Paul McCartney Live Albums Ranked: Which to Buy First
Wings Over America, One Hand Clapping, Amoeba Gig, Paul Is Live, Unplugged, Tripping the Live Fantastic, Back in the US and Good Evening New York City, ranked, with the best formats to buy today.
Paul McCartney's essential live album is still Wings Over America, the triple LP from December 1976 that reached number one in the US. Next come One Hand Clapping (recorded live in the studio at Abbey Road in August 1974, released June 14, 2024) and Amoeba Gig (recorded June 27, 2007, released in full on July 12, 2019). The rest of the official live catalog is Tripping the Live Fantastic (1990), Unplugged (The Official Bootleg) (1991), Paul Is Live (1993), Back in the US (2002) and Good Evening New York City (2009).
Below, each album is listed with the format worth buying today, sorted by approximate price, followed by a ranking and the reasoning behind it. Prices are approximate US street prices, and the 1990s and 2000s titles are easiest to find used.
If you want to see Paul live rather than just hear him, our guide to the best Beatles and McCartney documentaries and Blu-rays includes the Wings concert film Rockshow.
Top 8 for 2026
Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)
Recorded for MTV at Limehouse Studios in London on January 25, 1991 and released that May, Unplugged was the first album to come out of the MTV Unplugged series. Paul and his band (Linda, Hamish Stuart, Robbie McIntosh, Paul Wickens and Blair Cunningham) play acoustic versions of Beatles songs, solo material and rock and roll covers, including I Lost My Little Girl, the first song he wrote, plus And I Love Her, Every Night and Be-Bop-A-Lula. The pressing was limited at the time, hence the title. Used CDs cost about $12 and often less.
Back in the US
Recorded on the 2002 Driving USA tour, Back in the US is the first live album with the band that has backed Paul ever since: Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray on guitars, Abe Laboriel Jr. on drums and Paul "Wix" Wickens on keyboards. It came out in the US in November 2002, with an international version, Back in the World, following in 2003 with a slightly different track list. The set leans heavily on Beatles songs, and the performances are tight and consistent. The 2CD usually costs about $15.
Good Evening New York City
Recorded over three nights at the opening of Citi Field in New York on July 17, 18 and 21, 2009, next to the site of Shea Stadium, Good Evening New York City was issued on Hear Music as a 2CD with a DVD of the concert film. It documents the late-2000s shows well, with a long setlist, an A Day in the Life/Give Peace a Chance medley and Billy Joel guesting on I Saw Her Standing There. Copies are widely available for about $18, good value for two discs plus a film.
Tripping the Live Fantastic
Recorded on the 1989 to 1990 world tour and released in November 1990 on triple LP and 2CD, this was Paul's first live album since Wings Over America. It matters historically because the tour was the first time Paul built his show around Beatles songs, including several the Beatles never played on stage, such as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Hey Jude and The Fool on the Hill. A single-disc Highlights version also exists. The 2CD is easy to find for about $20.
One Hand Clapping (2CD)
Recorded live in the studio at Abbey Road in August 1974, with Paul, Linda, Denny Laine, Jimmy McCulloch and Geoff Britton, One Hand Clapping circulated on bootlegs for decades before its official release on June 14, 2024. The new mix includes 12 tracks that were not in the original film. A 2LP plus 7-inch edition sold through Paul's channels adds solo backyard recordings from the last day of the sessions, including the unreleased Blackpool. The 2CD costs about $25; the 2LP is roughly $40 to $45. See our One Hand Clapping review for the full story.
Amoeba Gig (2LP)
On June 27, 2007, Paul played a surprise free show for a few hundred people at Amoeba Music in Hollywood. A four-track EP, Amoeba's Secret, appeared that year, but the full concert was only released on July 12, 2019, newly remixed by Paul's engineer Steve Orchard, on CD, 180g black 2LP and a limited clear and hazy amber vinyl edition. The small room gives the band a looseness you do not hear in the stadium records, and the setlist draws on Memory Almost Full alongside the standards. About $30 for the black 2LP.
