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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