Monday, November 19, 2012

BAND ON THE RUN



Paul McCartney’s on tour again, hitting Canadian cities Vancouver on November 25th and Edmonton for two nights on November 28th and 29th.  So our questions this week revolve around Sir Paul’s solo career.  Paul’s one of the richest rock stars on the planet with an estimated net worth of 800 million $$.  This past June, Macca (as the British press call him) celebrated his 70th birthday.  All of these singles/albums were Top 10 hits (and often # 1 hits) for either solo Paul or his band Wings, so this should be “easy, like Sunday Morning” (thank you Lionel Richie for that line).     
   
QUESTIONS:

1.  “Saturday Night Fever” kept this Wings album out of the # 1 album spot.  The album sat stalled behind The Bee Gees soundtrack for six long weeks.  It was named after the city where Paul has his MPL office.  The biggest hit from this album was “With A Little Luck” which made it to # 1 on the Hot 100 chart for 2 weeks in May of 1978.  Can you name the album?                                                                                                                 
2.  This 1982 McCartney single was a duet with a major Motown star.  The song zoomed up the Billboard Hot 100 chart to # 1 where it remained for 7 weeks.  The following year, 1983, McCartney did the same thing again with former Motown legend Michael Jackson.  That collaboration, “Say Say Say”, stayed at # 1 for 6 weeks.  So the question here is, can you name the Motown star Paul recorded with in ’82 as well as the name of their # 1 hit?          

3.  Here’s another Macca album question.  In April 1976, a Paul McCartney & Wings album went to # 1 for one week and was replaced by Led Zeppelin’s “Presence” album, which stayed on top for two weeks.  That album was replaced by The Rolling Stones “Black And Blue” for another two weeks, then the McCartney and Wings album zoomed back to # 1 where it fought off all comers for 5 more weeks until it was knocked out of the top perch by “Frampton Comes Alive“. There were several Wings hits that came from this album, including, “Silly Love Songs” (a # 1 hit) and “Let ‘Em In” (a # 3 hit).  Can you name this Wings album? (HINT:  You’ll have to be ‘Speedy”)       

4.  After hitting # 1 on the Hot 100 singles chart 20 times with The Beatles from 1964 until 1970, this song was Paul McCartney’s FIRST solo # 1.  The year was 1971 and the song came from Paul’s first solo album “Ram”, which made it to # 3 on the album chart in June of ‘71, but just couldn’t break the strangle hold at number one held by Carole King’s “Tapestry”, which was # 1 for 15 straight weeks.  The title refers to one of Paul’s relatives as well as a famous World War II U.S. Naval officer.  What’s the name of this # 1 hit single from Sir Paul?      

5.  1973 was an interesting year for Paul McCartney.  For the week of May 23rd, The Beatles 1967-1970 album hit the top spot on the album chart.  For the following 3 weeks, Sir Paul and Wings held the # 1 album spot.  That album was replaced for the week of June 23rd by former bandmate George Harrison’s “Living In The Material World”.  The biggest single hit from that ‘73 McCartney & Wings album was “My Love”, which ‘sped’ (HINT ALERT) it’s way to # 1 on the Hot 100 chart where it stayed put for 4 weeks.  There’s a colour and a flower in the title, so with those clues, can you name this # 1 album? 

ANSWERS

1.  The album was “London Town”, the sixth studio album by Wings and the final one for Capitol Records until 1984.  “London Town” hung on at # 2 on the album chart from the week of May 6th, 1978 until the week of June 10th.  Several songs from the “London Town” album were recorded on a yacht in the Virgin Islands.  Ironically, Wings’ # 1 single from that album “With A Little Luck” knocked off a song from the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack – Yvonne Elliman’s “If I Can’t Have You”, written by Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb aka The Bee Gees. 

2.  It was Motown great Stevie Wonder who dueted with Paul on their # 1 single, “Ebony and Ivory”.  The song came from Paul’s “Tug of War” album, recorded with just the two of them.  Stevie played electric piano, synthesizers, drums and percussion as well as backing vocals. Paul played bass, guitar, synthesizers, vocorder and percussion along with backing vocals.  I’d ‘Say Say Say’ that was a pretty talented duo.    

3.  Paul McCartney & Wings were in the middle of a world tour in 1976 when “Wings At The Speed of Sound” was released.  The band started recording the album in England in January of ’76 and it was completed by the end of February.  The line of Wings at this time was Paul and Linda McCartney, Denny Laine, Joe English and Jimmy McCulloch, who died 3 years later. 

4.  McCartney’s first solo # 1 single was 1971’s “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey”.  The title refers to Paul’s own uncle Albert as well as Admiral ‘Bull’ Halsey, who commanded the South Pacific in the early stages of World War II (after the U.S. had entered into the war in 1941).  Later, Halsey was appointed Commander of the Third Fleet until the end of the war.  Halsey died in 1959 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.   
5.  “Red Rose Speedway” was the album title we were looking for.  The album cover has Paul with a red rose in his mouth.  “My Love”, a song from that album, made it to # 1 on the singles chart and the flip side of the 45rpm, “Hi Hi Hi” got to # 10.  This edition of Wings included Paul & Linda, Denny Laine along with Henry McCullough on guitar, backing vocals and percussion and Denny Seiwell on drums. 

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