Best Wings track not written or co-written by Paul McCartney

Richard Cory

I only know the four that made it to their LPs. "Wino Junko" without any particular enthusiasm.

Oh, and "Cook of the House" Linda McCartney

Medicine Jar easily, though I have an outsized fondness for Wino Junko. Neither are exactly classic rock classics, but both could have slotted respectably into the tracklists of some other 70s rock album, had Jimmy McCulloch found himself recruited into some other 70s rock band.

xp I didn't include Cook Of The House because it's credited to both Paul and Linda.

Love's Full Glory was apparently recorded during a session for Ringo Starr's Stop And Smell The Roses album in 1980 and I think is the only recording here that doesn't feature Denny Laine in any capacity, so I guess its status as a Wings track is debatable, but it was recorded before Wings officially split up and Wings guitarist Laurence Juber plays on it, so imo it counts.

xp I started the poll because Tom Ewing was posting about Venus & Mars on bluesky and mentioned the 'Wings-Is-A-Band' track (presumably Medicine Jar) as being particularly bad, but I've always liked it, I'd probably find a whole album of songs done in that style a bit of a drag, but it's enjoyable among all the more off-beat stuff on Venus & Mars , this straight forward blues rock number in the middle of the various music hall pastiches, songs about Marvel Comics characters, covers of the Crossroads theme music etc. I prefer Wino Junko, though

Time to Hide

Excellent poll idea. My first instinct was to hurry to check the London Town credits because any one of Children Children, Deliver Your Children, Don't Let It Bring You Down, or Morse Moose and the Grey Goose would get my vote, but no, those are all Paul co-writes. Then I had to look up I Lie Around because my brain was telling me that was a Laine composition, but no, it's pure Paul -- Ram outtake, no less, so it's wonder it rules so hard.

Medicine Jar is wonderful but I love Laine's modest contributions to the Wings project too much not to vote for him: Again and Again and Again it is. Back to the Egg is fantastic.

*no wonder (and the confusion was due to Laine being tasked with the lead vocals)

Love's Full Glory

Didn’t realize this song inspired a Cannes award-winning short.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEm-7z46LFM

(Clearly remixed or re-recorded for that film)

lol I can't listen to "Again and Again and Again." What am I missing?

I actually hadn't realized that Again and Again and Again wasn't written by Paul until I went looking through the songwriting credits for this poll, I kind of like it but to the extent that it's grating it's grating in what feels like a very specifically Paul-esque way. Apparently it was two song fragments that Laine had come up that Paul suggested combining which maybe explains it, along with how much his bassline dominates

This feels like it could be a Defend the Indefensible thread.

interesting poll … looking forward to / dreading checking these out

Just listened to Again x3 and now am wondering whether maybe my true favorite is I Would Only Smile. I should've relistened properly before choosing. However, Again + Again + Again is good stuff! It's a succession of earworms! And the sporadic lead guitar lines in the second half are fun!

Yeah, I don't understand why Again & Again & Again is so objectionable to some of yourself. Same with the half-Denny tune No Words on Band on the Run.

I hope the royalties were enough to keep him comfortable in the post-Wings years.

"...some of yourself"? I'm typing in my sleep.

I adore No Words!

Except, formerly, for the clipping on the guitar solo, which I spent years convinced was a problem with my digital copies. But then I bought the fancy box rerelease of Band on the Run and finally had to just learn to love it.

I was thinking about polling McCartney non-LP A-sides (never been done from what I can find), but maybe I'll wait until the current glut of McCartney polls dies down.

I feel pretty comfortable saying that none of this material is worth exploring. Laine was the only marginally credible songwriting musician to pass through Wings and his stuff was at best ignorable. I remember “Spirits of Ancient Egypt” but not much else about their stuff from Venus and Mars, which bogs down with the non-McCartney stuff. I also remember thinking that “The Note You Never Wrote” would have been much better sung by Paul but that’s a co-write, as is “Cook of the House” which is also dire.

I appreciate that Paul wanted Wings to be a band. And in a way it was, but never when it came to songwriting.

Spirits of Ancient Egypt was sung by Laine but he doesn't have a songwriting credit on it, it's credited to Paul and Linda. All of Paul's songs on the first 5 Wings albums are co-credited to him and Linda, with the exception of No Words which he co-wrote with Laine and Let 'Em In which is credited to Paul alone, though I don't know how much input Linda had on the songwriting in practise (I think I've seen it suggested somewhere that the decision to co-credit both of them was a financial one, it allowed them to keep more of the royalties by circumventing a contract Paul had signed?)

actually The Note You Never Wrote is also credited to Paul and Linda, it was another one where Laine just sang the lead vocals.

In 1977 the reggae-inspired single “Seaside Woman” was released by an obscure band called Suzy and the Red Stripes on Epic Records in the United States. Suzy and the Red Stripes were Wings, with Linda (who wrote the song) on lead vocals. The song, recorded by Wings in 1972, was written in response to allegations from Paul’s publisher that Linda’s co-writing credits were inauthentic and that she was not a real songwriter. In 1971 Northern Songs and Maclen Music filed a lawsuit alleging that Paul McCartney had violated an exclusive rights agreement by collaborating with Linda on the song “Another Day”, which had the effect of transferring a 50% share of the publishing royalties to his own McCartney Music company. The lawsuit was “amicably settled”, according to an ATV spokesman, in June 1972.

