BEST OF THE BEST OF Paul MCCARTNEY POST BEATLES' songs (TOP 20)
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Similar to a previous Post that asked us to list our the Top 40 of Paul's Post Beatles' songs, but in this case I thought it would be interesting to narrow that list down to the top 20 BEST OF THE BEST Paul songs beginning with his first album McCartney. This list would include all Post Beatle Paul songs including his period with Wings. I am going to start with my own personal Top 20 list. I also decided to narrow my list to songs that are "relatively well known" to Beatle and Paul fans. Songs that have gotten at least some airplay or in other cases, a lot of airplay. I'm not going to include my favorites that I would call highly underrated or generally unknown unless you're a Paul geek like I am.
The general criteria I am using includes: songs written entirely or almost entirely by Paul, final studio performance including vocals, overall melody, creativity (is it unique and doesn't sound like other Paul or Beatle songs) etc.
Here's is my list pretty much in album order.
TOP 20 PAUL MCCARTNEY POST BEATLE SONGS
1. MAYBE I'M AMAZED (MCCARTNEY) ...Album version
2. BAND ON THE RUN (BAND ON THE RUN)
3. UNCLE ALBERT/ADMIRAL HALSEY (RAM)
4. LIVE AND LET DIE (SINGLE)
5. SILLY LOVE SONGS (WINGS AT THE SPEED OF SOUND)
6. WITH A LITTLE LUCK (LONDON TOWN)...album version
7. MULL OF KINTYRE (SINGLE)
8. COMING UP (MCCARTNEY 2)...album version
9. HERE TODAY (TUG OF WAR)
10. WANDERLUST (TUG OF WAR)
11. PUT IT THERE (FLOWERS IN THE DIRT)
12. CALICO SKIES (FLAMING PIE)
13. BEAUTIFUL NIGHT (FLAMING PIE)
14. LITTLE WILLOW (FLAMING PIE)
15. RIDING TO VANITY FAIR (CHAOS)
16. TOO MUCH RAIN (CHAOS)
17. ONLY MAMA KNOWS (MEMORY ALMOST FULL)
18. THE END OF THE END (MEMORY ALMOST FULL)
19, EARLY DAYS (NEW)
20. I DON'T KNOW (EGYPT STATION)
IF I HAD TO NARROW IT DOWN TO A TOP 10, MY LIST FROM ABOVE WOULD BE:
1.MAYBE I'M AMAZED
2.BAND ON THE RUN
3.LIVE AND LET DIE
4.SILLY LOVE SONGS
5.WANDERLUST
6.RIDING TO VANITY FAIR
7.CALICO SKIES
8.BEAUTIFUL NIGHT
9.ONLY MAMA KNOWS
10. I DON'T KNOW
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BJ, why do you do this to us?? Ha. Well, let me pour a tall bourbon and diet Coke, make some notes, and away we go (no particular order, they all are #1):
Every Night (McCartney) - should had been released as a single
Backseat of My Car (RAM) - ditto as above
Bip Bop (Wild Life) - Sue me; I just love this song
RRS Medley (RRSpeedway) - Sue me again; ten minutes of beautiful and fun McCartney
Hi Hi Hi (single) - powerful, naughty, and just rocks!
Helen Wheels (BOTR) - Great fun lyrics, incredible guitars and drums
Band On The Run (BOTR) - Duh
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five (BOTR) - IMO, the greatest rock song of the 70's
Listen To What The Man Said (Venus and Mars) - The perfect pop song; just perfect
Silly Love Songs (Speed of Sound) - ditto as above; 'and what's wrong with that, I like to know!'
Let 'Em In (Speed of Sound) - my daughter called it the 'marching song'; the reaction in Moline in 2019 was powerful!
Maybe I'm Amazed (Wings Over America) - played at my wedding in 1990; still give me chills
London Town (London Town) - the most Beatlesque song Wings recorded
Girl's School (single) - Wings at their absolute best; everything I love about Wings in this rocker
So Glad To See You Here (Back To The Egg) - Another Wings classic; fast, loud, messy, and just plain rocks!
