Back to the Egg

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Back to the Egg
Studio album by Wings
Released	8 June 1979 (UK) 11 June 1979 (US)
Recorded	29 June 1978 - 1 April 1979, McCartney's farm in Scotland; Lympne Castle; Replica and EMI Studios, London
Genre	Rock
Length	42:01
Label	Parlophone/EMI (UK) Columbia (US/Canada)
Producer	Paul McCartney, Chris Thomas
Wings chronology
Wings Greatest (1978) Back to the Egg (1979)
Singles from Back to the Egg
"Old Siam, Sir" Released: 1 June 1979 (UK only) "Getting Closer" Released: 5 June 1979 (Non-UK) 16 August 1979 (UK) "Arrow Through Me" Released: 14 August 1979 (US only) "Rockestra Theme" Released: 1979 (Europe only)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	link
Robert Christgau	C
Rolling Stone	unfavourable link
MusicHound	[1]

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. When McCartney returned to international distribution by EMI in 1985, Back to the Egg and the rest of McCartney's Columbia-era releases moved to Capitol/EMI in the US.

History

After the release of London Town, following the exit of both guitarist Jimmy McCulloch and drummer Joe English, McCartney hired two new members with a view to recording a raw rock and roll album after the soft rock of London Town and getting Wings back on the road. Laurence Juber became the band's final lead guitarist and Steve Holley Wings' last drummer. McCartney also decided to join forces in the studio with Chris Thomas (who had trained as a producer during the recording of The Beatles' 1968 double album The Beatles) for Back to the Egg.

By the end of June 1978, this last incarnation of Wings settled into Spirit of Ranachan Studios on McCartney's farm in Scotland, then moved onto Lympne Castle near Hythe in Kent (not far from McCartney's new home in Peasmarsh, near Rye, Sussex) in September and Abbey Road Studios in October, where McCartney organised a special one-off session. On 3 October, Wings recorded two tracks, "Rockestra Theme" and "So Glad To See You Here" with many celebrity guests under the heading of Rockestra. James Honeyman-Scott of the Pretenders, Hank Marvin of The Shadows, The Who's Pete Townshend, Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones, John Bonham and The Attractions's Bruce Thomas all took part.

Eager to release new material, Wings issued a non-album dance single "Goodnight Tonight" b/w "Daytime Nighttime Suffering" in late March 1979. It became a worldwide Top 5 hit and set the stage for Back to the Egg's release that June (the song would later appear as a bonus track on the CD reissue of McCartney II). With the title a McCartney-ism for getting back to basics, the band considered Back to the Egg the beginning of a new era in their career. It was certainly not intended as their swan song, as the members continued to record together until January 1981.^[2]

Back to the Egg reached #6 in the UK and #8 in the US. Different singles were released in different territories. The lead single in the UK was "Old Siam, Sir" which hit #35. In most other territories, including the US, "Getting Closer" was used instead, reaching #20 in the US. "Getting Closer" was then used as the second single in the UK reaching #60. The second single in the US was "Arrow Through Me", hitting #29, while in France, "Rockestra Theme" was used. Both of these singles used "Old Siam, Sir" as the B-side.

In 1993, Back to the Egg was remastered and reissued on CD as part of "The Paul McCartney Collection" series with "Daytime Nighttime Suffering" ("Goodnight Tonight"'s B-Side) and Paul McCartney's solo 1979 Christmas single "Wonderful Christmastime" b/w "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reggae" as bonus tracks.^[3]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Paul McCartney, except "Again and Again and Again" by Denny Laine. 

Additional tracks

All songs written and composed by Paul McCartney, except "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reggae" by Johnny Marks. 

Music videos

Most of the songs for the album had a music video shot for them (an uncommon thing for an artist to do in the pre-MTV era).

These included:

• "Getting Closer"
• "Spin It On"
• "Again And Again And Again"
• "Old Siam Sir"
• "Arrow Through Me"
• "Winter Rose/Love Awake"
• "Baby's Request"

These videos plus the promo for "Goodnight Tonight" were compiled for a television special, which aired on US television in 1979—and in June 1981 on BBC1 - two years after the album was released.

Also shot around the time of recording the album, the sessions for "Rockestra Theme" and "So Glad To See You Here" were filmed using several Panavision cameras. However this footage didn't see the light of day until the DVD release of Wingspan. In 2007 more outtakes were used for the menu screen on The McCartney Years DVD.

Personnel

• Paul McCartney: lead vocals, backing vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, bass, piano, keyboards, recorder, synthesizers
• Linda McCartney: backing vocals, Mini-Moog, synthesizer, percussion
• Denny Laine: lead vocals (on "Again And Again And Again"), backing vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, bass
• Laurence Juber: backing vocals, lead guitar
• Steve Holly: backing vocals, drums, percussion

Rockestra line-up (tracks 8 & 13)

