It took me awhile to get back to this, but I did remember.
John Lennon released eight studio albums over his solo
career. (I’m not counting Two Virgins, Life With the Lions, or The Wedding Album, which are more aural
collages than anything else; I am counting Double
Fantasy and Milk and Honey, which
are John and Yoko Ono albums and contain an equal number of songs from
each.) My piece
on Lennon’s greatest hits sets listed 16 anthologies/hits sets to choose
from (most of which are now out of print, but they were around at one time or
another).
Paul McCartney has released 24 studio albums over his solo
career. (These are pop/rock albums under
his name; I’m not including his five classical albums, an early soundtrack, or
albums released under pseudonyms like Percy “Thrills” Thrillington or The
Fireman.) And the number of
anthologies/hits sets Paul’s dropped during that time? Four.
(Well, more or less.)
Go figure. But it
sure makes writing this a lot easier. It
helps that all four are still available for download (the most recent just
arrived a few months ago).
Now, the bad news.
I’m guessing McCartney himself is the one who’s compiling his hits sets
(or at least he has to approve them), because there are some running threads
through all four:
- No Beatles songs whatsoever (not surprisingly); nothing Paul didn’t write himself (a little more surprisingly, since he’s had a few nifty remakes).
- Different versions depending on location (especially All the Best!, which has a completely different configuration in the UK and Canada than in the US).
- Not in chronological order.
- Important non-album songs are missing. Three songs that appeared only on singles – “Give Ireland Back to the Irish” and “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” both from 1972, and Paul’s last top 10 hit, the otherwise innocuous “Spies Like Us” movie theme – are utterly unavailable for download as a result. (Neither is “Wonderful Christmastime” – a song I personally can’t stand – but that’s at least on McCartney II and a few Christmas anthologies.) The live version of “Maybe I’m Amazed” – the one that actually hit the top 10 – isn’t on any of these sets either; only the studio version. And there are a few other lesser songs that didn’t make any of the hits sets but are still on their studio albums. Still, no matter what you think of those first three songs, to not have three fairly big hits in both territories unavailable anywhere either means Paul hates them or somebody’s not paying attention.
- None of them are complete (mostly as a result of missing some of those non-album tracks, but there's generally a couple of hits missing on every set).
So if you’re living in the UK or Canada, it’s probably best
to get that edition of All the Best! There are two songs missing from that version
on the American one: “Uncle
Albert/Admiral Halsey” (which was not released as a single in the UK, although
it hit #1 in Canada), and “Junior’s Farm” (#16 in the UK, #10 in Canada, #3 in
the US). In exchange, you get “Mull of
Kintyre” (which was a monster #1 hit in the UK, but relegated to the B-side of
the nonentity “Girls’ School” here), “Pipes of Peace” (the only thing worth
hearing from that album), and two songs that were top 10 in the UK but weren’t
released here in the States: “We All
Stand Together” and “Once Upon a Long Ago.”
Over here, I’ll reluctantly guide you toward spending a lot
of money. (I did the same thing with
Lennon, so I suppose it’s only fair.)
The deluxe edition, available on disk by Amazon for $31.66
and for download at $33.49 ($34.99 on iTunes), has 67 songs, and is as close to
complete as we’re apparently going to get.
To make sure we’re good and confused, there’s also a 39-song, two-disk
set ($18.99 for the download on Amazon and $19.99 on iTunes), which has a lot
of the essentials, but not everything. If you want a complete overview, make sure you get one labeled “Deluxe Edition” with 67 songs – this is especially
important on Amazon, which has done a lazy job of differentiating the two. I suppose you want to save money, you could
get the cheap version and download a few extra songs to fill in the gaps.
Here’s what’s available beyond that (links are to the
Wikipedia entries):
Wings’ Greatest (1978) – a farewell gift to Capitol Records before Paul temporarily split for Columbia, this 12-song set was perfectly okay, but three major hits (“Helen Wheels,” “Venus and Mars/Rock Show,” and the #1 “Listen to What the Man Said”) are missing. So this could have be an all-encompassing double vinyl album – and it still could be an all-encompassing single-disk CD if anybody cared to update the track listing. Apparently out of print on disk (well, Amazon wants $54.19 for a new copy – used copies are pretty easy to find), $11.49 for the download on Amazon, $11.99 on iTunes.
All the Best! (1987)
– basically an updated version of Wings’
Greatest, with most of Paul’s biggest hits from the subsequent nine years
(excluding “Take It Away” and the aforementioned “Spies Like Us”). Same prices online as Wings’ Greatest means this is the best of the one-disk
options. $39.00 for the physical disk
means Amazon doesn’t want you to buy that format.
Wingspan: Hits
and History (2001) – well, if you felt like you needed more from the
1970-1984 era than All the Best!,
here ya go. But for a two-disk set
containing more, it means more album cuts and songs Paul likes. “Take It Away” makes the grade here, but none
of the other non-album tracks did, and both of Paul’s early ‘80s duets, “Ebony
and Ivory” and “Say Say Say” are here either, despite their being gigantic
hits. (It’s possible Paul was angry with
Michael Jackson over losing the Beatles’ publishing catalog to him, but then
why blame Stevie Wonder?). Moreover,
there’s nothing he recorded after 1984 – I admit he hasn’t had a lot of big
hits in the States since then, but why not throw a few of the lesser charting
songs in? $18.99 for download on Amazon
and $19.99 on iTunes. I’d probably lean
toward the two-disk Pure McCartney
than this one, which is both better selected and has both of the duets.