Once Upon A Long Ago (single) - An amazing, haunting tune
Average Person (Pipes of Peace) - Sue me again, but this song has lyrics that just touched my soul. I used to be both a bartender and boxer
Every Present Past (Memory Almost Full) - A classic McCartney tune; so reminded me of Wings.
Queenie Eye (NEW) - Another song that made me proud to be a McCartney fan.
Dominoes/Happy With You (Egypt Station) - Sorry, sue me, but can't decided which song is better. Simple masterpieces.
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wingsoverkc wrote:
BJ, why do you do this to us?? Ha. Well, let me pour a tall bourbon and diet Coke, make some notes, and away we go (no particular order, they all are #1):
Every Night (McCartney) - should had been released as a single
Backseat of My Car (RAM) - ditto as above
Bip Bop (Wild Life) - Sue me; I just love this song
RRS Medley (RRSpeedway) - Sue me again; ten minutes of beautiful and fun McCartney
Hi Hi Hi (single) - powerful, naughty, and just rocks!
Helen Wheels (BOTR) - Great fun lyrics, incredible guitars and drums
Band On The Run (BOTR) - Duh
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five (BOTR) - IMO, the greatest rock song of the 70's
Listen To What The Man Said (Venus and Mars) - The perfect pop song; just perfect
Silly Love Songs (Speed of Sound) - ditto as above; 'and what's wrong with that, I like to know!'
Let 'Em In (Speed of Sound) - my daughter called it the 'marching song'; the reaction in Moline in 2019 was powerful!
Maybe I'm Amazed (Wings Over America) - played at my wedding in 1990; still give me chills
London Town (London Town) - the most Beatlesque song Wings recorded
Girl's School (single) - Wings at their absolute best; everything I love about Wings in this rocker
So Glad To See You Here (Back To The Egg) - Another Wings classic; fast, loud, messy, and just plain rocks!
Once Upon A Long Ago (single) - An amazing, haunting tune
Average Person (Pipes of Peace) - Sue me again, but this song has lyrics that just touched my soul. I used to be both a bartender and boxer
Every Present Past (Memory Almost Full) - A classic McCartney tune; so reminded me of Wings.
Queenie Eye (NEW) - Another song that made me proud to be a McCartney fan.
Dominoes/Happy With You (Egypt Station) - Sorry, sue me, but can't decided which song is better. Simple masterpieces.
Great post Wingsoverkc. We're much alike being so crazy about Post Beatle Paul. Some of your choices I had considered for my list (1985, Listen to What the Man Said, Let 'em In, Ever Present Past, Dominoes etc) and others had me laughing with your comments. Great that Maybe I'm Amazed was played at your Wedding. Thanks again for your quick resply.
PS I loved your Bip Bop comment.
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This is impossible, but what the hell, I'll play. This list is approximately chronological as I can't possibly rate these over each other:
Maybe I'm Amazed
Too Many People
Band on the Run
Silly Love Songs
Here Today
Wanderlust
The Pound Is Sinking
Calico Skies
Little Willow
Somedays
Too Much Rain
Riding to Vanity Fair
Mr. Bellamy
Only Mama Knows
The End of the End
Sing the Changes (GENYC live version)
Confidante
Dominoes
Hand in Hand
Do It Now
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In no particular order, although MIA is definitely #1:
1. Maybe I'm Amazed
2. Band On The Run
3. Hi Hi Hi
4. Magneto & Titanium Man
5. Helen Wheels
6. Jet
7. Wanderlust
8. Dear Boy
9. No More Lonely Nights
10. Beautiful Night
11. Calico Skies
12. Somedays
13. Little Willow
14. Young Boy
15. Heaven On A Sunday
16. Appreciate
17. I Can Bet
18. New
19. I Don't Know
20. Come On To Me
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In no particular order apart from Waterfalls being my absolute favourite:
Waterfalls.
Little Lamb Dragonfly.
Scared.
You Tell Me.
Riding To Vanity Fair.
How Kind Of You.
Somedays.
No Values.
Love In Song.
Somebody Who Cares.
Distractions.
Single Pigeon.
That Day Is Done.
Juniors Farm.
