Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Listen To What The Man Said
2. Band On The Run
3. Another Day
4. Live And Let Die
5. Jet
6. My Love
7. Silly Love Songs
8. Pipes Of Peace
9. C Moon
10. Hi Hi Hi
11. Let 'Em In
12. Goodnight Tonight
13. Junior's Farm
14. Mull of Kintyre
15. Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey
16. With A Little Luck
17. Coming Up
18. No More Lonely Nights

Disc 2:

1. Let Me Roll It
2. The Lovely Linda
3. Daytime Nightime Suffering
4. Maybe I'm Amazed
5. Helen Wheels
6. Bluebird
7. Heart Of The Country
8. Every Night
9. Take It Away
10. Junk
11. Man We Was Lonely
12. Venus And Mars/Rockshow
13. Back Seat Of My Car
14. Rockestra Theme
15. Girlfriend
16. Waterfalls
17. Tomorrow
18. Too Many People
19. Call Me Back Again
20. Tug Of War
21. Medley: Bip Bop/Hey Diddle/I Am Your Singer
22. No More Lonely Nights

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1070 in Music
• Released on: 2001-05-08
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .26 pounds

Amazon.com
While his fellow ex-bandmates busied themselves with various high-profile projects (John Lennon with Imagine and a series of high-profile media events; George Harrison with All Things Must Pass and The Concert for Bangla Desh), Paul McCartney climbed into a van with his wife and a few journeyman players and gigged at university student unions for what amounted to spare change. Of course, by 1976 they were one of the biggest draws in rock, having the last laugh--if not necessarily the final word. Gathering the cream of their recorded output on a generous double-disc sampler-cum-TV-special-soundtrack seemed a promising effort at historical revisionism, but Wingspan itself is a distinct misnomer: fully 17 of the 40 tracks here hail from various pre- and post-Wings McCartney solo albums. Completely overlooked are unheralded B-sides such as "Oh Woman, Oh Why," "Little Woman Love," "Country Dreamer," "The Mess," "Walking in the Park with Eloise," "Sally G," and "Girl's School"--some of McCartney the bandleader and solo artist's scrappiest and most interesting work. All the expected hits are here and more, ranging from spunky rockers and hook-rich bubblegum to syrup-drenched ballads. What's lacking is a fresh and less myopic perspective. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

Thoroughly entertaining and sing-a-long-able
I was a Paul Fan back in the day. Thought I would marry him one day. Hey hey hey!

Stop that madness. Paul married well the second time. I'm so glad. Not only does he pay tribute to the late Linda McCartney in the second song ("The Lovely Linda") on the second CD, but he provides happiness to his fans both old and new in this Wings compilation. Seven years after its release, it is just now playing in my car. Actually, I intended to purchase Venus and Mars, one of my all-time favorite albums (which vinyl version I have not replaced). Because the music store did not have it, I bought "Wingspan" instead.

The two CDs in the set are so different. The first CD is a selection of some of Wings greatest hits, while the second is surprises (for me). This disc is more ballads and love songs and blues with a couple of hits mixed in.

The liner notes tell us that Paul struggled to find his niche after the Beatles breakup, both alone and in a group. During that time I remember the negative reaction to Linda's inclusion in the band (I was one of the voices). Her addition seemed out of kilter for a master singer and songwriter. But as I have been listening recently, I hear Linda with "fresh" ears--as a retrospective. Whatever her contribution, Paul apparently wanted her there. That's a real tribute to a marriage in a fishbowl.

There is absolutely no reason to list any songs. A Paul fan knows them. Maybe a Paul-fan-in-the-making might like a rehash, but there are better reviews for that. However, THE song that jumps out at me is "Mull of Kintrye." I didn't even know what he was saying until I read it, then got out a map and discovered it is in Ireland. The other song I will mention is "Live and Let Die," my favorite James Bond theme song. The discordance fits perfectly with the evil always present in a Bond story. "Band on the Run" and "Jet" are two other excellent Wings songs.

On the second CD the two that stand out are "Venus and Mars/Rockshow" and "Maybe I'm Amazed."

Overall, it was truly interesting to hear the songs that Paul calls "some of our best work."

A Sprawling Retrospective
This is the most comprehensive, if erratic, Paul McCartney greatest hits collection that has been released so far. There were two earlier collections released in the 1970s and 80s, but neither one was very satisfying. First was WINGS GREATEST (1978). It purported to be an overview of McCartney & Wings's greatest hits from 1971 to 1978. Yet it lacked "Listen to What the Man Said," which was one of their biggest and best hits. Next came ALL THE BEST (1987). That one omitted "Mull of Kintyre," which is one of Paul's most beloved post-Beatle songs. Furthermore, neither one had anything from his first solo album. WINGSPAN corrects those oversights and then some. It covers the years 1970 to 1984, but it rightly emphasizes McCartney's output from the seventies, which was when he did most of his best post-Beatle work.

