McCartney II is the third album by Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney

Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...

, and the first since the formation of Wings

Wings (band)

Wings were a British-American rock group formed in 1971 by Paul McCartney, Denny Laine and Linda McCartney that remained active until 1981....

 in 1971. It was released in 1980, a year before the band's dissolution and while their future lay in limbo. The album is a significant departure for McCartney, as much of the album relies heavily on synthesisers and studio experimentation.

Background

After the release of what turned out to be Wings' final album, Back to the Egg

Back to the Egg

Back to the Egg is the seventh and final studio album by Wings, released in 1979. It is also Wings' first album for Columbia Records after leaving long-time United States distributor Capitol Records in 1978...

, McCartney went north to his farm in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 to begin some private recordings in July 1979. The first song he recorded was "Check My Machine" as a way to test the equipment, hence its title. By sessions' end, he had recorded over 20 songs. With no immediate use for the recordings, he put them aside for the time being and returned to work with Wings in order to prepare for a UK tour

Wings UK Tour 1979

On 23 November 1979, Paul McCartney's band Wings began a 19-date concert tour of the United Kingdom to promote their newest album, Back to the Egg....

 that November and December. Simultaneously with the performances (which included the new "Coming Up

Coming Up (song)

"Coming Up" was the opening track from Paul McCartney's McCartney II album, written by McCartney and released in 1980. Like the rest of the album, the song had a minimalist synthesized feel to it. It featured lead vocals from McCartney distorted by using vari-speed, and he played all the...

"), Paul McCartney released his first solo single since 1971, the festive Top 10 UK hit "Wonderful Christmastime

Wonderful Christmastime

"Wonderful Christmastime" is a 1979 Christmas song by Paul McCartney. It enjoys significant Christmas time popularity around the world. The notable synthesiser riff was played on a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5. The song was later added as a bonus track on the CD reissue of Wings' Back to the Egg...

" b/w "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reggae". The A-side was recorded during the McCartney II sessions, while its flip side had been cut in 1975. However, upcoming events were about to change McCartney's plans with Wings.

After years of visa refusals due to his past marijuana busts, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 had finally allowed McCartney, and thus Wings, to perform. It would be McCartney's first time playing there since 1966 with The Beatles

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

, and anticipation was running high with Wings' tour completely sold out. However, upon his arrival in Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

 on 16 January 1980, a search of McCartney's luggage revealed a bag containing 219 grams of marijuana, prompting his immediate arrest and eventually cancelling the tour. After a nine-day jail stay, McCartney was released and returned home to his Scottish farm. Deciding to put Wings on hold while he contemplated his future, he now decided to issue his solo recordings from the previous summer.

"Coming Up

Coming Up (song)

"Coming Up" was the opening track from Paul McCartney's McCartney II album, written by McCartney and released in 1980. Like the rest of the album, the song had a minimalist synthesized feel to it. It featured lead vocals from McCartney distorted by using vari-speed, and he played all the...

" — an uplifting dance number — appeared that April with a video (Paul playing all the bandmates, dubbed 'The Plastic Macs', except for the backing singers (played by Linda)) and with two B-sides by Wings: "Coming Up (Live at Glasgow)", recorded during Wings' December 1979 show there, and the piano laden instrumental "Lunch Box/Odd Sox" (a Venus and Mars

Venus and Mars

Venus and Mars is the fourth album by Wings. Released as the follow-up to the enormously successful Band on the Run, Venus and Mars continued Wings' string of success and would prove a springboard for a year-long worldwide tour...

outtake). An immediate UK #2 hit, "Coming Up" was flipped over for the live Wings version in the US where it became another #1 for McCartney, greatly raising hopes for his first solo album proper in years. The live Wings version of "Coming Up" was also issued as a white-labeled, one-sided 7" bonus record in many copies of McCartney II within the US and Canada.

