McCartney’s greatest solo songs

We often forget. Because it feels like the band never left. The image of those four teddy boys from over 50 years ago continues to look back at us from assorted sources and their music just keeps on playing everywhere. There is no question about it. In their immortal way, they continue to exist. The Beatles remains omnipresent in our lives. And truth to tell, I see no reason for anybody to make an effort to exorcise them away anyway.

But then the fact also exists that there is life after the Beatles. In fact, Beatle Paul McCartney has made one fantastic life outside of the Fabulous Four from Liverpool. He had no choice really. The Beatles broke up and he had to make music on his own. But what a life he made. I realized this when I came across a list of the 40 best songs that he composed and recorded as a solo artist in Rolling Stone Magazine. These are great and McCartney made all of them without John Lennon, I thought with amazement. 

Yesterday and Here, There And Everywhere, I Wanna Hold Your Hand and other Beatles songs may have made him the greatest songwriter of all time but there are also songs that he sang solo or with his band Wings that helped make him deserving of the accolade. It is quite a list that features ballads, rockers, disco, country, music hall types, electro-pop and even Latin. McCartney is very versatile. 

This is also a list that I believe will continue to grow. A new album might be in the works this very moment. McCartney, though now already in his 70s, remains one of the busiest, most in-demand performers in the world. He is constantly on tour and tirelessly puts on three-hour shows where he sings Beatles songs and some of those in this list. He also looks great, by the way.

The list is not perfect. It does not include big sellers like My Love or No More Lonely Nights or Ebony And Ivory, Pipes Of Peace, My Brave Face and others. But those who voted believe that these are his best and although not necessarily his most successful. Besides, it is just a list and anybody can come up with his own. Mine will surely include My Valentine, a sweet tune from the Kisses On The Bottom album of standards, which did not make the cut.

Anyway, here they are McCartney’s greatest songs post-Beatles as listed by Rolling Stone. Leading the pack is Maybe I’m Amazed. The song was originally written for The Beatles but because the band broke up, it landed in the McCartney album by Wings, which was released in 1970. This was a totally McCartney production with him playing all the instruments and his wife Linda Eastman singing background vocals. It is a love song for Eastman who helped him through the painful collapse of the band that he thought would be his whole life and the falling-out with his friends.

Next on the list are: Band On The Run, Too Many People, Live And Let Die, Uncle Albert/ Admiral Halsey, Jet, Junk, Hi Hi Hi, Another Day, Venus And Mars/ Rock Show, Beware My Love, Let Me Roll It, Every Night, Bluebird, Silly Love Songs, Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five, Junior’s Farm, Coming Up, With A Little Luck, Here Today.

You Gave Me The Answer, Monkberry Moon Delight, Listen To What The Man Said, Hope Of Deliverance, Waterfalls, Heart Of The Country, Angry from 1986 (feat. Peter Townshend of Who and Phil Collins of Genesis), Goodnight Tonight, FourFiveSeconds (the most recent hit with Rihanna and Kanye West), Fine Line, Say Say Say (a duet with Michael Jackson), Flaming Pie, Magneto And Titanium Man, The Back Seat Of My Car, Early Days, I’ve Had Enough, Temporary Secretary, Mull Of Kintyre, Riding To Vanity Fair and Ever Present Past.

Here Today is a song that McCartney wrote after the death of his former bandmate and best friend John Lennon in 1980. It is a sad, imaginary conversation with the guy he grew up with and whom he loved very much but who will never reply to him anymore. The title recalls Here There And Everywhere while the use of the string quartet echoes Yesterday. It is one of the cuts in the album Tug Of War by Wings.