Trivia / Wings (Band)

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• Banned in China: Some Wings songs were blocked from airing on BBC radio; the reasons were either drug references or political references. Some of those songs hit the top of the British charts anyway.
• Channel Hop: The band were originally signed to Apple Records, carrying on from The Beatles' stint on the label after they founded it. In 1975, they moved to Capitol Records in conjunction with Paul McCartney's new vanity imprint, MPL Communications, as Apple's distribution contract with EMI was due to expire the next year, which would result in the label being absorbed by the company. In 1979, they moved again to Columbia Records in the US and Canada, though remained under EMI's wing elsewhere. The Columbia contract would extend to McCartney's solo career until 1985, when he moved back to Capitol and took the Wings catalog with him.
• Edited for Syndication: "With a Little Luck". The full 5:45 album version was included on the single, but a special 3:13 edit was sent to radio, excising the long synth-based instrumental bridge. Despite this, all compilations aside from Wingspan and the US edition of All the Best use the full version.
• Executive Meddling: The first British edition of Band on the Run didn't include "Helen Wheels." That idea came from a Capitol Records exec. Adding the song didn't hurt the album any.
• Paying Their Dues: Paul McCartney insisted that the band's first tour should be low-profile barely-promoted gigs on university campuses and the like, to ensure they properly learned the ropes of performing together as an ensemble without the pressures and privileges of his star power.
• Referenced by...: In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean, the second form of Enrico Pucci's Stand which has the power of gravity manipulation, C-Moon, is named after the Wings single of the same name.
• Troubled Production:
  • Famously so for Band on the Run. Henry McCullough and Denny Seiwell quit during rehearsals, reducing the band to a McCartney-Laine-McCartney trio. Wanting a Vacation, Dear Boy experience for the album, Paul looked up EMI studios in exotic locales and found one in Lagos, Nigeria, which he booked up, unaware that the country, still recovering from a civil war, was in a state of economic and social turmoil. When they got there they were appalled to see the studio was a jumble of outdated equipment, including faulty air conditioning, which led Paul to pass out from heatstroke at one point. Then there was controversy when local musicians accused Wings of coming to the country to appropriate local musical styles (which they strenuously denied). The low point came when, ignoring warnings about doing so, Paul and Linda went out for a walk at night and were robbed at knifepoint, with the thieves taking a songbook and demo tapes.
  • "My Love" was a bit of a struggle to record, because Paul decided to record the band and the song's 50-piece orchestra together at the same time, contrary to the almost universal pop music standard of dubbing orchestral parts in separately. After 20 takes of the song the musicians were so worn out they flat-out told Paul they were quitting for the night.

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