Reception

McCartney II was released in mid-May to mixed reviews; many critics found the album, with its experimental, synth-based compositions and its handful of instrumentals, slight. That did not stop it from reaching #1 in the UK and #3 in the US. The next single, the introspective "Waterfalls", was a UK Top 10 hit, but failed to make an impact in the US.
Despite its less-than-rapturous critical reaction, McCartney II has continued to remain a favourite of McCartney devotees.

The initial issue of this album on compact disc featured "Check My Machine" and "Secret Friend" as bonus tracks. The two songs were originally released as the B-sides of "Waterfalls" and "Temporary Secretary," respectively. In 1993, McCartney II was remastered and reissued on CD as part of "The Paul McCartney Collection" series with Wings' 1979 hit "Goodnight Tonight" added as a third bonus track.

When the new remastered version was released in 2011 as part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection, the album re-entered the UK charts at #108.

Track listing

Reissue

In 2011 the album was re-issued by Hear Music

Hear Music

Hear Music, also known as StarCon is the brand name of Starbucks' retail music concept and record label. Hear Music began as a catalog company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1990 before being purchased by Starbucks in 1999.-Concept:...

/Concord Music Group

Concord Music Group

Concord Music Group is a record company owned by Village Roadshow formed in 2004 by the merger of Concord Records and Fantasy Records. In 2005, the company acquired the classics and jazz label Telarc International. On December 18, 2006, Concord announced the re-launch of the soul label Stax;...

 as part of the second set of releases, alongside McCartney

McCartney (album)

McCartney is the debut solo album by Paul McCartney. Apart from Linda McCartney's vocal contributions, McCartney performed the entire album solo...

, in the Paul McCartney Archive Collection. It was released in multiple formats.

• A 2-CD Special Edition which includes a CD of bonus material in addition to the original album.
• A 3-CD/1-DVD Deluxe Edition which has the aforementioned material as well as a limited and numbered 128-page book containing many previously unpublished images by Linda McCartney. The book features album and single artwork and a full history of the making of the album, complete with a new interview with Paul and expanded track by track information. The DVD features rare and previously unseen footage, including rehearsal footage of "Coming Up" and a new video for the unreleased track "Blue Sway".
• A 2-Disc Vinyl Edition containing the same audio material as the Special Edition.
• High Resolution 24bit 96 kHz limited and unlimited audio versions of all 27 songs on the remastered album and bonus audio discs.

Track listing

Disc 1

The first disc features the original UK version of the album.

Disc 2: "Bonus Audio 1" (Special, Vinyl and Deluxe Editions)

1. "Blue Sway" (with Richard Niles
   Richard Niles
   Richard Niles is an American composer, arranger, producer, guitarist, broadcaster and journalist. He has lived in London since 1975. Because of his extensive work across many genres Sound on Sound magazine referred to him as "one of the most versatile men in modern music".-Early years:Niles was...
   
    Orchestration) - previously unreleased - 4:35
2. "Coming Up" (Live at the Apollo Theatre, Glasgow - December 17, 1979) - 4:08
3. "Check My Machine" (Regular Single B-side Edited Version) - 5:50
4. "Bogey Wobble" - previously unreleased - 2:59
5. "Secret Friend" - 10:31
6. "Mr H Atom / You Know I'll Get You Baby" - previously unreleased - 5:55
7. "Wonderful Christmastime" (Regular A-side Version) - 3:47
8. "All You Horse Riders / Blue Sway" - previously unreleased - 10:15

Disc 3: "Bonus Audio 2" (Deluxe Edition)

1. "Coming Up" [Full Length Version]
2. "Front Parlour" [Full Length Version]
3. "Frozen Jap" [Full Length Version]
4. "Darkroom" [Full Length Version]
5. "Check My Machine" [Full Length Version]
6. "Wonderful Christmastime" [Full Length Version]
7. "Summer's Day Song" [Original without vocals]
8. "Waterfalls" (DJ edit)

DVD (Deluxe Edition)

1. "Meet Paul McCartney"
2. "Coming Up" (music video)
3. "Waterfalls" (music video)
4. "Wonderful Christmastime" (music video)
5. "Coming Up" (live at Concert for the People of Kampuchea - 29 December 1979)
6. "Coming Up" (taken from a rehearsal session at Lower Gate Farm, 1979)
7. "Making the Coming Up Music Video"
8. "Blue Sway" (music video)

Alternative version

An alternate, unofficial sequence of material (the source of this material being two test pressings of the original sequence according to Record Collector magazine) is available on bootleg

Bootleg recording

A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...

s, and is commonly referred to as "The Lost McCartney II Album, although it's title is The Lost McCartney Album."

