Wings: The Full Story of the Band

1971: Starting Again From Nothing

Wings formed in 1971 with Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, former Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine and drummer Denny Seiwell, who had played on Ram. The band's first album, Wild Life, came out in December 1971, and over the next decade Wings released a run of albums that included five consecutive US No.1s, from Red Rose Speedway to Wings Over America, before Denny Laine's departure in April 1981 brought the story to an end.

The start was deliberately modest. Paul had come out of the Beatles with a High Court action against his former bandmates behind him and a critical mauling for Ram. Rather than hire session stars, he built a real band, including his wife, who had never played keyboards professionally. Paul has said the name came to him in September 1971 while he waited at the hospital during Stella's difficult birth. The official launch was a party at the Empire Ballroom in Leicester Square in November 1971, and the debut album, recorded quickly at Abbey Road that summer, was greeted coolly.

The point was to learn to be in a group again from the ground up. There were no Beatles songs in the early sets, no big venues and no press campaign beyond the launch party. The band had to earn its audience rather than rely on Paul's name, and the first two years show it doing exactly that, one small hall at a time.

Linda took the brunt of the early criticism, much of it unfair. She had to learn keyboards in public, on stage, in front of audiences who had come to judge an ex-Beatle. By the mid-1970s her harmonies and keyboard parts were a defining part of the Wings sound.

1972 to 1973: Vans, Universities and the First Hits

Guitarist Henry McCullough joined in January 1972, and in February Wings set off on one of the strangest tours any ex-Beatle has undertaken. The band drove around the UK in a van and turned up unannounced at universities, asking whether they could play that night. The first show was at Nottingham University on 9 February 1972. There were eleven shows in all, with no Beatles songs in the set.

A longer European tour followed in the summer of 1972, with the band and family travelling on an open-top double-decker bus. Paul was learning how to front a band again in small halls, and the singles were varied: 'Give Ireland Back to the Irish', which the BBC banned, the nursery-rhyme 'Mary Had a Little Lamb', and 'Hi, Hi, Hi', also banned by the BBC.

In 1973 the band broke through commercially. 'My Love' reached No.1 in the US, Red Rose Speedway topped the US album chart, and the James Bond theme 'Live and Let Die', produced by George Martin, became one of Paul's biggest songs. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song and has been a fixture of his concerts ever since, pyrotechnics included.

Lagos and Band on the Run

Just before the band was due to fly to Nigeria to record at EMI's studio in Lagos in August 1973, Henry McCullough and Denny Seiwell both quit. Paul, Linda and Denny Laine went anyway, with engineer Geoff Emerick. In Lagos the trio faced a studio that was less equipped than they had expected, a mugging in which demo tapes and lyrics were stolen, and a health scare when Paul collapsed during a session. The recordings were finished at AIR Studios in London, with orchestral arrangements by Tony Visconti.

Band on the Run, released in December 1973, went to No.1 in both the UK and the US and became the album that restored Paul's critical standing. The title track became a US No.1 single in 1974, and the album won the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus. Its cover photograph, shot by Clive Arrowsmith, gathered the three band members with celebrities including Michael Parkinson, James Coburn and Christopher Lee in convict costume against a prison wall.

For the 50th anniversary edition and which version sounds best, see our Band on the Run 50th anniversary review.

1974 to 1976: The Classic Touring Line-Up

After Lagos, Wings rebuilt. Young Scottish guitarist Jimmy McCulloch joined in 1974, with drummer Geoff Britton. That line-up recorded 'Junior's Farm' in Nashville and was filmed performing at Abbey Road in August 1974 for One Hand Clapping, a studio film finally given an official release in June 2024; our One Hand Clapping review covers it. Britton left during the Venus and Mars sessions in New Orleans in early 1975 and was replaced by American drummer Joe English.

Venus and Mars (1975) and Wings at the Speed of Sound (1976) both reached No.1 in the US, and 'Silly Love Songs' finished as Billboard's No.1 single of 1976 on the year-end chart. Speed of Sound was the most democratic Wings album, with every member taking a lead vocal.

The Wings Over the World tour ran from September 1975 to October 1976 across Britain, Australia, Europe and North America, and it was the first time Paul played Beatles songs on stage since 1966. The US leg included a show at the Seattle Kingdome on 10 June 1976, attended by about 67,000 people, a record for an indoor concert at the time, and a UNESCO benefit in Venice's St Mark's Square on 25 September 1976. The triple live album Wings Over America followed in December 1976 and reached No.1 in the US.

The tour was also filmed. Footage shot on the US leg, including the Seattle Kingdome show, became the concert film Rockshow, released in 1980 and later restored for home video. Between Wings Over America and Rockshow, fans have an unusually complete record of this line-up on stage: McCulloch's lead guitar, English's heavy drumming and a four-piece horn section including Liverpool saxophonist Howie Casey gave Paul a genuine rock band behind him.

1977 to 1979: Mull of Kintyre, London Town and Back to the Egg

Jimmy McCulloch and Joe English left in 1977, reducing Wings to the trio once again. That trio recorded the biggest single of the band's career. 'Mull of Kintyre', a waltz about the Kintyre peninsula in Scotland where Paul had his farm, featuring the Campbeltown Pipe Band, was released in November 1977 and became the first single to sell more than two million copies in the UK. It was Wings' only UK No.1 single. In America 'Girls' School' was promoted instead and the single made little impact.

London Town followed in 1978 and peaked at No.2 in the US, ending the run of five consecutive US No.1 albums. Guitarist Laurence Juber and drummer Steve Holley joined, and this final line-up recorded Back to the Egg (1979), a harder-edged album that includes the two 'Rockestra' tracks, recorded with a supergroup of guests including David Gilmour, Pete Townshend, John Bonham and John Paul Jones.

Jimmy McCulloch died in London in September 1979, aged 26. Wings completed a UK tour late in 1979 and played the last of the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea at the Hammersmith Odeon on 29 December 1979. It turned out to be the band's final concert.

1980 to 1981: Tokyo and the End

In January 1980 Wings flew to Japan for a sold-out tour. On arrival at Tokyo's Narita airport on 16 January, customs officers found about 219 grams of marijuana in Paul's luggage. He was held in jail until 25 January, then released without charge and deported. The entire tour was cancelled.

The arrest broke the band's momentum. Paul released McCartney II in May 1980, made alone at home, with the single 'Coming Up'. In the US, radio preferred the live Wings version recorded in Glasgow in December 1979, which went to No.1 credited to Paul McCartney and Wings. He then began work on Tug of War with George Martin, bringing in outside musicians. In April 1981 Denny Laine announced he was leaving, and Wings was effectively over. Laine had been the one constant besides Paul and Linda for the band's whole ten years.

The legacy is substantial. Counting 'Coming Up', Wings had six US No.1 singles: 'My Love', 'Band on the Run', 'Listen to What the Man Said', 'Silly Love Songs', 'With a Little Luck' and the live 'Coming Up'. The Wings years have also been reassessed recently, helped by the Archive Collection reissues, One Hand Clapping, the 2025 Wings compilation and Morgan Neville's documentary Man on the Run, released on Prime Video on 27 February 2026. Denny Laine died on 5 December 2023, aged 79. For the records themselves, see our ranking of every Wings album and our guide to the best Wings albums on vinyl.