30. Paul McCartney – Secret Friend (1980)
McCartney’s penchant for the musical avant garde dates back to the mid-60s (before John Lennon’s, as he’s often keen to point out). You didn’t hear much from leftfield Macca in the 70s, but he reappeared on Secret Friend, an outtake from McCartney II that sounds, extraordinarily, like abstract, ageless, Balearic techno 10 years early.
29. Wings – Listen to What the Man Said (1975)
You can see why the cheery thumbs-aloft philosophising and perky soprano sax of Listen to What the Man Said may have grated in the Britain of the three-day week, but – as so often with 70s McCartney – you can only gawp in wonder at the apparent effortlessness of its breezy, chugging melody.
28. Wings – Goodnight Tonight (1979)
Not even Macca was immune to the lure of disco – Goodnight Tonight even came out in an extended 12-inch version – although he characteristically adapted the genre to his own ends, rather than vice versa, mixing flamenco guitars, a charming, drowsy half-speed melody and abstract use of a vocoder. And the bass playing is fantastic.
27. Wings – Arrow Through Me (1979)
Wings went out the way they arrived: with a patchy, largely unloved album. But Back To the Egg contained Arrow Through Me, a rich, intriguingly serpentine take on McCartney in late-70s soft-rock mode. It has recently been rescued from undeserved obscurity, first by Erykah Badu, who sampled it on Gone Baby, Don’t Be Long, and by Harry Styles, who has frequently sung its praises.
26. Paul McCartney – Deep Deep Feeling (2021)
There is a sense that McCartney’s search for a latterday hit has occasionally made him dial down his penchant for experimentation. But it found full flow on the highlight from last year’s McCartney III: the melody is characteristically polished, but it winds through tempo changes, lengthy instrumental passages, falsetto vocals and an acoustic coda.
25. Wings – Letting Go (1975)
In recent years, McCartney has returned to Letting Go onstage, with good reason: a relative flop on release, it is unfairly overlooked, the mid-tempo swampiness of Wings’ performance – they seem to be playing in a vast cloud of weed smoke – counterpointed by the jubilant brightness of the brass arrangement.
24. Paul McCartney – Temporary Secretary (1980)
Off-kilter vocals, frantic synth chatter, a dementedly catchy hook: the sound of McCartney unbound from commercial concerns, Temporary Secretary perfectly demonstrates both why McCartney II was savaged by baffled critics on release – one review suggested its author had “shamed himself” – and its bedroom electronica was drastically re-evaluated in a post-acid house world.
23. Wings – My Love (1973)
On the one hand, with its lush strings and cosseting MOR production, My Love probably fell straight into the category of songs Lennon caustically dubbed “Paul’s granny music”. On the other, it’s so sumptuous, its lyric so evidently heartfelt in its wide-eyed drippiness, that there is something irresistible about it.
22. Paul McCartney – Early Days (2013)
McCartney’s voice has noticeably aged in recent years. Rather than ignore that fact, Early Days puts it to use. It’s not just that this is a great song – although it is – there’s something hugely powerful about hearing a man audibly in his 70s reminiscing, not always fondly, about his early career.
21. Wings – With a Little Luck (1978)
A soft-rock album recorded by a multimillionaire on a luxury yacht in the Virgin Islands, Wings’ London Town was perhaps not the wisest move at the height of punk; it also wasn’t very good. But With a Little Luck is a sweetly affecting restatement of none-more-Macca positivity.
20. Paul McCartney – What’s That You’re Doing? (1982)
A hidden gem from Tug of War, What’s That You’re Doing? is everything the more famous…
Read More: Paul McCartney’s greatest post-Beatles songs – ranked! | Paul McCartney