Paul Is Live (2LP)
Recorded on the 1993 New World Tour, Paul Is Live is best known for its cover, a joke on the Abbey Road "Paul is dead" rumor, with Paul crossing the same zebra crossing with his sheepdog Arrow. It was newly remastered at Abbey Road for the July 12, 2019 reissue on 180g black 2LP, CD and limited baby blue and peach vinyl. The performances are polished, and the setlist mixes Off the Ground songs with Beatles titles such as Magical Mystery Tour and Penny Lane. About $30 on black vinyl.
Wings Over America (3LP)
The triple live album from December 1976 reached number one in the US and number 8 in the UK. It captures Wings on the 1975 to 1976 world tour, with Paul, Linda, Denny Laine, Jimmy McCulloch and Joe English plus a four-piece horn section, and includes five Beatles songs: Lady Madonna, The Long and Winding Road, I've Just Seen a Face, Blackbird and Yesterday. After the 2013 Archive Collection deluxe edition, it was reissued on vinyl on July 12, 2019 in black and limited color editions. Expect about $50 to $60 for the black 3LP.
Our Ranking, From Best to Least Essential
1. Wings Over America: the band at its peak, a setlist built on Venus and Mars and Band on the Run, and a sound that still fills a room. 2. One Hand Clapping, for Wings playing live in the studio a few months after Band on the Run. 3. Amoeba Gig, the best modern Paul live record, cut in a room small enough to feel like a club. 4. Unplugged, relaxed and full of rarely played songs.
5. Tripping the Live Fantastic, important as the tour where Paul fully returned to his Beatles songbook. 6. Good Evening New York City, good value with the concert film included. 7. Back in the US, the first record of the band that has backed him ever since. 8. Paul Is Live, enjoyable but the least essential of the eight.
The order below number four is close, and the tour you saw in person will pull any list around. The one firm call is the top: if you own only one McCartney live album, it should be Wings Over America.
Which Format Should You Buy?
For Wings Over America, Amoeba Gig and Paul Is Live, the 2019 vinyl reissues are the obvious choice: Amoeba Gig was newly remixed, Paul Is Live newly remastered at Abbey Road, and all three were pressed on 180g vinyl. Limited colored editions exist, but the black pressings are easier to find and cheaper.
For Unplugged, Tripping the Live Fantastic and Back in the US, used CDs are plentiful and inexpensive, and they are the easiest way to fill gaps. Original vinyl pressings of the early 1990s live albums are scarcer and can be expensive, because vinyl was a small market by then.
Good Evening New York City is best on its original CD and DVD set, since the film is half the appeal. For Wings Over America, the 2013 Archive Collection deluxe box (3CD plus DVD) adds a bonus disc recorded at San Francisco's Cow Palace and the Wings Over the World TV special, which is worth tracking down if you want more of that tour.
What We Left Out and Why
Choba B CCCP (1988) is a set of rock and roll covers recorded live in the studio, not a concert album, even though it was reissued alongside the live titles on July 12, 2019. It was first released only in the Soviet Union, and it is fun, but it does not belong in this ranking.
Concerts for the People of Kampuchea (1981) includes Wings' set from December 29, 1979 at the Hammersmith Odeon, which turned out to be the band's final concert. It is a various-artists album, so it is mentioned here for completists rather than ranked.
We also left out unofficial recordings. There are countless audience and soundboard tapes from every tour, but this list covers official releases only. For the Wings studio albums, see our guide to Wings on vinyl.
How Paul's Live Sound Changed Over Fifty Years
Heard in order, these albums show a musician rethinking his own history. In 1976, Wings Over America kept Beatles songs to five and put the Wings catalog first. By 1989 and 1990, Tripping the Live Fantastic built the show around Beatles songs on a scale he had never attempted before.
From 2002 on, Back in the US and Good Evening New York City show a settled band and a long setlist of well over thirty songs, the model for every tour since. Our McCartney setlist guide tracks how that setlist has changed. The small-room records, Unplugged and Amoeba Gig, show the club performer who grew up playing Hamburg and the Cavern.
One Hand Clapping sits apart. It is a new lineup still settling in, playing for cameras rather than an audience, and its informality is exactly why it holds up.
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