Pretty Little Head

"Pretty Little Head"
UK front cover
Single by Paul McCartney
from the album Press to Play
B-side	"Write Away" (7") "Write Away" and "Angry" (12")
Released	27 October 1986 (7" and 12") 17 November 1986 (cassette)
Format	7", 12", cassette
Recorded	1985
Genre	Rock
Length	5:14 (album) 3:50 (7") 6:56 (remix) (12" and cassette)
Label	Parlophone
Writer(s)	Paul McCartney and Eric Stewart
Producer	Hugh Padgham and Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney singles chronology
"Press" (1986) "Pretty Little Head" (1986) "Stranglehold" (1986)

"Pretty Little Head" is a 1986 single by Paul McCartney.^[1] It was McCartney's thirty-eighth single, and his first which failed to chart, so, in an attempt to boost sales, he released his first ever cassette single.^[1] It still failed to reach the top 75.^[1]

Reviews of the song, and the album as a whole, were mixed. The song has been described as "wild, hi-tech experimentation",^[2] and as "computer-laiden, spacey-sounding, boomey-drumming, while Rolling Stone magazine described it as "dreamily abstract".^[3]

Versions and video

The single was released at a length of 3:50 on the 7" release, and as a 6:56 remix (mixed by John Potoker) on the 12" release on the same day, 27 October 1986, and an extra track, "Angry", was added to the 12".^[1] The cassette version was the same as the 12", and was released on 17 November 1986.^[1] Both of these lengths are different from the album version, which has a length of 5:14. (See Press to Play).

12" single tracks

1. "Pretty Little Head"
2. "Pretty Little Head" (remix by John Potoker)
3. "Angry" (remix by Larry Alexander)
4. "Write Away"

A music video, directed by Steve Barron, was recorded for the song,^[1] which features a girl running away from home after she witnesses her parents in an argument; she then finds herself in a big city. The girl is actress Gabrielle Anwar. McCartney appears only in a short cameo role, which he filmed in London on 18 October 1986.^[1] The beginning of the video contains an excerpt from "She's Leaving Home" a Beatles song written and performed in 1967, for the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.

"Write Away", the single's B-side, is included only on the CD release of the album, resulting in the back of the single listing the A-side as "From the album" and the B-side as "From the compact disc".^[1]

Notes