McCartney Remasters Wings Over America

Written by Jon Williams

On May 28, Paul McCartney will re-release Wings Over America, a 2-disc live set originally released in 1976. McCartney’s post-Beatles band Wings recorded their concert from 23 June 1976 at the Forum in Los Angeles. The 28-track album contains many hits from Wings and McCartney’s early solo career, as well as mixing in a few Beatles classics.

This will be the latest release in McCartney’s Archive Collection, a project giving McCartney’s albums a similar remastering treatment that the entire Beatles catalog received in 2009. The first album in this collection was Band on the Run, widely considered to be the best of Sir Paul’s post-Beatles oeuvre, in 2010. This was followed in 2011 by McCartney (his first solo album) and McCartney II (his second “solo” album, released in 1980). Then in 2012, he re-released his 1971 album Ram, which was credited to himself and his wife Linda.

These re-releases are being overseen by Paul McCartney himself, and often include bonus tracks including B-sides, unreleased songs, and live versions.  The schedule for upcoming releases runs through 2016. The exact order seems to be in flux, but the next ones on the list are rumoured to be Venus and Mars and Wings at the Speed of Sound.

Of course, these re-releases aren’t the only things McCartney fans have to look forward to. He’s working on an album of new material with producer Mark Ronson to follow up his 2012 Grammy-winning album Kisses on the Bottom. He’s also embarking on a world tour beginning tomorrow and running through August, with dates in South America, Europe, and both the U.S. and Canada.

With the Beatles’ debut album, Please Please Me, being released in March of 1963, Sir Paul McCartney has been a heavyweight in the music industry for more than fifty years. Make sure you have a broad selection of his music on your shelves for patrons to enjoy.