongest solo work ever. While Elvis doesn't sing on this one (like some of their other songs) his sense of wordplay is evident in the final product.

6. Too Many People - This song is one of several songs from the four Beatles after the band broke up where the band members attacked one another. It is peppy sounding with such a vicious bite.

5. Coming Up - I always hear echoes of "Got To Get you Into My Life" in the live version of this song. Just infectious and fun.

4. Put It There - Also from "Flowers In The Dirt", it describes the sort of relationship I hope to have with my children as they grow up.

3. Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey - Even if it wasn't in one of my favorite MST3K episodes this one would make my list. This fun song continues a technique that the Beatles used in "A Day In The Life" and "St. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band." It is multi-layered and it tells several silly stories. A reviewer once wrote "The shear number of changes in the lyrics and music, all woven together skillfully, make it a marvel."

2. Live and Let Die - Has any other movie theme ever evoked that movie as effectively as this song? It just screams James Bond.

1. Mull of Kintyre - Written in tribute of the same named Scottish peninsula, it became the first single to sell two million copies in Great Britain. While Nan and I hate these sort of distinctions, it remains the best-selling completely non-charity single in the United Kingdom.

8 comments:

  1. ...based on all non-charity singles released in the U.K. on the second Tuesday of June. When Varitek was catching.

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  2. Number of legs possessed by McCartney's former wife: 1

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  3. Number of McCartney songs I recognized: 1

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  4. Marcus Maximus writes Number of McCartney songs I recognized: 1

    See, that's my point. Some of his best work ISN'T the stuff released. I think I could guess the one you recognize, though in my list are three songs to hit #1 on "the charts" and one that won an Oscar.

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  5. great list!
    I would have possibly thrown in
    Calico skies and maybe i'm amazed ( how was that left off?)

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  6. Johnathan asked "maybe i'm amazed ( how was that left off?)"

    See, that and a handful of others popped into my head as soon as I hit "PUBLISH"!

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  7. I finally unsubscribed to comments from this post. I've been getting the spam attacks for years.

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  8. Sorry about that, Marc! I just figured out how to stop that!

    ReplyDelete

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