• Paul McCartney – lead vocals, piano, bass
• David Gilmour – lead guitar
• Denny Laine – lead guitar
• Hank Marvin – lead guitar
• Laurence Juber – lead guitar
• Pete Townshend – rhythm guitar
• Gary Brooker – piano
• John Paul Jones – piano, bass
• Linda McCartney – keyboards
• Tony Ashton – keyboards
• Howie Casey – horns
• Steve Howard – horns
• Thaddeus Richard – horns
• Tony Dorsey – horns
• Bruce Thomas – bass
• Ronnie Lane – bass
• Morris Pert – percussion
• Ray Cooper – percussion
• Speedy Acquaye – percussion
• Tony Carr – percussion
• John Bonham – drums
• Kenney Jones – drums
• Steve Holly – drums

Accolades

Grammy Awards

Charts

Notes

1. ^ Gary Graff & Daniel Durcholz, MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide, Visible Ink Press (Farmington Hills, MI, 1999), p. 731.
2. ^ http://daytrippin.com/2010/10/15/exclusive-ex-wings-guitarist-laurence-juber-talks-about-having-paul-mccartney-as-a-boss/
3. ^ Amazon.com. "Back to the Egg". http://www.amazon.com/Back-Egg-Paul-McCartney/dp/B00000721D/ref=pd_sim_m_3. Retrieved 2010-05-17. 
4. ^ "Past Winners Search". grammy.com. http://www.grammy.com/nominees/search?artist=Billy+Joel. Retrieved 2011-10-03. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. 
6. ^ "austriancharts.at Wings - Back to the Egg" (in German). Hung Medien. http://austriancharts.at/showitem.asp?interpret=Wings&titel=Back+To+The+Egg&cat=a. Retrieved 2011-10-03. 
7. ^ "Top Albums/CDs - Volume 31, No. 20, August 11, 1979". RPM. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?&file_num=nlc008388.4499a&type=1&interval=20&PHPSESSID=c6btf3r8hs459qqt5ln3o3dcv5. Retrieved 2011-10-03. 
8. ^ "dutchcharts.nl Wings - Back to the Egg" (in Dutch). Hung Medien, dutchcharts.nl. MegaCharts. http://dutchcharts.nl/showitem.asp?interpret=Wings&titel=Back+To+The+Egg&cat=a. Retrieved 2011-09-12. 
9. ^ "InfoDisc : Tous les Albums classés par Artiste > Choisir Un Artiste Dans la Liste : Wings". infodisc.fr. http://infodisc.fr/Album_W.php. Retrieved 2011-09-12. 
10. ^ ^{a b} "Hit Parade Italia - Gli album più venduti del 1979" (in Italian). hitparadeitalia.it. http://www.hitparadeitalia.it/hp_yenda/lpe1979.htm. Retrieved 2011-10-03. 
11. ^ a-ビートルズ "- Yamachan Land (Archives of the Japanese record charts) - Albums Chart Daijiten - The Beatles" (in Japanese). 2007-12-30. http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~yamag/album/al_beatles.html a-ビートルズ. Retrieved 2011-09-14. 
12. ^ "charts.org.nz - Wings - Back to the Egg". Hung Medien, charts.org.nz. Recording Industry Association of New Zea Land. http://charts.org.nz/showitem.asp?interpret=Wings&titel=Back+To+The+Egg&cat=a. Retrieved 2011-10-03. 
13. ^ "norwegiancharts.com Wings - Back to the Egg". Hung Medien, norwegiancharts.com. VG-lista. http://norwegiancharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Wings&titel=Back+To+The+Egg&cat=a. Retrieved 2011-09-12. 
14. ^ "swedishcharts.com Wings - Back to the Egg" (in Swedish). Hung Medien, swedishcharts.com. Sverigetopplistan. http://swedishcharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Wings&titel=Back+To+The+Egg&cat=a. Retrieved 2011-10-03. 
15. ^ "Chart Stats - Wings - Back to the Egg". UK Albums Chart. http://www.chartstats.com/release.php?release=4665. Retrieved 2011-10-03. 
16. ^ "allmusic ((( Back to the Egg > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums )))". allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r12652/charts-awards. Retrieved 2011-07-03. 
17. ^ "Album Search: Wings" (in German). Media Control. http://www.charts.de/search.asp?search=wings&x=0&y=0&cat=a&country=de. Retrieved 2011-10-03. 
18. ^ "RPM Top 100 Albums of 1979". RPM. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?&file_num=nlc008388.6920&type=1&interval=20&PHPSESSID=c6btf3r8hs459qqt5ln3o3dcv5. Retrieved 2011-10-03. 
19. ^ "Les Albums (CD) de 1979 par InfoDisc" (in French) (PHP). infodisc.fr. http://www.infodisc.fr/B-CD_1979.php. Retrieved 2012-01-29. 
20. ^ "Complete UK Year-End Album Charts". http://chartheaven.9.forumer.com/a/complete-uk-yearend-album-charts_post21.html. Retrieved 2011-10-03. 
21. ^ "Canadian album certifications – Wings – Back to the Egg". Music Canada. http://www.musiccanada.com/GPSearchResult.aspx?st=Back+to+the+Egg&sa=Wings&smt=0. 
22. ^ "British album certifications – Wings – Back to the Egg". British Phonographic Industry. http://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/search.aspx.  Enter Back to the Egg in the field Search. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Click Go
23. ^ "American album certifications – Wings – Back to the Egg". Recording Industry Association of America. http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?artist=%22Back+to+the+Egg%22.  If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH