McCartney II

chronology
McCartney II
Paul McCartney's studio album
Publication ; (s)	May 16, 1980 ( UK ); May 26, 1980 ( US )
Label (s)	Parlophone / EMI (UK); Columbia Records (USA / Canada);
Format (s)	LP , MC , CD , download , app
Genre (s)	Pop , electronica , rock
Title (number)	11
running time	38 min 36 s
occupation	Singing / instruments : Paul McCartney ; Backing vocals: Linda McCartney ; Sound editing: Malcom Davies; Sound engineer : Paul McCartney;
production	Paul McCartney
Studio (s)	McCartney's home studio , Peasmarsh-East Sussex; Spirit of Ranachan Studio, Campbeltown, Scotland;
April 11, 1980	Coming up
June 13, 1980	Waterfalls
September 15, 1980	Temporary Secretary

McCartney II is the third solo studio album by Paul McCartney after McCartney and Ram . At the same time, including the Wings albums, it is Paul McCartney's 13th album since the Beatles broke up . It was released on May 16, 1980 in the UK and May 26, 1980 in the US .

Emergence

The recordings for McCartney II took place after the release of - as it later turned out - the Wings' last album, Back to the Egg , in June / July 1979. It was recorded at McCartney's farm in Scotland and then at the Spirit of Ranachan studio in Campbeltown . The necessary equipment was borrowed for these recordings. McCartney produced, played and sang almost everything themselves. Thus, similar to the album McCartney II album previously released the ten years McCartney regarding the admissions process. After the first recording of the song Check My Machine , 18 more followed. In order to prepare for the upcoming Wings tour in Great Britain in December 1979, the new songs were initially put aside. Only the titles Coming Up and Wonderful Christmastime were performed on the tour .

After the cancellation of a planned Japan tour with the Wings - on arrival marijuana was found in McCartney's luggage , which led to a ten-day prison stay - he decided to publish the previously unpublished recordings from the summer of 1979 in an abridged version.

In November 1979, a McCartney single was released for the first time since 1971 with the title Wonderful Christmastime without the participation of the Wings. This left 18 tracks for an originally planned double album, which should contain the following pieces:

page 1

Front parlor
Frozen Jap
All You Horseriders
Blue Sway

Page 2

Temporary Secretary
On the way
Mr. H. Atom
Summer's Day Song (instrumental version)
You know I'll get you baby
Bogey wobble

Page 3

Darkroom
One of these days
Secret Friend
Bogey Music

page 4

Check My Machine
Waterfalls
Nobody Knows
Coming up

For commercial reasons, however, some titles were canceled before the album was released: Only eleven of the originally planned 19 tracks were used in partly abbreviated and remixed form. The planned double album thus became a simple album. The cover photos for the LP are from his then wife, Linda McCartney .

The final mixing of the songs took place in September and October 1979 at Abbey Road Studios with the help of Eddie Klein. Only the title Summer's Day Song was mixed in October 1979 in the Replica Studio.

Before the release of The Paul McCartney Archive Collection in 2011, the unreleased tracks were only available as bootlegs under the name The Lost McCartney Album in various editions.

Track list

Paul McCartney with son James McCartney, 1980

All eleven titles were written by Paul McCartney.

page 1

Coming Up - 3:52
Temporary Secretary - 3:13
On the Way - 3:36
Waterfalls - 4:41
Nobody Knows - 2:51

Page 2

Front Parlor - 3:30
Summer's Day Song - 3:24
Frozen Jap - 3:38
Bogey Music - 3:25
Darkroom - 2:18
One of These Days - 3:33

Information on individual songs

Waterfalls , originally titled I Need Love , was the only song that was composed before the album was recorded
Nobody Knows and On the Way were inspired by Alexis Korner .
One of these Days was inspired by a member of the Hare Krishna movement .
The title Frozen Jap was on the Japanese editions of the album Frozen Japanese umbetitelt
Temporary Secretary was released in June 2004 on the compilation album Paul McCartney's Glastonbury Groove as a remix under the title Temporary Secretary (Radioslave Mix) .