In case you want to make a comparison between all these
albums, here’s a list:
Song Title
|
UK Peak
|
US Peak
|
Wings Greatest
|
All the Best! (UK /
Canada)
|
All the Best! (USA)
|
Wingspan
|
Pure McCartney (39
tracks)
|
Pure McCartney (67
tracks)
|
Another
Day
|
2
|
5
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Uncle
Albert/Admiral Halsey
|
-
|
1
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
The
Back Seat of My Car
|
39
|
-
|
||||||
Give
Ireland Back to the Irish
|
16
|
21
|
||||||
Mary
Had a Little Lamb
|
9
|
28
|
||||||
Hi Hi
Hi
|
5
|
10
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|||
C Moon
|
5
|
10
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|||
My Love
|
9
|
1
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Live
and Let Die
|
9
|
2
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Helen
Wheels
|
12
|
10
|
Yes
|
|||||
Jet
|
7
|
7
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Band on
the Run
|
3
|
1
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Junior's
Farm
|
16
|
3
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
||
Sally G
|
-
|
17
|
||||||
Listen
to What the Man Said
|
6
|
1
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Letting
Go
|
41
|
39
|
||||||
Venus
and Mars/Rock Show
|
-
|
12
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
||||
Silly
Love Songs
|
2
|
1
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Let 'Em
In
|
2
|
3
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Maybe
I'm Amazed (live)
|
28
|
10
|
||||||
Seaside
Woman
|
-
|
59
|
||||||
Mull of
Kintyre
|
1
|
-
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Girls'
School
|
-
|
33
|
||||||
With a
Little Luck
|
5
|
1
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
I've
Had Enough
|
42
|
25
|
||||||
London
Town
|
60
|
39
|
||||||
Goodnight
Tonight
|
5
|
5
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Old
Siam, Sir
|
35
|
-
|
||||||
Getting
Closer
|
60
|
20
|
||||||
Arrow
Through Me
|
-
|
29
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
||||
Wonderful
Christmastime
|
6
|
-
|
||||||
Coming
Up/Coming Up (Live at Glasgow)
|
2
|
1
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Waterfalls
|
9
|
-
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
||||
Ebony
and Ivory [with Stevie Wonder]
|
1
|
1
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
||
Take It
Away
|
15
|
10
|
Yes
|
|||||
Tug of
War
|
53
|
53
|
Yes
|
|||||
The
Girl Is Mine [with Michael Jackson]
|
8
|
2
|
||||||
Say Say
Say [with Michael Jackson]
|
2
|
1
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
||
Pipes
of Peace
|
1
|
-
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
||
So Bad
|
-
|
23
|
||||||
No More
Lonely Nights
|
2
|
6
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
We All
Stand Together
|
3
|
-
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
||||
Spies
Like Us
|
13
|
7
|
||||||
Press
|
25
|
21
|
Yes
|
|||||
Stranglehold
|
-
|
81
|
||||||
Only
Love Remains
|
34
|
-
|
||||||
Once
Upon a Long Ago
|
10
|
-
|
Yes
|
|||||
Ferry
Cross the Mersey [with The Christians, et al]
|
1
|
-
|
||||||
My
Brave Face
|
18
|
25
|
||||||
The One
|
18
|
94
|
||||||
Figure
of Eight
|
42
|
92
|
||||||
Put It
There
|
32
|
-
|
||||||
Birthday
(live)
|
29
|
-
|
||||||
All My
Trials
|
35
|
-
|
||||||
Hope of
Deliverance
|
18
|
83
|
||||||
C'Mon
People
|
41
|
-
|
||||||
Young
Boy
|
19
|
-
|
||||||
The
World Tonight
|
23
|
64
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
||||
Beautiful
Night
|
25
|
-
|
Yes
|
|||||
No
Other Baby
|
42
|
-
|
||||||
From a
Lover to a Friend
|
45
|
-
|
||||||
Freedom
|
-
|
97
|
||||||
Tropic
Island Hum
|
21
|
-
|
||||||
Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [with U2]
|
-
|
48
|
||||||
Fine
Line
|
20
|
-
|
Yes
|
|||||
Jenny
Wren
|
22
|
-
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
||||
Dance
Tonight
|
26
|
26
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
||||
Ever
Present Past
|
85
|
-
|
||||||
Wonderful
Christmastime [2007 rerelease]
|
44
|
-
|
||||||
Wonderful
Christmastime [2011 rerelease]
|
72
|
-
|
||||||
He
Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother [with The Justice Collective]
|
1
|
-
|
||||||
Only
One [with Kanye West]
|
28
|
35
|
||||||
FourFiveSeconds
[with Rihanna and Kanye West]
|
3
|
4
|
||||||
All Day
[with Kanye West et al]
|
18
|
15
|