I lie Around.
Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five
One Of These Days
Dear Friend.
Country Dreamer.
Band On The Run.
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Bruce M. wrote:
This is impossible, but what the hell, I'll play. This list is approximately chronological as I can't possibly rate these over each other:
Maybe I'm Amazed
Too Many People
Band on the Run
Silly Love Songs
Here Today
Wanderlust
The Pound Is Sinking
Calico Skies
Little Willow
Somedays
Too Much Rain
Riding to Vanity Fair
Mr. Bellamy
Only Mama Knows
The End of the End
Sing the Changes (GENYC live version)
Confidante
Dominoes
Hand in Hand
Do It Now
Great list Bruce. There is not one song on your choices that I don't love. I had Too Many People on my initial Top 20 but changed it out for Uncle Albert because it was such a big hit. I actually like Too Many People better. I also love some of your choices that weren't on my Top 20 like The Pound is Sinking, Somedays, Mr. Bellamy and Sing the Changes. The last one is also a great choice. I hear the GENYC live version on Spotify all the time and it is great. Finally, I love the fact that you have 4 Egypt Station songs in your list. I love them all but I have to say that I Don't Know is still my favorite ES song. I still can't believe that Paul didn't play one of the 5 (including I Don't Know) on his post ES tours. I still shake my head.
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Nancy R wrote:
In no particular order, although MIA is definitely #1:
1. Maybe I'm Amazed
2. Band On The Run
3. Hi Hi Hi
4. Magneto & Titanium Man
5. Helen Wheels
6. Jet
7. Wanderlust
8. Dear Boy
9. No More Lonely Nights
10. Beautiful Night
11. Calico Skies
12. Somedays
13. Little Willow
14. Young Boy
15. Heaven On A Sunday
16. Appreciate
17. I Can Bet
18. New
19. I Don't Know
20. Come On To Me
Love your list too Nancy. I love almost all the songs. I will have to relisten to Paul's album New. I like the title track that you include but I will have to see how I like Appreciate now after so much time has gone by. I listen to Spotify a lot but they don't include Appreciate on their Solo Paul playlist. Appreciate didn't do that much for me when the album first came out. I couldn't help notice that you had a whopping 6 Flaming Pie songs. Glad you included I Don't Know which as you know I love,love.
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Kestrel wrote:
In no particular order apart from Waterfalls being my absolute favourite:
Waterfalls.
Little Lamb Dragonfly.
Scared.
You Tell Me.
Riding To Vanity Fair.
How Kind Of You.
Somedays.
No Values.
Love In Song.
Somebody Who Cares.
Distractions.
Single Pigeon.
That Day Is Done.
Juniors Farm.
I lie Around.
Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five
One Of These Days
Dear Friend.
Country Dreamer.
Band On The Run.
Great list Kestrel. I still remember that you got me onto Scared. I didn't like it initially but after repeated listens I love it too.
Love some of your non-hit choices like Waterfalls, Country Dreamer, I Lie Around, Single Pigeon, Distractions, Love in Song and LIttle Lamb Dragonfly. I liked You Tell Me as a song but didn't like the production on this track on the MAF CD. The production on MAF still frustrates me a lot because so many of the songs are so great.
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B J Conlee wrote:
The production on MAF still frustrates me a lot because so many of the songs are so great.
A victim of the 'loudness wars' era unfortunately? Hopefully a future re-mix / remastering project will put right that error of judgement.
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B J Conlee wrote:
Similar to a previous Post that asked us to list our the Top 40 of Paul's Post Beatles' songs, but in this case I thought it would be interesting to narrow that list down to the top 20 BEST OF THE BEST Paul songs beginning with his first album McCartney. This list would include all Post Beatle Paul songs including his period with Wings. I am going to start with my own personal Top 20 list. I also decided to narrow my list to songs that are "relatively well known" to Beatle and Paul fans. Songs that have gotten at least some airplay or in other cases, a lot of airplay. I'm not going to include my favorites that I would call highly underrated or generally unknown unless you're a Paul geek like I am.