Re-releases

The album was first released on CD on October 5, 1987. The songs Check My Machine and Secret Friend were added. The CD is accompanied by an illustrated leaflet that can be folded out twice.
In April 1993 the CD was released in a version remastered by Peter Mew . The CD comes with a twelve-page illustrated booklet containing information on the album and the lyrics to the song. The album has the following three bonus songs:
1. Check My Machine - 5:52
2. Secret Friend - 10:30
3. Goodnight Tonight - 4:21
In May 2007 the album was released in download format.
In June 2011, McCartney II , remastered for the second time, was released by the Hear Music / Concord Music Group label as part of The Paul McCartney Archive Collection . The remastering was done by Guy Massey and Steve Rooke at Abbey Road Studios . Allan Rouse was in charge of the project. The CD album has a cardboard cover that can be opened and which is accompanied by a 22-page illustrated booklet containing information about the album and the lyrics to the song. The design comes from the company YES.

The album was released in different formats:

Standard Edition
The original 11-track album.

Special Edition
Two CD`s: The original 11-track album with a bonus CD containing the following - partly previously unreleased - songs:

Blue Sway [With Richard Niles Orchestration] - 4:35
Coming Up [Live At Glasgow, 1979] - 4:08
Check My Machine [Edit] - 5:50
Bogey wobble - 2:59
Secret Friend - 10:31
Mr H Atom / You Know I'll Get You Baby - 5:55
Wonderful Christmastime [Edited Version] - 3:47
All You Horse Riders / Blue Sway - 10:15

Deluxe Edition
The original 11-track album with the bonus CD mentioned above, a 128-page bound book and a DVD with the following content:

Meet Paul McCartney
Coming Up - Music Video
Waterfalls - music video
Wonderful Christmastime - music video
Coming Up - Live at Concert for the People of Kampuchea - 29 December 1979
Coming Up - Taken from a rehearsal session at Lower Gate Farm, 1979
Making the Coming Up Music Video
Blue Sway - Music Video

The edition also contains a code to download the album with the bonus tracks as well as a third CD, which contains seven tracks with unreleased original versions and a shortened DJ version:

Coming Up [Full Length Version] - 5:34
Front Parlor [Full Length Version] - 5:15
Frozen Jap [Full Length Version] - 5:43
Darkroom [Full Length Version] - 3:45
Check My Machine [Full Length Version] - 8:58
Wonderful Christmastime [Full Length Version] - 4:15
Summer's Day Song [Original without vocals] - 3:25
Waterfalls [DJ Edit] - 3:20 am

The album was also released as a vinyl version as a double LP (newly remastered) including the eight bonus tracks.

On July 14, 2014, an iTunes app was released with the following content: eleven songs, eight music videos and an interview with Paul McCartney as well as photos.
On November 17th, 2017, the Capitol Records vinyl album , pressed on 180 grams of clear vinyl, was released.

Single releases

Wonderful Christmastime

On November 16, 1979 (USA: November 26, 1979) the single Wonderful Christmastime / Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reggae was released ; the A-side was recorded during the McCartney II album sessions , while the B-side Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reggae was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in 1975 and released in mono.

The promotional 7 "vinyl single in the US has A-sides on both sides.

The single was re-released in the US in 1994 on red vinyl.

The song Wonderful Christmastime is part of the Special Edition and Deluxe Edition of the McCartney II album with the re-release from 2011 .

Coming up

On April 11, 1980 (USA: April 14, 1980) the single Coming Up / Coming Up (Live in Glasgow) - Lunchbox / Odd Sox was released and became the seventh number one hit for Paul McCartney in the USA. Coming Up (Live in Glasgow) was recorded on December 17, 1979 during the Wings' last tour of Glasgow. Since the live version was mostly played on the radio in the USA, Coming Up is the last Wings single and also their last number one hit. In the USA, the single-sided 7 "vinyl single Coming Up (Live in Glasgow) was added to the McCartney II album . The previously unreleased song Lunchbox / Odd Sox comes from the recording sessions for the album Venus and Mars .

In the US, promotional 12 ″ vinyl singles were distributed to radio stations that included the live and studio versions; the promotion 7 ″ vinyl single contains the studio version on both sides.

In Brazil , the single was released in 12 "format with the A-side Coming Up (Live in Glasgow) .

Waterfalls

The second single, Waterfalls / Check My Machine, took place on June 13, 1980 (USA: July 22, 1980). The B-side was a previously unreleased song from the McCartney II recording sessions.