I feel pretty comfortable saying that none of this material is worth exploring.

It wouldn't make a stellar playlist, I agree.

On the other hand, a playlist of McCartney/Laine co-writes padded out with Denny-sung Paul numbers could compete with my favorite Wings albums.

I'm surprised Laine has partisans.

It wouldn't make a stellar playlist, I agree.

honestly I think this hangs together surprisingly well:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/799XodII5Ao14XByFN8okz

Oriental Nightfish is such a trip and the video is INCREDIBLE!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGdQCqnqcww

As kids one of the only VHS's we had was the Frog Song, backed with Seaside Woman and THIS!
Imagine a 6 and 4 year old getting up every day at 6am to watch this

Linda's version of Mr Sandman is fantastic too.

Seaside Woman would probably be described as "ill advised" at best these days, but I have a soft-spot for this corny cod-reggae thing

Again x3

lol I can't listen to "Again and Again and Again." What am I missing?

Dunno, you def need to listen to it long enough to get to this part:

Winter time is coming now
Gimme a sign if you can somehow
Make it clear where you're heading for
Will I see you someday at my door?
Taking it all into consideration
Love's a game I never win
I've been in very similar situations
Again and again and again

I'm surprised Laine has partisans.

― hungover beet poo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, June 23, 2025 12:22 PM

Were he still alive, I suspect Laine would have as well.

While I'm here: Can anyone - preferably someone who was around at the time - explain the popularity of Mull Of Kintyre? I mean, nice song I guess? But nothing mindblowing or particularly special. It remains the biggest selling non-charity single in the UK though. What made everyone go out and buy this at the time?

Grannies with cash to burn?

I’ve probably heard Mull of Kintyre 300 times yet I can never remember how it goes

I'm surprised Laine has partisans.

There's no question that Paul is the reason I love Wings so much, but I also do really love Denny's voice, and for some reason all the best stuff on London Town was co-written with Denny. Anyway, for a couple years there, ten plus years ago, the only thing I wanted to hear was Paul, Linda, and Denny's three-part harmonies.

**Best** stuff? I’m not sure that applies to anything other than the title track, which is indeed a minor Wings classic. But it’s def. the best batch of Laine co-writes in the band, even if that’s damning a bit with faint praise.

Xposts to Darin - See, for such a big selling song, I can't say I really ever remember hearing it out in the wild beyond maybe one or two times.

While I'm here: Can anyone - preferably someone who was around at the time - explain the popularity of Mull Of Kintyre? I mean, nice song I guess? But nothing mindblowing or particularly special. It remains the biggest selling non-charity single in the UK though. What made everyone go out and buy this at the time?

Bagpipes. Didn't sell much in the US and quite right as it's a horrible plodding dirge.

i like it. i hear people in the UK are extremely sick of it.

Some of the best-selling singles are inexplicable ("You Light Up My Life" I think of first).

I tried to listen to Mull Of Kintyre again for the first time in years, but I still dislike it. Something about that pause between the end of each verse and the beginning of the chorus that is infuriating to me (especially the first one where you hear McCartney slap his guitar). And it's so dreary, it's only 4:45 but feels like it goes on forever.

I went to read the Popular entry for MoK, and coincidently having watched The Stone Tape on tv earlier this week, this part reminded me of the terrifying, malevolent recording from the ancient past that appears in the film:

Macca has told and retold the story of how he assumed the dreamcaught melody for “Yesterday” was an unconscious borrow from a far more primal tune – but how much more timeless does the hymnal “Mull” sound? It obviously struck chords deep enough to smash the Beatles’, and anyone else’s, sales records: an unexpected climax to the year punk broke.

https://popular-number1s.com/2008/07/18/wings-mull-of-kintyregirls-school/#debug5

So maybe Mull Of Kintyre could be appreciated by someone as a kind of sinister, spooky folk horror exercise? Not by me, though.

There's something about McCartney's vocal on MoK that is off-putting, I can't put my finger on it. It's like it's too smarmy for this kind of faux-folk dirge.

I definitely think the song would be more tolerable with a less proficient singer. Maybe he should have got Linda to sing the lead?

or...Denny Laine

I think it's acceptable until the key change, at which point I feel poked to be stirred.

He should have given it to Ringo to sing.

It is like a bit like a more turgid Yellow Submarine.

I think MoK is pretty! Kinda can't bear the weight of being SUCH a big hit, but it was nice, along with "Hi Hi Hi," as an unknown new addition when I first got Wings Greatest on cassette. I do wish we had a Laine-led version to compare. Is the consensus that he probably wrote it, or at least had a hand in it?

Wow, "Oriental Nightfish"... Not sure I'd want a whole album of that, but great to hear everybody trying something different. Paul is laying down some licks there!

I like how seamlessly we’ve moved from trying to find anything positive to say about non-Macca Wings to debating their contributions to his work.

It was a Thursday night...
I was working late...
When I first caught sight of the Oriental Nightfish

Fecking iconic

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

tweak a few things about "seaside woman" and it kind of has an early Eno vibe