The general criteria I am using includes: songs written entirely or almost entirely by Paul, final studio performance including vocals, overall melody, creativity (is it unique and doesn't sound like other Paul or Beatle songs) etc.
Here's is my list pretty much in album order.
TOP 20 PAUL MCCARTNEY POST BEATLE SONGS
1. MAYBE I'M AMAZED (MCCARTNEY) ...Album version
2. BAND ON THE RUN (BAND ON THE RUN)
3. UNCLE ALBERT/ADMIRAL HALSEY (RAM)
4. LIVE AND LET DIE (SINGLE)
5. SILLY LOVE SONGS (WINGS AT THE SPEED OF SOUND)
6. WITH A LITTLE LUCK (LONDON TOWN)...album version
7. MULL OF KINTYRE (SINGLE)
8. COMING UP (MCCARTNEY 2)...album version
9. HERE TODAY (TUG OF WAR)
10. WANDERLUST (TUG OF WAR)
11. PUT IT THERE (FLOWERS IN THE DIRT)
12. CALICO SKIES (FLAMING PIE)
13. BEAUTIFUL NIGHT (FLAMING PIE)
14. LITTLE WILLOW (FLAMING PIE)
15. RIDING TO VANITY FAIR (CHAOS)
16. TOO MUCH RAIN (CHAOS)
17. ONLY MAMA KNOWS (MEMORY ALMOST FULL)
18. THE END OF THE END (MEMORY ALMOST FULL)
19, EARLY DAYS (NEW)
20. I DON'T KNOW (EGYPT STATION)
IF I HAD TO NARROW IT DOWN TO A TOP 10, MY LIST FROM ABOVE WOULD BE:
1.MAYBE I'M AMAZED
2.BAND ON THE RUN
3.LIVE AND LET DIE
4.SILLY LOVE SONGS
5.WANDERLUST
6.RIDING TO VANITY FAIR
7.CALICO SKIES
8.BEAUTIFUL NIGHT
9.ONLY MAMA KNOWS
10. I DON'T KNOW
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Maybe I'm Amazed
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Venus Mars/Rock Show
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Band On The Run
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Tug Of War (the song)
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How Kind Of You
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Wanderlust
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About You
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House Of Wax
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Too Much Rain
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Jet
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Dear Boy
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Little Willow
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Dance Til We're High
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I Can Bet
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That Was Me
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My Brave Face
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Early Days
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Here Today
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Despite Repeated Warnings
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Beware My Love
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I forgot about Waterfalls! I love that song! It's so hard to only pick 20!
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Yankeefan2 wrote:
B J Conlee wrote:
Similar to a previous Post that asked us to list our the Top 40 of Paul's Post Beatles' songs, but in this case I thought it would be interesting to narrow that list down to the top 20 BEST OF THE BEST Paul songs beginning with his first album McCartney. This list would include all Post Beatle Paul songs including his period with Wings. I am going to start with my own personal Top 20 list. I also decided to narrow my list to songs that are "relatively well known" to Beatle and Paul fans. Songs that have gotten at least some airplay or in other cases, a lot of airplay. I'm not going to include my favorites that I would call highly underrated or generally unknown unless you're a Paul geek like I am.
The general criteria I am using includes: songs written entirely or almost entirely by Paul, final studio performance including vocals, overall melody, creativity (is it unique and doesn't sound like other Paul or Beatle songs) etc.
Here's is my list pretty much in album order.
