Interrupting my ranking of Paul McCartney’s albums to insert a quick review of all his singles which didn’t make it onto albums. These have letter grades and are in chronological order instead of being ranked from worst to best. (Just the major singles; I didn’t include every “lost” track.)
Another Day/Oh Woman Oh Why: A sad story of a lonely working woman backed with a kinky masochistic rocker. In other words, something for everyone. B/A+
Give Ireland Back To The Irish: Inspired by Bloody Sunday. A for intentions, C for execution.
Mary Had A Little Lamb/Little Woman Love: A new tune for the old nursery school classic and a peppy piano tune for the flip side. D+/A-
Hi Hi Hi/C Moon: Sexy rocker coupled with a bit of reggae. A/A
Live And Let Die/I Lie Around: One of his best tracks, written for James Bond. Coupled with a relaxing ditty about life in the country, sung by Wings member Denny Laine. A+/B
Helen Wheels/Country Dreamer: Racing in his Land Rover; was good enough to be added to Band on the Run in the US. The B-side is a sweet country-laced tune about relaxing, with some innuendo. Love it when Paul innuendos. A/A
Junior’s Farm/Sally G: Perhaps Paul’s best single rocker with a Nashville weeper on the back. A/A
Mull of Kintyre/Girls’ School: Acoustic guitars and bagpipes coupled with a rocker inspired by porno films. Family entertainment! Paul’s biggest seller everywhere but the US. A-/A
Goodnight Tonight/Daytime Nighttime Suffering: DISCO!! Don’t say it. Backed with a pop rocker about women’s struggles. C-/A
Wonderful Christmastime/Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reggae: You either love or hate it. The B-side, everyone can hate. A/D-
Coming Up//Coming Up (Live at Glasgow)/Lunchbox/Odd Sox: Included this because the live version was the US hit. Lunchbox/Odd Sox is a Seventies outtake instrumental. A/B+/B-
We All Stand Together/We All Stand Together (humming): Great soundtrack to a Rupert the Bear cartoon. A/B
Spies Like Us/My Carnival: Paul’s last Top 40 hit; a rocker with a great bass line, from a terrible film. Other side an instrumental leftover. A/C
Once Upon A Long Ago/Back On My Feet: An inspirational ballad backed with an Elvis Costello cowrite. B/A
All My Trials/C Moon: Recorded live in Milan; an old folk song. B/B
Vanilla Sky: From the film. Cool lyrics; tune’s a bit repetitive. B
Tropic Island Hum/We All Stand Together: Song from the new Rupert film. B-/A
Freedom: Recorded live at The Concert for NYC, this is an acoustic tune Paul whipped up after 9/11 to support the US. His attempt at Give Peace A Chance. Again, A for intent, but F for execution. (This is a bonus track on Driving Rain, unlisted, which Aiwendil reminded me I forgot to mention.)
(I Want To) Come Home/Demo: If he’d recorded this when he could still sing, it would’ve been a monster hit. Still a beautiful piano ballad. B/B-
The Christmas Song: The Nat King Cole standard, with a lyric change because animal rights. It’s nice. B
Hope For The Future (Main/Thrash): Kind of formless. Written for the game Halo; my son liked it. D+/D+
In The Blink of An Eye: Cowritten with classical composer Carl Davis. Pleasant enough. From the film Ethel and Ernest. C
Home Tonight/In A Hurry: Leftovers from Egypt Station. Good pop rock. B/B
