10 Most Underrated Paul McCartney & Wings Songs

Feature Photo: Jim Summaria., CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Our 10 Most Underrated Paul McCartney & Wings Songs list presents a set of songs that have either been overlooked, underrated, or simply not gotten enough love from hardcore Paul McCartney & Wings fans as well as casual listeners. This list only digs into the Paul McCartney & Wings catalog and does not dip into his solo albums released just under the McCartney name. The Paul McCartney and Wings era lasted 10 years from 1971 to 1981.

The first album, entitled Wild Life, which was released under the Wings name, included Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, Denny Laine, and Denny Seiwell, with Alan Parsons contributing a mix to the album. From that point on, Paul McCartney would release six more studio albums under the Wings name, continuing with Red Rose Speedway in 1973, the Grammy Award-winning Band on the Run in 1973, followed by Venus and Mars in 1975, Wings at the Speed of Sound in 1976, London Town in 1978, and Back to the Egg in 1979. There was also the classic live album Wings Over America, which was released in 1976.

There are many Paul McCartney fans who celebrate this decade as the best years of Paul McCartney’s solo career. Of course, that’s up for debate because he has released a lot of music since The Beatles ended in 1970. So here we go, trying to pick out some songs that we think fans will enjoy listening to that they may not know or just kind of never focused enough attention on them.

# 10 – “Girls’ School” – Standalone Single / London Town CD Bonus Track

We open up our “10 Most Underrated Paul McCartney & Wings Songs” list with the rocking song “Girls’ School.” This song always reminded me a little bit of “Junior’s Farm” in just the rhythmic groove that it had behind it. The song was released in 1977 as a double A-side single with “Mull of Kintyre” rather than on the original London Town album, so a lot of people may not have heard this one before. Later on, it was released on the 1993 CD issue of London Town as a bonus track.

# 9 – “Give Ireland Back to the Irish” – Standalone Single

Continuing with our “10 Most Underrated Paul McCartney & Wings Songs” list is the first Wings single ever released. We wonder how many people in the US remember this song. The song was a huge hit in Ireland, going to number one for obvious reasons. Even though the song was released in the US as a single, it proved not to be too memorable in the States. Released as a standalone single, the song was not included on the original debut album by Wings. It was later included as a bonus track on the CD issue of Wild Life.

# 8 – “Daytime Nighttime Suffering” – B-Side

While we don’t really want to make this into a “best Paul McCartney B-sides” list, we can’t help but include this fabulous song called “Daytime Nighttime Suffering.” The song was released as the B-side to the 1979 hit single “Goodnight Tonight.” The song was not originally released on the album Back to the Egg. However, “Daytime Nighttime Suffering” is included as one of the bonus tracks on the 1993 CD issue of the album. There actually were a lot of great bonus tracks on the Back to the Egg album, including “Wonderful Christmastime” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reggae.”

# 7 – “Warm and Beautiful” – Wings at the Speed of Sound

There was no stopping Paul McCartney and Wings in the mid-’70s, from Band on the Run to Wings at the Speed of Sound—it was just non-stop hit after hit. Wings at the Speed of Sound was fueled by two massively successful hit songs, “Silly Love Songs” and “Let ‘Em In.” It was also notable for giving every member of the band at least one lead vocal, including “Must Do Something About It” and “The Note You Never Wrote.”

One of the great tracks, “Beware My Love,” stood out as our favorite on the album, but we feel that this one was given quite a lot of attention and is not really underrated. A real gem on this record, and probably one of his most overlooked ballads of his career, was the final song on the album, entitled “Warm and Beautiful.”

# 6 – “Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me)” – Band on the Run

Landing in the number six spot on our “10 Most Underrated Paul McCartney & Wings Songs” list is the first of two songs from Band on the Run. Yes, this was a really popular album, won tons of awards, and stands as probably everybody’s favorite Paul McCartney & Wings album. Although, for some reason, Ram is getting a lot of love over the past couple of years, which I don’t quite understand. It’s a good album, but it’s not in the same league as Band on the Run. And yes, we know that Ram is not a Wings album. However, I always thought this was a great track and probably didn’t really get a lot of radio airplay, although I remember really digging it when I was a kid.

# 5 – “Big Barn Bed” – Red Rose Speedway

And speaking of Red Rose Speedway… At the halfway point here on this list, we take some time to showcase the wonderful opening track from Paul McCartney’s Red Rose Speedway album, called “Big Barn Bed.” Love the guitar playing at the opening of this track, and the backing vocals are just so much fun. You can really hear they’re having a good time on this; it’s a wonderful way to open up the album. It’s simple but soulful.

# 4 – “Hi, Hi, Hi” (Live Version) – Wings Over America

The original studio version of “Hi, Hi, Hi” was released as a single in 1972. It was a big hit around the world, reaching number one in Spain and peaking at number five in the United Kingdom and number ten in the United States, so it’s easy to say that this is not an overlooked or underrated song. However, the version we have included here was missed by many, and we think it’s much better than the studio version. This was a big record, a triple album with 28 songs. Featured on this record was, of course, “Maybe I’m Amazed,” along with several Beatles songs that he did, and some killer versions of the Band on the Run and Venus and Mars songs. However, this song is kind of buried on the album; it’s included on side six, as the second-to-last song on the record, and I think a lot of people never really got to it.

# 3 – “Cafe on the Left Bank” – London Town

While London Town was fueled by the hit singles “With a Little Luck,” “I’ve Had Enough,” and “London Town,” I always felt this album as a whole was pretty much underrated because a lot of people weren’t happy with the single “With a Little Luck.” There is some really good stuff on this record, and I think one of the standout songs was the second track on the album entitled “Cafe on the Left Bank.” It has such a great groove, melody, chord changes, and arrangements that just really stood out. There’s also some really good guitar playing on this track by Jimmy McCulloch and Denny Laine, which I think is often overlooked in this band.

# 2 – “Magneto and Titanium Man” – Venus and Mars

I think pretty much anybody who had Paul McCartney and Wings’ Venus and Mars album probably liked “Rock Show” as well as “Magneto and Titanium Man” as their favorites on the record. Of course, the big hits were “Listen to What the Man Said” and “Letting Go,” but the fan favorites, I think, were “Rock Show” and “Magneto and Titanium Man.” I’m going to say this one was overlooked because it never got the push of an A-side single, although it was released as the B-side of “Venus and Mars/Rock Show.” If you didn’t have the album or that single, you probably never heard this song before. That’s sad because this is a great one. I love those backing vocals on this track. Linda always got a lot of flack from critics, but I always loved the sound of her voice as a backing vocalist.

# 1 – “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five” – Band on the Run

We close out our “10 Most Underrated Paul McCartney & Wings Songs” list with the closing track from Band on the Run. What an album this was. Opening with a song like “Band on the Run” and closing with this terrific, passionate rocker “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five.” Not to forget to mention songs like “Jet,” “Bluebird,” “Let Me Roll It,” and many others that were included on this magnificent rock album.