TOP 20 PAUL MCCARTNEY POST BEATLE SONGS
1. MAYBE I'M AMAZED (MCCARTNEY) ...Album version
2. BAND ON THE RUN (BAND ON THE RUN)
3. UNCLE ALBERT/ADMIRAL HALSEY (RAM)
4. LIVE AND LET DIE (SINGLE)
5. SILLY LOVE SONGS (WINGS AT THE SPEED OF SOUND)
6. WITH A LITTLE LUCK (LONDON TOWN)...album version
7. MULL OF KINTYRE (SINGLE)
8. COMING UP (MCCARTNEY 2)...album version
9. HERE TODAY (TUG OF WAR)
10. WANDERLUST (TUG OF WAR)
11. PUT IT THERE (FLOWERS IN THE DIRT)
12. CALICO SKIES (FLAMING PIE)
13. BEAUTIFUL NIGHT (FLAMING PIE)
14. LITTLE WILLOW (FLAMING PIE)
15. RIDING TO VANITY FAIR (CHAOS)
16. TOO MUCH RAIN (CHAOS)
17. ONLY MAMA KNOWS (MEMORY ALMOST FULL)
18. THE END OF THE END (MEMORY ALMOST FULL)
19, EARLY DAYS (NEW)
20. I DON'T KNOW (EGYPT STATION)
IF I HAD TO NARROW IT DOWN TO A TOP 10, MY LIST FROM ABOVE WOULD BE:
1.MAYBE I'M AMAZED
2.BAND ON THE RUN
3.LIVE AND LET DIE
4.SILLY LOVE SONGS
5.WANDERLUST
6.RIDING TO VANITY FAIR
7.CALICO SKIES
8.BEAUTIFUL NIGHT
9.ONLY MAMA KNOWS
10. I DON'T KNOW
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Maybe I'm Amazed
-
Venus Mars/Rock Show
-
Band On The Run
-
Tug Of War (the song)
-
How Kind Of You
-
Wanderlust
-
About You
-
House Of Wax
-
Too Much Rain
-
Jet
-
Dear Boy
-
Little Willow
-
Dance Til We're High
-
I Can Bet
-
That Was Me
-
My Brave Face
-
Early Days
-
Here Today
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Despite Repeated Warnings
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Beware My Love
Great list Yankeefan. You are the one that got me into About You from Driving Rain. Like you, I always wished Paul did a live version of About You on one of his many tours (how many songs have we said that about). Beware My Love is another good choice. The 2nd best song on At the Speed of Sound after Silly Love Songs in my opinion. And I forgot about Venus and Mars. I'm just thinking that a great choice would be coupling Venus and Mars and Jet the way Paul and Wings introduced their Wings Over America tour...an amazing and best tour intro again in my opinion. Additional choices on your list that I also love are Tug of War (the song), How Kind of You, House of Wax, Dear Boy and Dance Till We're High. I was surprised you didn't include Take It Away. I was thinking about that one but I was already at 20. Same thing with Despite Repeated Warnings and Dominoes.
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Just want to thank everyone for their responses. I expected a lot of songs from Paul's 70's, but it was very refreshing to me to see many songs and albums represented from the 80's till now. Although it was a small sampling, it was nice to see albums like Tug of War, Flaming Pie, Chaos and Creation, Memory Almost Full, New and Egypt Station so well represented. It reminded me of just how underrated Paul's Solo and latter period career has been. After No More Lonely Nights (a Nancy selection here) broad radio airplay for Paul pretty much stopped but these lists just show how many great Solo songs Paul has written and performed since his heyday on the charts.
Your combined choices also reminded me of great songs that I missed on my original Top 20. Another song that I had on the back of my mind to include was Pipes of Peace (the song) which I think was the best track on that album. It had great production from George Martin of course. Again, thanks again for your imput.
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B J Conlee wrote:
Yankeefan2 wrote:
B J Conlee wrote:
Similar to a previous Post that asked us to list our the Top 40 of Paul's Post Beatles' songs, but in this case I thought it would be interesting to narrow that list down to the top 20 BEST OF THE BEST Paul songs beginning with his first album McCartney. This list would include all Post Beatle Paul songs including his period with Wings. I am going to start with my own personal Top 20 list. I also decided to narrow my list to songs that are "relatively well known" to Beatle and Paul fans. Songs that have gotten at least some airplay or in other cases, a lot of airplay. I'm not going to include my favorites that I would call highly underrated or generally unknown unless you're a Paul geek like I am.
The general criteria I am using includes: songs written entirely or almost entirely by Paul, final studio performance including vocals, overall melody, creativity (is it unique and doesn't sound like other Paul or Beatle songs) etc.
Here's is my list pretty much in album order.
TOP 20 PAUL MCCARTNEY POST BEATLE SONGS
1. MAYBE I'M AMAZED (MCCARTNEY) ...Album version
2. BAND ON THE RUN (BAND ON THE RUN)
3. UNCLE ALBERT/ADMIRAL HALSEY (RAM)
4. LIVE AND LET DIE (SINGLE)
5. SILLY LOVE SONGS (WINGS AT THE SPEED OF SOUND)
6. WITH A LITTLE LUCK (LONDON TOWN)...album version
7. MULL OF KINTYRE (SINGLE)
8. COMING UP (MCCARTNEY 2)...album version
9. HERE TODAY (TUG OF WAR)
10. WANDERLUST (TUG OF WAR)
11. PUT IT THERE (FLOWERS IN THE DIRT)
12. CALICO SKIES (FLAMING PIE)
13. BEAUTIFUL NIGHT (FLAMING PIE)
14. LITTLE WILLOW (FLAMING PIE)
15. RIDING TO VANITY FAIR (CHAOS)
16. TOO MUCH RAIN (CHAOS)
17. ONLY MAMA KNOWS (MEMORY ALMOST FULL)
18. THE END OF THE END (MEMORY ALMOST FULL)
19, EARLY DAYS (NEW)
20. I DON'T KNOW (EGYPT STATION)
IF I HAD TO NARROW IT DOWN TO A TOP 10, MY LIST FROM ABOVE WOULD BE:
1.MAYBE I'M AMAZED
2.BAND ON THE RUN
3.LIVE AND LET DIE
4.SILLY LOVE SONGS
5.WANDERLUST
6.RIDING TO VANITY FAIR
7.CALICO SKIES
8.BEAUTIFUL NIGHT
9.ONLY MAMA KNOWS
10. I DON'T KNOW
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Maybe I'm Amazed
-
Venus Mars/Rock Show
-
Band On The Run
-
Tug Of War (the song)
-
How Kind Of You
-
Wanderlust
-
About You
-
House Of Wax
-
Too Much Rain
-
Jet
-
Dear Boy
-
Little Willow
-
Dance Til We're High
-
I Can Bet
-
That Was Me
-
My Brave Face
-
Early Days
-
Here Today
-
Despite Repeated Warnings
-
Beware My Love
Great list Yankeefan. You are the one that got me into About You from Driving Rain. Like you, I always wished Paul did a live version of About You on one of his many tours (how many songs have we said that about). Beware My Love is another good choice. The 2nd best song on At the Speed of Sound after Silly Love Songs in my opinion. And I forgot about Venus and Mars. I'm just thinking that a great choice would be coupling Venus and Mars and Jet the way Paul and Wings introduced their Wings Over America tour...an amazing and best tour intro again in my opinion. Additional choices on your list that I also love are Tug of War (the song), How Kind of You, House of Wax, Dear Boy and Dance Till We're High. I was surprised you didn't include Take It Away. I was thinking about that one but I was already at 20. Same thing with Despite Repeated Warnings and Dominoes.
Yes, the opening of the WOA was the best ever !! Jet fit perfectly after Venus and Mars/Rock Show. If this list was my favorite songs , "Take It Away" would be on that list. Since you wanted best songs, it was a close call and lost out to the others I listed. I am glad you like "About You" , it is really a song on that album that flew under the radar and IMO would have been great song to hear live.
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Can't do it. Limiting it to 40 was hard enough.
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B J Conlee wrote:
Bruce M. wrote:
This is impossible, but what the hell, I'll play. This list is approximately chronological as I can't possibly rate these over each other:
Maybe I'm Amazed
Too Many People
Band on the Run
Silly Love Songs
Here Today
Wanderlust
The Pound Is Sinking
Calico Skies
Little Willow
Somedays
Too Much Rain
Riding to Vanity Fair
Mr. Bellamy
Only Mama Knows
The End of the End
Sing the Changes (GENYC live version)
Confidante
Dominoes
Hand in Hand
Do It Now
Great list Bruce. There is not one song on your choices that I don't love. I had Too Many People on my initial Top 20 but changed it out for Uncle Albert because it was such a big hit. I actually like Too Many People better. I also love some of your choices that weren't on my Top 20 like The Pound is Sinking, Somedays, Mr. Bellamy and Sing the Changes. The last one is also a great choice. I hear the GENYC live version on Spotify all the time and it is great. Finally, I love the fact that you have 4 Egypt Station songs in your list. I love them all but I have to say that I Don't Know is still my favorite ES song. I still can't believe that Paul didn't play one of the 5 (including I Don't Know) on his post ES tours. I still shake my head.
