The Gaping Hole in Paul McCartney’s Resume? His Solo Career

The Beatles aren’t the only group that overshadowed the rest of Paul McCartney’s career. Turns out, his collaborations with Wings and others also soared higher than his solo work.

Consider McCartney’s track record with No. 1 singles since his first group broke up in 1970. Over that time, he has notched a remarkable nine U.S. chart-topping songs on the Billboard charts. Not one of them is credited to McCartney as a solo artist.

The gap isn’t as wide in his native U.K., but McCartney still had more collaborative success. Songs with Wings and Stevie Wonder (1977’s “Mull of Kintyre” then 1982’s “Ebony and Ivory”) both hit No. 1 while the title track from 1983’s Pipes of Peace) somehow became his lone U.K. chart-topper.

Ironically, not one but two of McCartney solo songs only became hits when live versions were released by Wings, 1977’s U.S. Top 10/U.K. Top 30 single “Maybe I’m Amazed” and 1980’s U.S. No. 1/U.K. No. 2 hit “Coming Up.”

How Paul McCartney’s Singles and Albums Added Up

So what about non-No. 1 Top 10 singles, which garnered plenty of respect and sales? McCartney collaborations produced 10 in the U.S. (there were three of them in 1973 alone), while only six solo examples followed. In his native U.K., McCartney has earned 15 collaborative non-chart-topping Top 10 singles (including the 2015 song “FourFiveSeconds” with Rihanna and Kanye West), but just five solo.

Album sales tell a similar tale: McCartney had one more U.S. No. 1 album with Wings than he’s scored as a solo act. As for total certified sales in America, McCartney’s collaborative efforts produced one triple platinum original LP, while his best-selling solo record is certified at two million in sales. On the platinum level, he had twice as many million-sellers as a bandleader or collaborator with wife Linda McCartney.

READ MORE: Top 40 Paul McCartney ’70s Songs

There are a couple of notable exceptions in McCartney’s post-Beatles discography, though not enough to tip the scales in another direction: He had one more No. 1 solo album in his native U.K. McCartney also does better as a solo act when widening the focus to high-charting hit albums.

This holds true both on the Billboard charts and in his native U.K. McCartney boasts six non-No. 1 Top 10 U.S. rock albums and only four recorded with others. Similarly, he has nine of those in the U.K. as a solo act versus just four non-chart-topping U.K. hit albums with others.

Watch Paul McCartney and Wings’ ‘Band on the Run’ Video

Digging Into Paul McCartney’s Post-Beatles Career

His chart-topping U.S. songs include six with Wings (1973’s “My Love” and “Band on the Run,” 1975’s “Listen to What the Man Said,” 1976’s “Silly Love Songs,” 1978’s “With a Little Luck” and 1980’s “Coming Up [Live at Glasgow]”), as well as collaborations with his Linda McCartney (1971’s “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey”), Stevie Wonder (1982’s “Ebony and Ivory”) and Michael Jackson (1983’s “Say Say Say”).

Collaborative non-No. 1 U.S. Top 10 singles have included 1972’s “Hi, Hi, Hi” (No. 10); 1973’s “Live and Let Die” (No. 2), “Helen Wheels” (No. 10) and “Jet” (No. 7); 1974’s “Junior’s Farm” (No. 3); 1976’s “Let ‘Em In” (No. 3); 1977’s “Maybe I’m Amazed [Live]” (No. 10); 1979’s “Goodnight Tonight” (No. 5); 1982’s “The Girl Is Mine” with Michael Jackson (No. 2) and 2015’s “FourFiveSeconds” (No. 4).

Meanwhile, McCartney earned solo non-No. 1 U.S. Top 10 singles with 1971’s “Another Day” (No. 5), 1979’s “Wonderful Christmastime” (No. 7), 1980’s “Waterfalls” (No. 9), 1982’s “Take It Away” (No. 10), 1984’s “No More Lonely Nights” (No. 6) and 1985’s “Spies Like Us” (No. 7).

The four U.S. No. 1 albums McCartney collected as leader of Wings included 1973’s gold-selling Red Rose Speedway, 1973’s three-times platinum Band on the Run, 1975’s platinum-selling Venus and Mars and 1976’s platinum-selling Wings at the Speed of Sound. McCartney’s three U.S. chart-topping albums as a solo act were 1970’s two-times platinum McCartney, 1982’s platinum-selling Tug of War and 2018’s Egypt Station.

As a member of Wings or when recording with his wife Linda, McCartney scored non-No. 1 U.S. Top 10 rock albums with 1971’s platinum-selling Ram (No. 2), 1971’s gold-selling Wild Life (No. 10), 1978’s million-selling London Town (No. 2) and 1979’s platinum-selling Back to the Egg (No. 8).

His non-No. 1 solo Top 10 rock albums in America were 1980’s McCartney II (No. 3), 1997’s Flaming Pie (No. 2), 2005’s Chaos and Creation (No. 6) and 2007’s Memory Almost Full (No. 3), all of which were gold-sellers. He found similar success with 2013’s New (No. 3) and 2020’s McCartney III (No. 2), as well.

Watch Paul McCartney and Wings’ ‘Silly Love Songs’ Video

How Did Paul McCartney Fare in the U.K.?

McCartney’s non-No. 1 Top 10 U.K. collaborations included 1972’s “Mary Had a Little Lamb” (No. 9) and “Hi, Hi, Hi” (No. 5); 1973’s “My Love” (No. 9), “Live and Let Die” (No. 9), “Jet” (as in the U.S, No. 7) and “Band on the Run” (No. 3); 1975’s “Listen to What the Man Said” (No. 6), 1976’s “Silly Love Songs” (No. 2) and “Let ‘Em In” (No. 2); 1978’s “With a Little Luck” (No. 5) and 1979’s “Goodnight Tonight” (also No. 5).

In the next decades, he collaborated on four more singles that reached the U.K. Top 10 without going to No. 1: 1980’s “Coming Up [Live at Glasgow]” (No. 2); 1982’s “The Girl Is Mine” (No. 8); 1983’s “Say Say Say” (No. 2); and 2015’s “FourFiveSeconds” (No. 3). On the solo side, McCartney’s non-No. 1 U.K. Top 10 singles were 1971’s “Another Day” (No. 2), 1979’s “Wonderful Christmastime” (No. 6), 1984’s “No More Lonely Nights” (No. 2), 1984’s “We All Stand Together” (No. 3) and 1987’s “Once Upon a Long Ago” (No. 10).

READ MORE: The Best (and Worst) Solo Album by Every Member of the Beatles

Wings scored non-chart-topping Top 10 U.K. rock albums with 1973’s Red Rose Speedway (No. 5), 1976’s Wings at the Speed of Sound (No. 2), 1978’s London Town (No. 4), and 1979’s Back to the Egg (No. 6). McCartney’s four solo U.K. No. 1 rock albums were 1980’s gold-selling McCartney II, 1984’s gold-selling Give My Regards to Broadstreet, 1989’s gold-selling Flower in the Dirt and 2020’s McCartney III.

On the other hand, McCartney’s non-No. 1 solo Top 10 U.K. rock albums were 1970’s McCartney (No. 2), 1983’s Pipes of Peace (No. 4), 1986’s Press to Play (No. 8), 1993’s Off the Ground (No. 5), 1997’s Flaming Pie (as in the U.S., No. 2), 2005’s Chaos and Creation (No. 10), 2007’s Memory Almost Full (No. 5, same as the U.S.), 2013’s New (No. 3, same as the U.S.) and 2018’s Egypt Station (No. 3).

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