The promotional 7 "vinyl single in the US contains an abridged version on both sides.

In Brazil, the single was released in 12 ″ format.

Temporary Secretary

On September 12, 1980, the third single, Temporary Secretary / Secret Friend , was released exclusively in Great Britain as a maxi single , it was limited to 25,000 copies. The B-side contained a previously unreleased song from the McCartney II recording sessions.

A single-sided 7 "vinyl promotional single was also produced in Great Britain.

Further single releases

In 1980 the EP McCartney II was released in Bolivia with the following songs: Coming Up / Nobody Knows / Darkroom / One of These Days

Music videos

Music videos were produced for the single A-sides Wonderful Christmastime , Coming Up and Waterfalls .

Chart placements

year	album	Chart placements					annotation
year	album	DE	AT	CH	UK	US	annotation
1980	McCartney II	19th	4th	-	1	3	The album also reached a top ten position in Australia, New Zealand, Norway, France and Japan.
2011	McCartney II (re-release)	-	-	-	108	-
year	Single release	Chart placements					annotation
year	Single release	DE	AT	CH	UK	US	annotation
1979	Wonderful Christmastime Separate single	-	-	-	6th	-	The title also reached number 61 in the New Zealand charts.
1980	Coming Up McCartney II	11	15th	-	2	1	The title also reached number 1 in the Canadian charts, number 2 in the Australian and New Zealand charts.
	Waterfalls McCartney II	55	-	-	9	106	The title also reached number 31 in the Australian and number 15 in the New Zealand charts.
	Temporary Secretary McCartney II	nv	nv	nv	-	nv	The single was only released in the UK.

McCartney II became the fourth number one album for Paul McCartney in the UK.

Sales figures and awards

Country / Region	Award	Sales
Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales)
United States (RIAA)	gold	500,000
United Kingdom (BPI)	gold	100,000
All in all	2 × gold	600,000

style

Due to the numerous experiments with synthesizers and similar instruments and effects that were becoming popular at the time, the titles in McCartney II have a strikingly artificial sound that hardly appears in any of McCartney's previous compositions, but can certainly be found in his other publications in the 1980s. A song concept that does not appear in any previous song by the musician, for example, is that of Temporary Secretary . Due to the basic beat generated by an arpeggiator , an accompaniment structure that has not yet been used is created, which extends over the entire track in very little changed manner. Like McCartney , the album also contains purely instrumental pieces. The two, Front Parlor and Frozen Jap , are mainly carried by their recurring leitmotifs. However, McCartney II also contains songs that are stylistically very similar to the melancholic ballads known for Paul McCartney, such as Waterfalls or Summer's Day Song . Thus, on McCartney II, a high level of stylistic diversity can be recognized, which, in its tried and tested as well as its new aspects, has had an impact on all of McCartney's other musical works.

criticism

source	rating
Allmusic
Pitchfork	7.2 / 10
Robert Christgau	C.

The reviews of the album are particularly divided because of the experimental synthesizer sound. For example, McCartney II was heavily criticized after its appearance by the Rolling Stone critic Stephen Holden . Above all, he criticized the simplicity and the low substance of the record, which in his opinion is based only on sound effects and simple pop music. Robert Christgau disguised the instrumentals on the album as "toothless", the songs are at best pretentious demos .

Contrary to the numerous very low ratings that were given directly after the publication, there are now more and more positive reviews. For example, a review by Joe Tangari on the occasion of the 2011 republication on pitchfork.com consistently praises the interesting song concepts and the numerous underrated songs. He also expressed great astonishment at the surprising topicality of the record compared to modern electronic music.

The McCartney Interview

In April 1980, a promotional interview by Vic Garbarini with Paul McCartney was recorded, and this was published in August 1980 in Musician Player and Listener Magazine . The interview was published in the US on a promotional double album in the US with catalog number Columbia A2S 821. The first album contains the entire interview, while the second album only contains the answers to Paul McCartney's interview questions.

In early December 1980, the album was released in the USA under the title The McCartney Interview and reached number 158 in the US charts. In Great Britain, the interview album was only available on February 23, 1981 and reached number 34 in the charts.

Track list