Disc 1 contains "Band on the Run," "Live and Let Die" and just about all of the other McCartney songs that cracked the Top 20 on either side of the Atlantic in the 1970s and early 80s -- and that's quite a long list. "Silly Love Songs" is the tune that the McCartney bashers love to hate, but it doesn't deserve its bad reputation (just enjoy the song's great bass line). The truly lame songs are "Pipes of Peace," "Goodnight Tonight," and the infamous "Another Day," which John Lennon ridiculed in his song "How Do You Sleep." The good news is the embarrassing "Say Say Say" and the vomit-inducing "Ebony and Ivory" were kept out of this collection.

Disc 2 fascinates and frustrates at the same time. It consists primarily of deep cuts from McCartney's seventies albums. The most pleasant revelations for many listeners may be the ones from Paul's first two solo albums, McCARTNEY (1970) and RAM (1971). The studio version of "Maybe I'm Amazed" is terrific, although it never received as much radio play as the more famous concert version. "Every Night" and "Junk" are full of McCartney's carefree acoustic melodicism. "Heart of the Country," "Too Many People," and "Back Seat of My Car" all demonstrate what a guilty pleasure RAM is. Whether that's an endorsement or a warning depends on how much you like McCartney. "Take It Away" was a Top 10 hit in 1982; doesn't it belong on Disc One instead?

Everybody and his brother has a list of songs that they believe should have been included on Disc Two. Here is mine: "That Would Be Something" from McCARTNEY, "Big Barn Red" from RED ROSE SPEEDWAY, "Beware My Love" from AT THE SPEED OF SOUND, and "Cafe on the Left Bank" from LONDON TOWN all cried out for inclusion. Also conspicuously absent is the outstanding B-side "Sally G," which should have been released as an A-side in 1974. (I love the last lines of that song: "I never thought to ask her what the letter G stood for/But I know for sure it wasn't good.")

"The Lovely Linda" (sorry Paul), "Man We Was Lonely," "Tomorrow," "Girlfriend," "Waterfall," "Bip Bop/Hey Diddle," and "No More Lonely Nights (playout version)" should have been jettisoned. "Let Me Roll It" and "Helen Wheels" are decent, but "Picasso's Last Words" and "1985" would have been more inspired selections from BAND ON THE RUN. It also would have been nice to have had the entire "Venus and Mars/ Rockshow" suite instead of some chopped up "single edit" of the song. Disc Two still makes for pleasant listening, but it could have been great.

Final grades: 4.5 stars for the first disc and 3.5 stars for the second disc, which balances out as a 4 star rating.

From Wings and Beyond
This is the best of the "greatest hits" collections so far from McCartney's solo albums. Yes, as other reviewers have pointed out, it goes beyond Wings (after all, Wings began in 1971 and disbanded in 1980 and this set goes from 1970 to 1984). But the CD booklet has a nice intro by Mark Lewishon and lists all the members of Wings (there are 4 or 5 different lineups). I'll comment on the entertaining special that aired on ABC last month when it comes out on video.

The "hits" side includes 17 great songs ("C Moon" is the only clunker and should've been saved for the history side). A lot of these I remember as I was growing up from a kid to a teenager, as opposed to hearing the Beatles' songs and records years after they disbanded. I particularly have fond memories of"Listen to What the Man Said" which has a nice sax solo, the romantic "My Love", the hard rockin' "Jet", the spirited "Comin' Up" (much better than the passable studio version), the fun "Let 'Em In", and "Band On the Run". "No More Lonely Nights" features a cool guitar solo by David Gilmour (now don't ask me why he included that hokey "fadeout" version at the end of history). "Silly Love Songs" is a commentary on the critics who made fun of his solo songs (I suppose unless you're in love, all love songs sound a little silly). Heck, even his former partner John had his share of "silly" love songs(witness "Oh Yoko"). Too bad this set didn't feature the full-length version of "With a Little Luck", but you can get that off "London Town" or "Wings Greatest". "Pipes of Peace" is the underrated title cut off his 1983 album (which featured an interesting video). "Mull of Kintyre" wasn't a big hit in the USA either, but I remember seeing the video for it when it 1st came out in 1977 on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. I would give 4 and 1/2 stars for the hits portion.

For the "history", I'd give this 3 and 1/2 stars. I was expecting more rarities like the 1972 single "Give Ireland Back to the Irish" and "Sally G" (the B side from 1974's "Junior's Farm"). Perhaps we'll see those on a box set. The history includes some of the best album cuts on McCartney solo albums, including hits "Maybe I'm Amazed", "Take It Away", the classic "Let Me Roll It", "Helen Wheels", "Venus & Mars"/"Rock Show", "Too Many People" (dedicated to you-know-who), and more obscure stuff like "Bluebird", the folky "Tug of War", "Back Seat of My Car" (which features some interesting experimentation)and the exquisite "Waterfalls". I can do without "Junk" (the instrumental singalong is much better since it doesn't have those gratingly cheezy lyrics). I personally would have liked to see more stuff from At the Speed of Sound like "Beware My Love" (a favorite of diehard fans) and more songs from Red Rose Speedway, and the classic "1985" (how could he forget that one?). But, all in all, if you liked/like Wings, there should be enough stuff that perhaps you never heard to keep you satisfied.