History Music / Wings

Wings was ''very'' popular in its time, in good part because Paul [=McCartney=] was in it. The most successful Wings studio albums are credited to "Paul [=McCartney=] and Wings." ''Wings Over America'' -- the only complete Wings tour album -- was also a hot seller. It was also a successful touring band despite technical difficulties (notably Linda's singing) and Paul's reluctance to sing Beatles songs. The first Wings tour had no Beatles songs at all, even though that meant there wasn't much material to work with. By ''Wings Over America'', there was about one record-side worth -- still considered avoiding Beatles songs at the time, and ''much'' fewer than he does now, but objectively respectable when you consider how many hits Wings had between 1972 and 1976...

* ''Wild Life,'' 1971
* ''Red Rose Speedway,'' 1973 (there were three singles between those two albums)
* ''Band on the Run,'' late 1973. Their most popular and well-known album.
* ''Venus and Mars,'' 1975
* ''Wings at the Speed of Sound,'' 1976
* ''Wings Over America,'' 1976. This was a triple LiveAlbum.
* '' London Town,'' 1978
* '' Wings Greatest,'' 1979. This also contains Paulian solo work predating Wings.
* ''Back to The Egg,'' 1979.
* ''Concert for Kampuchea,'' 1979 (though Paul didn't realize it until it was released).
* ''Wingspan,'' 2001. This also contains solo material both pre-dating and post-dating Wings -- which is not quite as silly as it looks, since Denny Laine helped with ''Tug of War'' and ''Pipes of Peace.''

* YokoOhNo -- Linda. Even she wasn't crazy about her being in the band.

* Creator/{{Hipgnosis}}: Did the cover art for ''Venus and Mars'', ''Wings at the Speed of Sound'', ''Wings Over America'' and ''London Town''.

* ''Venus and Mars,'' 1974
* ''Wings at the Speed of Sound,'' 1975
* ''Wings Over America,'' 1976. This was a triple album.

* IncrediblyLamePun -- some Wings songs are built off this.
* InsultBackfire -- this trope is what makes "Silly Love Songs" more than ''just'' one of Paul's SillyLoveSongs.

-->'''Hypnotic Deprogammer''': I ''did'' get Paul [=McCartney=] out of Wings.
-->'''Homer''': You ''idiot''! He was ''[[IAmTheBand the most talented one]]!!!''
-->--''TheSimpsons''

Wings is the first band PaulMcCartney was in after he left TheBeatles. It was active from 1971 to (very) early 1980. Announcements of its disbandment were released in 1981.

Wings is now considered IAmTheBand for Paul [=McCartney=], though he was in denial about it at the time -- enough that many supporting band members did get the occasional song. The core members were Paul [=McCartney=], his wife Linda [=McCartney=], and Denny Laine (best known for this and for leaving TheMoodyBlues ''just'' [[ThePeteBest before they really made it big]]). Other members came and went.

* {{Synthesizeritis}} -- but it's an argument for TropesAreNotBad

* {{Earworm}} -- this band was successful for so long for a reason.

* ''Band on the Run,'' late 1973

* MisattributedSong -- The theme to ''LiveAndLetDie'' is often mistakenly attributed to the Beatles.
** One classical pops CoverAlbum for TheBeatles included "Mull of Kintyre"(!).
** By the same token, just about anything Paul did after leaving the Beatles (except for post-''Anthology'' stuff) will be attributed to Wings. It doesn't help that compilations tend to make little distinction between Wings and Paul on his own; they all include songs from both "artists" regardless of what the focus of the compilation is supposed to be. ''All The Best!'' is officially a Paul [=McCartney=] album, but over half the songs are by Wings. ''Wingspan'' features quite a few songs which are Paul solo or Paul and Linda. Even ''Wings Greatest'' includes Paul solo and Paul & Linda.

* FaceOfTheBand -- Paul

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Wings_1976_4732.jpg
[[caption-width:350:Wings circa 1976. Left to right: Joe English, Denny Laine, Linda [=McCartney=], Jimmy [=McCulloch=], Paul [=McCartney=].]]

* {{Synthesizeritis}} -- but it's almost an argument for TropesAreNotBad

* TheScrappy:
-->''Q: What do you call a dog with wings?''\\
''A: Linda [=McCartney=].''

Denny Laine has also toured with a band called Wings. Fans of Paul [=McCartney=] who are aware of this usually [[FanonDiscontinuity pretend they aren't.]]

* FunnyAneurysmMoment -- Both of the songs Jimmy [=McCulloch=] wrote and sang for the band, "Medicine Jar" and "Wino Junko" carried strong anti-drug messages. After leaving the band, he would die of a drug overdose.

* FanonDiscontinuity (see above)

* ADayInTheLimelight -- The non-Paul songs. ''Wings at the Speed of Sound'' is notable in that every band member had at least one song on the album. Other examples are "Medicine Jar" from ''Venus and Mars'', sung by Jimmy [=McCulloch=], and "Children, Children" and "Deliver Your Children" from ''London Town'', sung by Denny Laine.

Linda [=McCartney=] was in Wings because Paul wanted her there. She sang back-up vocals (everyone did) and played keyboards. In the beginning, she was no good at all -- which was unfortunate because, even when touring random colleges in the beginning, Wings hit the spotlight. Eventually, her singing became more tolerable -- at the band's peak, she was very good at Moog synthesizer. This may seem silly, , but Wings used a lot of synthesizer. And the band usually used it well. Plus using a synth back then was no breeze. They were all analog, so no presets and often just getting sound was enough of a challenge.

* {{Narm}}

Linda [=McCartney=] was in Wings because Paul wanted her there. She sang back-up vocals (everyone did) and played keyboards. In the beginning, she was no good at all -- which was unfortunate because, even when touring random colleges in the beginning, Wings hit the spotlight. Eventually, her singing became more tolerable -- at the band's peak, she was very good at Moog synthesizer. This may seem silly (Moogs aren't anywhere as sophisticated as what we have now), but Wings used a lot of synthesizer. And the band usually used it well.

* CallBack: "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five", the last song on the Band on the Run album, ends with a reprise of the chorus from "Band on the Run".

Wings is now considered IAmTheBand for Paul [=McCartney=], though he was in denial about it at the time -- enough that many supporting band members did get the occasional song. The core members were Paul [=McCartney=], his wife Linda [=McCartney=], and Denny Laine (best known for this and [[ThePeteBest for leaving The Moody Blues ''just'' before they really made it big]]). Other members came and went.

[[caption-width:350:Wings circa 1976.]]

---> ''TheSimpsons''

The history of Wings has been recorded in {{documentary}} form in the special {{Wingspan}}, released the same time as the double album of that name. Unfortunately, it was released too late to contain much input from Linda. This was the last major project Paul completed before he became an item with Heather Mills.

Wings is the first band Paul [=McCartney=] was in after he left TheBeatles. It was active from 1971 to (very) early 1980. Announcements of its disbandment were released in 1981.

Denny Laine has also toured with a band called Wings. Fans of Paul [=McCartney=] usually consider this DisContinuity.

*DisContinuity (see above)

*EditedForSyndication -- "With a Little Luck" everywhere because of time and synths...

-->''Q: What do you call a dog with wings?''

-->''A: Linda [=McCartney=].''