Wings over America

Wings over America
Live album by Wings
Released	10 December 1976
Recorded	May - June 1976 Studio overdubs: October - November 1976
Genre	Rock
Length	115:33
Label	Capitol
Producer	Paul McCartney
Wings chronology
Wings at the Speed of Sound (1976) Wings over America (1976) London Town (1978)

Wings over America is the sixth album by Wings and their only live album. In its initial release, it was a triple album and included a poster of the band.

Recording history

Originally, Wings over America was to be a two-record set, but this was rethought due to the success of a bootleg called Wings from the Wings, released on a bicentennial red, white and blue triple record set, recorded on 23 June 1976 at The Forum (Inglewood, California). This caused McCartney to redo the official release as a three-record set covering the entire concert, including Denny Laine's "Go Now", a song from his time as a member of The Moody Blues. This song was only performed 21–23 June 1976 at the Forum.

Compiled from all recorded shows of the band's Wings Over America Tour that spring, Wings over America was another success for Paul McCartney and Wings, reaching #1 in the US in early 1977 (the last in a 5-album stretch of consecutive #1 albums for Wings) and #8 in the UK, and selling several million copies.

Wings Over America was reissued as a double-CD in 1984 on Columbia Records, although few copies were made since few people had CD players in 1984, and soon McCartney would leave Columbia/CBS and go back to Capitol Records. The Columbia double-CD went out of print soon after it hit stores; the Capitol double-CD is much more common.

A 1999 reissue of the album by Toshiba-EMI in Japan reinstated the three-disc format from the original LP issue. This coincided with a new remastering of the album from the source tapes, which greatly improved the sound quality of the album. As of 2008, this remastered set has not been issued anywhere other than Japan.

On 14 April 2008, the album was released as a digital download on both iTunes and Amazon. It was removed for some time off of digital music sites in 2010 and 2011, but as of August 2011 it is available for sale on iTunes.

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	link
Rolling Stone	(favourable) link

Track listing

All songs by Paul and Linda McCartney except where noted. For the five Beatles songs included, McCartney elected to reverse the songwriting credit to McCartney–Lennon, rather than the standard Lennon–McCartney. On the compact disc release, sides one through three are on disc one, and sides four through six on disc two.

The album sides correlated to McCartney alternating instruments and consequently each side had songs with a similar "feel";

− Side One: rock songs with McCartney on bass

− Side Two: slower songs with McCartney on piano

− Side Three: folk rock songs with McCartney (and Denny Laine) on acoustic guitar

− Side Four: pop songs with McCartney back on piano

− Side Five: songs from the newest (at that time) studio album, Wings at the Speed of Sound, McCartney on bass

− Side Six: harder rocking songs with McCartney again on bass guitar

Side one

1. "Venus and Mars/Rock Show/Jet" – 9:56
2. "Let Me Roll It" – 3:51
3. "Spirits of Ancient Egypt" – 4:04
4. "Medicine Jar" (Jimmy McCulloch/Colin Allen) – 4:02

Side two

1. "Maybe I'm Amazed" (Paul McCartney) – 5:10
2. "Call Me Back Again" – 5:04
3. "Lady Madonna" (McCartney–Lennon) – 2:19
4. "The Long and Winding Road" (McCartney–Lennon) – 4:13
5. "Live and Let Die" – 3:07

Side three

1. "Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)" – 1:55
2. "Richard Cory" (Paul Simon) – 2:50
3. "Bluebird" – 3:37
4. "I've Just Seen a Face" (McCartney–Lennon) – 1:49
5. "Blackbird" (McCartney–Lennon) – 2:23
6. "Yesterday" (McCartney–Lennon) – 1:43

Side four

1. "You Gave Me the Answer" – 1:47
2. "Magneto and Titanium Man" – 3:11
3. "Go Now" (Larry Banks/Milton Bennett) – 3:27
4. "My Love" – 4:07
5. "Listen to What the Man Said" – 3:18

Side five

1. "Let 'Em In" – 4:02
2. "Time to Hide" (Denny Laine) – 4:46
3. "Silly Love Songs" – 5:46
4. "Beware My Love" – 4:49

Side six

1. "Letting Go" – 4:25
2. "Band on the Run" – 5:03
3. "Hi, Hi, Hi" – 2:57
4. "Soily" – 5:10

Personnel

• Paul McCartney — bass guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, keyboards, lead vocals
• Linda McCartney — keyboards, percussion, piano, vocals
• Denny Laine — guitars, bass guitar, piano, keyboards, percussion, harmonica, vocals, lead vocals (on "Spirits of Ancient Egypt", "Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me)," "Richard Cory," "Time to Hide", and "Go Now")
• Jimmy McCulloch — guitars, bass guitar, vocals, lead vocals (on "Medicine Jar")
• Joe English — drums, percussion, vocals
• Tony Dorsey — trombone, percussion
• Howie Casey — saxophone, percussion
• Steve Howard — trumpet, flugelhorn, percussion
• Thaddeus Richard — saxophone, clarinet, flute, percussion

Chart positions

Year	Chart	Position
1977	Billboard 200	1
	Norway's album chart	7

See also

• Rockshow

References

Preceded by Hotel California by Eagles

Billboard 200 number-one album January 22–29, 1977

Succeeded by A Star Is Born (soundtrack) by Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson