Disco de Paul McCartney: “Wings Greatest”

This is the original greatest hits album of Wings released in 1978. These are all great songs and the best Wings collection up until the recent double disc set, Wingspan: Hits & History. The biggest complaint I have about Wings Greatest is that it is far too incomplete. For example, some songs that are missing are "Listen to what the man said", "Coming Up", "No more lonely nights", "Maybe I'm amazed", "Let me roll it", I could go on but you get the point. I highly recommend Wingspan for a few reasons. First, its a 41 track set for about the same price as Greatest. Secondly, it has all 12 tracks from Greatest and 29 more. Unless you have every Wings album then Wingspan is for you!

Is there a more influential artist than Paul McCartney whose catalog

is in such disarray when it comes to collecting all of his singles,

b-sides, and non-album tracks onto a single disc?

When this album

Also, when this was initially released in 1978,

So

All griping aside, this is a must-have addition to

"Wings Greatest" highilghts some of the greatest music from Paul MCcartney's post-beatles career. The only song missing is "Listen to what the Man Said." The critics througout Paul Mccartney's post-beatles career lambasted him for producing "silly pop songs". Well, the songs featured on this are not "silly pop songs". They are simply Paul being Paul. If you look at the bulk of the Beatles' number one singles starting with "Penny Lane" through "The Long and Winding Road" you will see that they are in a sense the same as his post beatles 70's material. The only difference is, that The Beatles broke new ground with these recordings. Paul MCcartney simply kept writing the same style quality songs, like he did in the beatles, only they were nothing that new, so the crtics pounced. This album is the essential mccartney. The period represented here is his most prolfic and qaulity. There are songs on this album that are not on other albums, for instance "live and let die". The very first solo single is included also, and find it like much of his songs on the "White Album". There is even a song he wrote that broke a beatles' record "Mull of Kintyre" it is interesting yet a little out of place however. The album "all the best" is for those who want all the huge hits from the 80's also. but this collection is a good overview and just as good as "all the best" in fact better.

It has often been remarked that Paul McCartney's solo career hasn't measured up to the creativity of his Beatles experience.

It's not that.

McCartney without the Beatles has always been as capable of writing a song as he was in the 60s. What he has consistently lacked in his solo career has been the ability to have a coherent vision for an entire album. Given that he was the major creative force behind the 'concept' of _Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club_, and of the failed "live" effort that degenerated into _Let It Be_, it's more than a little ironic that he was never able to achieve quite that level of vision in his solo career. Some will say that _Band on the Run_ stacks up with the best of the Beatles, but I think it's more than a little ironic that the best single album that Wings produced was this compilation of greatest hits.

Can you imagine the Beatles self-producing a "greatest hits" album? It's a plainly ridiculous notion. Yet it worked in 1978, because by then, McCartney had reverted into a singles artist. It's almost as if the Paul McCartney of the 70s was actively rejecting the McCartney of the 60s. Afraid, perhaps, of exerting the kind of leadership over Wings that ultimately helped break up the Beatles, he seemed to retreat into a creative style that focused energy on single songs that could be quickly recorded and put away before the fatigue of marathon recording sessions could set in. The result was a band which produced very satisfying singles, but largely unremarkable albums.

No, this album doesn't have quite all of Wings' greatest hits, but what it has is enough to convince even the staunchest McCartney critic that the man can write great music independently of the Beatles. And yet, it also makes one long for the McCartney of old, who would fight for the totality of his creative vision.

Wings Greatest from 1978 is an excellent greatest hits compilation. In 1975 John Lennon released the greatest hits package Shaved Fish, Ringo Starr Blast from Your Past, and George Harrison released his greatest hits. The Harrison record was the weakest, including one side of Beatles material! This was outrageous! Shaved Fish was a sloppy and overly cute assemblage of Lennon material. Only half of "Give Peace of Chance" is included with a live version spliced onto the end. There is even a Sgt. Pepper-type reprise at the end. The covers of the Harrison and Lennon albums were atrocious. The Ringo Starr package was much superior and included a comprehensive song selection. Wings Greatest followed this pattern of a poorly thought-out greatest hits album. The cover is absolutely horrendous!!! Give me a break, is this the best cover they could come up with? The song selection is good but very superficial. Only the pop hits were included. The live version of "Maybe I.m Amazed" was left off as was the studio version and "Listen to What the Man Said" was also left off. Obviously there were limitations of space on the album. But is this an excuse to release sub-standard product? Why not produce a well-thought out package? What saves the album is the music, which is classic McCartney. The songs are among the greatest of the 1970s. The problem with the album is that McCartney released a ton of material and only a small portion is included on this album. Harrison too, released a ton of material, including two triple albums!!!! In 1968 Harrison released a movie soudtrack and a no. 1 album in 1973. Yet the compilers of the Harrison set, like the McCartney set, were hard-pressed to find Harrison selections for the album, including a whole side of Beatles songs!!!This is ridiculous! Likewise, a McCartney greatest hits package could have been a double album with a decent cover and more depth in the song selections. But as a collection of McCartney's biggest selling singles in the 1970s, this set is excellent. The music is remarkable.