Paul McCartney & Wings: Band on the Run 50th Anniversary Edition Out Now

Paul McCartney & Wings
Band on the RunÂ 50th Anniversary Edition
Featuring Previously Unreleased âUnderdubbedâ Mixes
Album Out Now –Â Listen Here
Listen To Title Track âBand on the Run â Underdubbed MixâÂ Here

The expanded 50th anniversary edition of Paul McCartney & Wingsâ iconic Band on the Run is released today via MPL and UMe.

A fixture of all-time greatest album lists for decades, the multiple GRAMMY-winning #1 smash was originally released in December of 1973. Featuring the immortal title track, worldwide hit âJet,â the wistful âBluebird,â longtime live staple âLet Me Roll It,â the multi-faceted âPicassoâs Last Words (Drink to Me)â and climactic closer âNineteen Hundred and Eighty Five,â Band on the Run is undoubtedly Wingsâ most successful and celebrated release ever.

The 50th anniversary edition has already received high critical praise, selected as a âMust-have reissueâ by the Sunday Times and awarded five stars in MOJO, described as âWingsâ future-facing magnum opus, refreshed and underdubbed for 2024â. Uncut Magazine said, “fifty years on, Macca’s miracle continues to define his essence,” in a 10/10 album review, and the Associated Press heralded “still sounds fresh and exciting today, a half century later.â

The 50th anniversary edition of Band on the Run is available in a variety of formats, beginning with the essential 1LP. This special vinyl edition was cut at half speed using a high-resolution transfer of the original master tapes from 1973 by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios, London. The single vinyl album configuration mirrors the US tracklist, which features the song âHelen Wheels,â and includes a Linda McCartney Polaroid poster.

The 2LP vinyl edition features the original US album, remastered at half speed, and a second LP titled âUnderdubbedâ Mixes Edition, housed in a premium slipcase. The set also includes two Linda McCartney Polaroid posters.

A 2CD format features the original US album, âunderdubbedâ mixes, and a double-sided fold-out Polaroid poster taken by Linda McCartney. Band on the Run (Underdubbed) is also released digitally.

Speaking about the âUnderdubbedâ version Paul said:

âThis is Band on the Run in a way youâve never heard before. When you are making a song and putting on additional parts, like an extra guitar, thatâs an overdub. Well, this version of the album is the opposite, underdubbed.â

Band on the Run (Underdubbed) presents Band on the Runâs nine classic songs for the first time without any orchestral overdubs, available digitally. The previously unreleased rough mixes were created by Geoff Emerick, assisted by Pete Swettenham at AIR Studios, on 14th October 1973. The tracklist, newly ordered as detailed below, mirrors the original analog tapes discovered in the MPL archives.

Finally, Band on the Run is now available in Dolby ATMOS for the first time, newly mixed by Giles Martin and Steve Orchard.

Of the countless classic albums Paul McCartney has released throughout his illustrious career, Wingsâ Band on the Run holds a place of particularly high esteem. The album not only delivered on the promise of Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway, it consolidated Wingsâ status as standard bearers of â70s rock ânâ roll. As the soundtrack for a decade defined by the rock radio playlists it dominated, Band on the Run would set the bar not only for Paulâs future efforts but also for generations of arena rock stars.

Exactly 50 years after its release, Band on the Run sounds as vibrant and relevant as ever, and in reaching this magnificent milestone, deserves its amazing story to be celebrated one more time.

By the summer of 1973, Paul had a fresh batch of songs earmarked for a new album. Looking through a list of EMIâs international studios, he chose Lagos, Nigeria, to be the location of its recording, becoming enthralled with the idea of recording in Africa. Just days before departure, lead guitarist Henry McCullough and drummer Denny Seiwell quit the band. Wings were now, suddenly, a trio. Paul, his wife Linda, and band member Denny Laine (along with recording engineer Geoff Emerick) toiled in the Lagos studioâs relatively rudimentary conditions, working up the new songs over two months. Disaster struck one night when Paul and Linda were robbed at knifepoint while walking home from a friendâs house, the thieves making off with a cassette of home demo recordings of the songs. Paul was able to remember the songs as heâd only recently written them.

Noted for its suite-like structure of three distinct movements, the title track âBand on the Runâ was not an obvious pop hit, but it would top the US Billboard Hot 100 and propel its parent album back up the charts, becoming a #1 smash in both the US and UK, returning to the top spot twice more in America, and becoming the best-selling studio album of 1974 in Australia, Canada, and the UK.

Band on the Run has only grown in stature over the years. After scooping two Grammy Awards in 1975, the Deluxe Edition of Band on the Run was awarded a third in 2012âfollowed by the albumâs induction into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2013. It is considered the definitive Wings album and a firm fan favorite as new generations discover its genius. It took until 2010 for âNineteen Hundred and Eighty Fiveâ to be performed live, but now, as Paulâs solo career continues unabated, it is a regular presence in his live sets.

Paul recently performed songs from Band on the Run and across his unparalleled catalog at shows on his acclaimed Got Back tour. First launching in February 2022, Paul completed 16 huge gigs across the US before performing what the Times newspaper described as the âbest gig everâ with his history-making headline set at Glastonbury in June 2022, a show that also saw Paul team with Dave Grohl for a special duet of âBand on the Runâ.

The latest leg of the Got Back tour saw Paul return to Australia for his first live performances there in six years before huge sold-out stadium shows across Mexico and Brazil.

2LP / 2CD Track list

Disc One
Band on the Run