1. "Front Parlour" - 5:06 (extended alternate mix)
2. "Frozen Jap" - 5:30 (extended alternate mix)
3. "All You Horse Riders" - 3:45 (unreleased until the "Paul McCartney Archive Collection" edition of the original album - 13 June, 2011)
4. "Blue Sway" - 6:04 (unreleased until the "Paul McCartney Archive Collection" edition of the original album - 13 June, 2011)
5. "Temporary Secretary" - 3:05
6. "On The Way" - 3:27
7. "Mr. H. Atom" - 2:10 (Features Linda McCartney
   Linda McCartney
   Linda Louise McCartney, Lady McCartney was an American photographer, musician and animal rights activist. Her father and mother were Lee Eastman and Louise Sara Lindner Eastman....
   
    on lead vocals)
8. "Summer's Day Song" - 3:16 (instrumental version)
9. "You Know I'll Get You Baby" - 3:45 (unreleased until the "Paul McCartney Archive Collection" edition of the original album - 13 June, 2011)
10. "Bogey Wobble" - 3:14 (unused companion piece to "Bogey Music")
11. "Darkroom" - 3:38 (extended alternate mix)
12. "One of These Days" - 3:26
13. "Secret Friend" - 10:05
14. "Bogey Music" - 3:17
15. "Check My Machine" - 8:39 (longer alternate mix than B-Side to "Waterfalls")
16. "Waterfalls" - 4:29
17. "Nobody Knows" - 2:44
18. "Coming Up" - 5:26 (extended alternate mix)

Grammy Awards

|-
| width="35" align="center"|1981 || "Coming Up" || Best Rock Vocal Performance - Male

Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance

The Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance was an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to male recording artists for works containing quality vocal performances in the rock music genre...

 ||
|-

Chart positions

Chart (1980)	Position
Australia Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... n Kent Music Report Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998...	6
Austrian Albums Chart Ö3 Austria Top 40 Ö3 Austria Top 40 is the name of the official Austrian singles chart, as well as the radio show which presents it, aired Fridays on Hitradio Ö3. The show presents the Austrian singles, ringtones and downloads chart. It premiered on 26 November 1968 as Disc Parade and was presented by Ernst Grissemann...	4
Dutch Mega Albums Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top...	20
French SNEP Albums Chart	2
German Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...  Media Control Albums Chart	19
Italian Albums Chart	11
Japanese Oricon Weekly LP Chart Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc...  [A]	8
New Zealand Albums Chart	5
Norwegian Norway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...  VG-lista Albums Chart VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by...	5
Swedish Albums Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association ....	5
UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...	1
U.S. Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...	3

Year-end charts

Chart (1980)	Position
Australian Albums Chart	32
Italian Albums Chart	39
UK Albums Chart	36
Japanese Oricon Chart	95

Chart positions (reissue)

Chart (2011)	Position
French SNEP Albums Chart	158
Japanese Oricon Albums Chart	32
Spanish Albums Chart	85
UK Albums Chart	108
U.S. Billboard 200	82
U.S. Top Pop Catalog Albums	10

Certifications

Notes

• A^ Until January 1987, Japanese albums chart had been separated into LP, CD, and cassette charts. McCartney II also entered the cassette chart, peaking at #13.
• B^ Combined sales of LP and audio cassette.

External links

• JPGR's Beatles site: Paul McCartney's McCartney II
• Collector's Music Review of Paul McCartney - The Lost McCartney Album
• Check My Machine