Paul McCartney - McCartney (1970) [Original CD Release 1988 - Capitol / Parlophone]

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Paul McCartney - McCartney (1970) [Original CD Release 1988 - Capitol / Parlophone]

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McCartney is the first solo album by Paul McCartney and was released in 1970. It is notable for the fact that McCartney, a multi-instrumentalist, performed the entire album (all instruments and voices) by himself, except for some backing vocals from his first wife, Linda McCartney. McCartney stated that he played "bass, drums, acoustic guitar, lead guitar, piano, Mellotron, organ, toy xylophone, and bow and arrow" on the album. Notable, also, is the use of a large number of instrumental tracks.

History

The development of McCartney was undertaken as the Beatles were falling apart. Recordings were made from late 1969 to March 1970 in London at his home, at Morgan Studios, and at Abbey Road Studios (under the pseudonym "Billy Martin"). McCartney had brought his instruments with him, as well as a Studer four-track tape recorder. He recorded the ad-libbed "The Lovely Linda" to test the equipment before the year was out. Enjoying the experience, he continued, composing and improvising new material and overdubbing his singing. In March 1970, as Phil Spector was concurrently mixing the Let It Be album, McCartney was completed.

The other Beatles realised that McCartney could conflict with the impending release of the Let It Be album and film. Ringo Starr, whose own first album was almost ready for release, was sent to ask McCartney to delay his solo debut. McCartney later commented, "They eventually sent Ringo round to my house at Cavendish with a message: 'We want you to put your release date back, it's for the good of the group', and all of this sort of shit. He was giving me the party line; they just made him come round, so I did something I'd never done before or since: I told him to get out. I had to do something like that in order to assert myself because I was just sinking. I was getting pummeled about the head, in my mind anyway."

On 10 April, after intense disputes with Phil Spector over the final results of the long-delayed Let It Be album, McCartney snapped and publicly announced his departure from the Beatles. The world was stunned and — whether deliberate or not — the media circus surrounding the band's dissolution proved to be beneficial to market McCartney, which was released a week later. Advance copies sent to the press included a Q & A package containing questions McCartney could — and probably would — have been asked about the Beatles' break-up and their future. He stated that he did not know whether the group's break-up would be temporary or permanent (the complete questionnaire, as well as McCartney's own song-by-song commentary, is included in Richard DiLello's book, The Longest Cocktail Party, as an appendix).

McCartney shot to #1 in the United States for three weeks, eventually going double platinum. In the United Kingdom, it was only denied the top spot by the highest-selling album of 1970 (and one of the all-time top-selling albums) Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water, which stayed at #1 for 41 (non-consecutive) weeks. There McCartney debuted straight at #2, where it remained for 3 weeks.

One of the most notable songs on the album is "Maybe I'm Amazed", one of McCartney's many love songs for his first wife, which later went onto reach No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 upon being released as a single on the 1976 album Wings over America. McCartney has subsequently revealed that Linda was instrumental in bolstering his spirits and confidence during the album's making, and helping him out of his depression over losing the Beatles.

Shortly after the album's release, George Harrison described "Maybe I'm Amazed" and "That Would Be Something" as "great", and regarded the other tracks as "fair". John Lennon stated in his 1970 interview with Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner that, given McCartney's penchant for demanding perfectionism in the studio from his fellow Beatles, he was surprised at the lack of quality in the album; Lennon also made several remarks comparing McCartney negatively to his own solo album debut, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.

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Paul McCartney - McCartney (1970) [Original CD Release 1988 - Capitol / Parlophone]

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Paul McCartney - McCartney (1970) [Original CD Release 1988 - Capitol / Parlophone]

Close