Much-Bootlegged Paul McCartney & Wings Album Set for Proper Release

Paul McCartney is digging into the vaults to release One Hand Clapping, a much bootlegged but never officially released live-in-the-studio recording by his post-Beatles band Wings.

Titled One Hand Clapping, the 27-track album will be issued as a two-LP vinyl release, two-CD version and will be available for streaming in a Dolby Atmos mix, overseen by Giles Martin and Steve Orchard, on June 14.

The news was officially announced on Tuesday (April 23), though the Facebook account in the name of late Wings guitarist Jimmy McCulloch first posted about the release last week.

In the wake of the success of Band on the Run, which topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic in 1974, McCartney and the then-new lineup of Wings booked time at Abbey Road Studios for a planned video documentary and a possible live-in-the-studio album.

While the film remains on the shelf, the audio version recorded over the four-day sessions will finally be available. It features the new lineup of Wings, which featured new recruits guitarist Jimmy McCulloch and drummer Geoff Britton joining McCartney, Linda McCartney and Denny Laine. Also contributing to the sessions were orchestral arranger Del Newman and saxophonist Howie Casey, whose history with McCartney dated back to his Hamburg days.

The album features an array of material, including the opening "One Hand Clapping" theme as well as live-in-the-studio versions of such hits as "Live and Let Die," "Band on the Run," "Jet," "My Love," "Junior's Farm," as well as McCartney's solo classic "Maybe I'm Amazed," and retooled takes of The Beatles' classics "Let It Be," "The Long and Winding Road" and "Lady Madonna." Additionally, Laine revives his vocal take of the Moody Blues' "Go Now."

While McCartney and company released live versions of much of the material on the 1977 triple-disc chart-topper Wings Over America, the recordings featured on One Hand Clapping will likely be more intimate than those included on the Wings arena-rock collection.

An exclusive version of the two-LP set, available to purchase online, will include a bonus 7-inch single featuring the unreleased track "Blackpool," a take of The Beatles' "Blackbird," Wings B-side "Country Dreamer," and cover versions of Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock" (the first song McCartney played to John Lennon when they met in 1957) and Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue" and "I'm Gonna Love You Too."

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Paul McCartney, Beatles