Well, as I've said before, I think Egypt Station is his best solo album, by a significant margin. That said, this is so subjective that on any given day I might swap out 4 or 5 of these for others I love nearly as much, depending on my mooed.
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B J Conlee wrote:
Just want to thank everyone for their responses. I expected a lot of songs from Paul's 70's, but it was very refreshing to me to see many songs and albums represented from the 80's till now. Although it was a small sampling, it was nice to see albums like Tug of War, Flaming Pie, Chaos and Creation, Memory Almost Full, New and Egypt Station so well represented. It reminded me of just how underrated Paul's Solo and latter period career has been. After No More Lonely Nights (a Nancy selection here) broad radio airplay for Paul pretty much stopped but these lists just show how many great Solo songs Paul has written and performed since his heyday on the charts.
Your combined choices also reminded me of great songs that I missed on my original Top 20. Another song that I had on the back of my mind to include was Pipes of Peace (the song) which I think was the best track on that album. It had great production from George Martin of course. Again, thanks again for your imput.
Another great song that could have been easily made my Top 20 list is "Only Our Hearts" from the "Kisses" album. I started hearing more of "Only Our Hearts" when I started listening to Spotify's "This is Paul McCartney" Playlist. They include both "Only Our Hearts" and "My Valentine". I remember liking "Only Our Hearts" when I bought the original "Kisses" CD but hearing it again on a regular basis on the Spotify channel got me to really love it. Besides loving Stevie Wonder's fabulous harmonica solo, I also really like Paul's vocal. I didn't love Paul's vocals on all the "Kisses" tracks" but Paul's vocal and phrasing on "Only Our Hearts" was superb in my opinion. I guess I didn't include either "Only Our Hearts" or "My Valentine" on my Top 20 Paul Solo list because the "Kisses" album as a whole was a covers' album. But since Paul wrote both songs, either one in my opinion could arguably make a Macca Best Solo song list. They are both great songs in my opinion.
As a side note to this subject, I have been on a trip with my wife to Chattanooga this week and we have spent a good amount of time in the car. We have been listening to different Playlists in the Adult Contemporary and Easy Listeining genres from the likes of Spotify and Pandora. Unfortunately we haven't heard any Paul songs on these type channels. You hear songs from Eric Clapton (e.g. Change the World), Michael Buble, Norah Jones etc but never Paul. Again, I don't understand why songs like I Don't Know, My Valentine, Only Our Hearts, People Want Peace, Hand in Hand etc. don't fit in with these channels. Yes, you will hear the normal big Paul songs on the Classis Rock channels (MIA, Band on the Run, Live and Let Die etc) but you never hear Paul's ballads on the Easy Listening, Adult Contemporary type playlists. For whatever reason, Paul hardly gets any airplay except for the 4 or 5 songs on the Classic Rock channels. Well anyway I can't complain as we can always Play Paul channels on Spotify. There we can be assured that we can hear some Paul Solo tracks.
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Kestrel wrote:
B J Conlee wrote:
The production on MAF still frustrates me a lot because so many of the songs are so great.
A victim of the 'loudness wars' era unfortunately? Hopefully a future re-mix / remastering project will put right that error of judgement.
I love a lot of the songs on MAF, but I just have to put aside the production in the case of many of them.
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Bruce M. wrote:
Kestrel wrote:
B J Conlee wrote:
The production on MAF still frustrates me a lot because so many of the songs are so great.
A victim of the 'loudness wars' era unfortunately? Hopefully a future re-mix / remastering project will put right that error of judgement.
I love a lot of the songs on MAF, but I just have to put aside the production in the case of many of them.
I don't know enough about the recording process to know who to blame for the bad sound but I did read that it can't be fixed. The harshness is "baked in".
