Back to the Egg is Paul McCartney's attempt to get back to rock & roll after the soft rock of London Town. Assembling a new lineup of Wings, McCartney leads the group through a set of his most undistinguished songs, ranging from the forced arena rock of "Old Siam, Sir" to the formulaic adult contemporary pap of "Arrow Through Me" – and those are two of the more memorable cuts on the record…
If Venus and Mars had the façade of being an album by a band, At the Speed of Sound really is a full-band effort, where everybody gets a chance to sing, and even contribute a song. This, ironically, winds up as considerably less cohesive than its predecessor despite these efforts for community, not because Wings was not a band in the proper sense, but because nobody else in the band pulsed as much weight as McCartney, who was resting on his laurels here…
John Pizzarelli lays it all out in the title of his 2015 album: this tribute to Paul McCartney is designed for play in the smoky late-night hours, when everything turns sweet and mellow. Furthermore, this is a tribute to McCartney, not the Beatles. There isn't a Fab song to be found here, as Pizzarelli focuses entirely on Paul's solo work (for these intents and purposes, this includes Wings records), concentrating on the '70s but also sliding McCartney's Great American Songbook wannabe "My Valentine" into the mix. Pizzarelli digs up a few other obscurities – the early Wings song "Some People Never Know," the Speed of Sound deep cut "Warm and Beautiful" – and he also plays around with expectations, making "Let 'Em In" swing like mad and relaxing "Hi Hi Hi" so it doesn't rock, it grooves. He also invites Michael McDonald to sing on "Coming Up," which swaggers like Sinatra in Vegas, but for as delightful as that is, the key to the record's success is Pizzarelli himself, who delivers upon the laid-back promise of the title but is savvier than he needed to be, which is why Midnight McCartney satisfies.
Back To The Egg TV Special; Intro Getting Closer Baby's Request Old Siam, Sir Winter Rose/Love Awake Spin It On Again And Again And Again Arrow Through Me Goodnight Tonight Outtro Hammersmith Odeon 29th December 1979 (Concert For Kampuchea); Got To Get You Into My Life Every Night Coming Up Lucille Let It Be Rockestra Theme Promo Videos; Wonderful Christmastime Rockestra Theme Arrow Through Me (brass stab guide vocal mix) Goodnight Tonight (30s version).
Red Rose Speedway is the second album by Paul McCartney & Wings, officially credited to "Paul McCartney & Wings" upon its 1973 release, after the relatively weak commercial performance of the band's debut Wild Life, which had been credited only to the then-unknown Wings. The album was engineered by Alan Parsons. The album reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard charts.