Paul McCartney biography
In 1973 McCartney wrote Wings' first US number one, "My Love", included on their second LP, Red Rose Speedway, and his collaboration with Linda and former Beatles' producer George Martin resulted in the James Bond theme song and Wings hit, "Live and Let Die", which was nominated for an Oscar, and earned Martin a grammy for his orchestral arrangement. In 1974 Paul wrote a second US number one for Wings, "Band on the Run"; the "acclaimed" album of the same name, Wings' third, was a massive success that became their first platinum album. They followed with the chart topping LPs, Venus and Mars (1975) and Wings at the Speed of Sound (1976). In September 1977 a third child was born to the McCartney's, a son they named James, and in November, the Wings song "Mull of Kintyre" was fast becoming "the best-selling single in UK history". In 1977 he released Thrillington, an orchestral arrangement of Ram, under the alias Percy "Thrills" Thrillington, with a cover designed by Hipgnosis.
While London Town (1978) and Back to the Egg (1979) passed with little critical or commercial notice, the later involved McCartney's collaboration with a rock supergroup dubbed, "the Rockestra", though credited to Wings, that included Pete Townshend, David Gilmour, Gary Brooker, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham. Active through 1981, Wings produced seven studio albums, five of which topped the US charts, as well as their live triple LP, Wings over America, one of few live albums ever to achieve the top spot in America. They also recorded six US number one singles including, "Listen to What the Man Said", "Silly Love Songs, "With a Little Luck", and "Coming Up".
1982-1989
In 1980 he released his second solo LP, the self-produced
McCartney II, and as with his first, he composed all the music and performed the instrumentation himself. The album contained the hit songs "Coming Up", "Waterfalls", and "Temporary Secretary". In 1982 he collaborated with Stevie Wonder on the Martin produced number one hit, "Ebony and Ivory", included on McCartney's
Tug of War LP, and with Michael Jackson on "The Girl Is Mine" from
Thriller. The following year he worked with Jackson on the US number one, "Say Say Say", and he earned a UK number one with the title track of his LP release that year, "Pipes of Peace".
In 1984 he wrote, produced, and starred in the feature film Give My Regards to Broad Street, a musical which "was savagely panned by the critics" according to Harry; and described by Variety as: "Characterless, bloodless, and pointless." Roger Ebert awarded the film a single star and wrote, "you can safely skip the movie and proceed directly to the sound track." Which faired much better, reaching number one in the UK, and producing the hit single, "No More Lonely Nights", featuring Gilmour on lead guitar.
He collaborated with Eric Stewart on Press to Play (1986), who co-wrote more than half the songs on the LP, and in 1988, McCartney released Снова в СССР, a Russia-only title that contained eighteen covers of "oldies" which he recorded over the course of just two days. In 1989 he joined forces with fellow Merseysiders including Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers and Holly Johnson of Frankie Goes to Hollywood to record a new version of "Ferry Cross the Mersey", originally recorded twenty-five years earlier by Gerry and the Pacemakers, to generate money for the appeal fund of the Hillsborough disaster, which occurred in April that year when ninety-five Liverpool F.C. fans died as a result of their injuries. The recording was a number one hit in the UK. In 1989 he released Flowers in the Dirt, a collaborative effort with Elvis Costello which included musical contributions from Gilmour and Nicky Hopkins.
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