Wings

Wings biography

Wings (also known as Paul McCartney & Wings) were a British-American rock group formed in 1971 by Paul McCartney, Denny Laine and Linda McCartney that remained active until 1981.

Wings had 12 top-10 singles (including one #1) in the United Kingdom and 14 top-10 singles (including six #1's) in the United States. All 23 singles credited to Wings reached the US Top 40, and one double-sided single, "Junior's Farm"/"Sally G", reached the Top 40 with each side. Of the nine albums credited to Wings during the group's life, all went top 10 in either the UK or the US, with five consecutive albums topping the US charts.

Wings were noted for frequent personnel changes as well as success, going through three different lead guitarists and four different drummers. However, the line-up consistently included a core trio of McCartney, his wife Linda, and ex-Moody Blues guitarist and singer Denny Laine; these three were responsible for writing virtually all of the band's songs.

As The Beatles were breaking up in 1970, McCartney was working on his debut solo album, McCartney. Backing vocals were provided by his wife, Linda, whom he had married the previous year. McCartney had insisted from the beginning of their marriage that his wife should be involved in his musical projects, so that they did not have to be apart when he was on tour. On his second solo album, Ram, McCartney added select outside musicians, including guitarists Hugh McCracken and David Spinozza and drummer Denny Seiwell. Seiwell had to perform in a secret audition for Paul and Linda before being chosen.

In August 1971, Seiwell and Laine joined Paul and Linda McCartney to record Paul's third post-Beatles album for Apple Records. The result was Wild Life, released 7 December. It was the first project to credit Wings as the artist. The band name is said to have come to McCartney as he was praying in the hospital while Linda was giving birth to their second child together, Stella McCartney, in September 1971. Paul McCartney recalled in the film Wingspan that the birth of Stella was "a bit of a drama"; there were complications at the birth and that both Linda and the baby almost died. He was praying fervently and the image of wings came to his mind. He decided to name his new band "Wings".

In an attempt to capture the spontaneity of live performances, five of Wild Life's eight songs were first takes by the band. (A version of "Bip Bop" by just Paul & Linda that was included on McCartney and Wings's 2001 song compilation Wingspan: Hits and History, has their daughter Mary giggling in the background.) Wild Life also included a reggae remake of Mickey & Sylvia's 1957 Top 40 hit "Love Is Strange" as a result of Paul and Linda's love for reggae music and Jamaica.

Wild Life left music critics cold. For example, John Mendelsohn wrote in Rolling Stone that he wondered whether the album may have been "deliberately second-rate." In The Beatles: An Illustrated Record, Roy Carr and Tony Tyler called the album "rushed, defensive, badly timed, and over-publicized" and wrote that it showed McCartney's songwriting "at an absolute nadir just when he needed a little respect."

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