(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please CLICK HERE)
Paul McCartney & Wings - "My Love"
Hit Number 1: June 2, 1973
Stay at Number 1: 4 Weeks
Paul and Linda McCartney were very much in love. So much so, that McCartney started a band with Linda, and one of the first songs for this band was a love song written by Paul for Linda. All of this despite the fact that Linda really wasn't much of a musician herself. This band, of course, was Wings, and perhaps this is somewhat of a hot take, but the success of Wings is surprising to me. Maybe this is a sign of how big McCartney still was around this time, but Wings was basically an experiment that worked. It was a project stitched together by McCartney and his wife that ended up being huge. Wings was a group of friends McCartney made in the music world that he recruited for the band, and their lineups were constantly changing. The only constants in the band were the McCartneys and multi-instrumentalist Denny Laine.
After McCartney and the Beatles broke up in 1970, it didn't take long for McCartney to find solo success. Paul and Linda released the first McCartney solo album RAM in 1971, which included the previous #1 hit "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey". Then Wings formed not long after that, but Wings didn't initially burst onto the scene. Their first album Wild Life was released the same year as RAM, but didn't have any single releases come from it. McCartney was then absent from the charts in 1972 before finally Red Rose Speedway was released in 1973, but "My Love" was the only single release that came from it. However, McCartney and Wings still found success that wasn't from Red Rose Speedway in 1973. Wings recorded a James Bond theme for Live and Let Die, with the song sharing the same name as the movie, but the song stalled at #2 and was kept out of #1 by three different songs. (Those three songs will appear in here soon. "Live and Let Die" is a 9) "Live and Let Die" was recorded at the same time the Red Rose Speedway sessions were going on.
However, "Live and Let Die" and "My Love" are entirely different songs. "Live and Let Die" is obviously a James Bond theme, so that usually means the song's going to have an underlying intensity to it. "Live and Let Die" is a striking banger, with a bunch of random noises piled on top of each other, but the result is bad ass. "My Love" is the most non-badass song. It's just a subdued, approachable love song devoted to McCartney's wife, and one McCartney got to sing while she was in the studio with him. The song doesn't have anything particularly exciting about it; the movement of it is a gentle trudge, and it's hard for me to imagine McCartney thinking this song had giant hit potential. But "My Love" proved to be a big hit, topping the charts for 4 weeks. It's slow, and unfortunately, boring. I don't know, it's okay I guess. But at this point, I don't think it's a secret that I just don't care for songs like this.
The two things that save the song are the soft, twangy guitar solo played by Henry McCullough, and the underlying stories with the song. McCullough actually challenged McCartney on the making of the song, and instead of going along with how McCartney wanted the solo to sound, McCullough improvised it. McCartney was very impressed by it, and thought to himself "fucking great" after hearing it. McCartney also continues to play the song at his live shows. 23 years after Linda's death and McCartney still performs it, which is cool to me. The two must have had that rare special kind of love for that to happen. So, that makes it impossible for me to dislike "My Love", but I also don't love the song. The slow ballad type songs only stand as pleasant nothings of songs that take up space. That's all "My Love" is and probably ever will be for me.
GRADE: 5/10
JUST MISSED:
Speaking of slow, forgettable songs, Elton John's "Daniel" peaked at #2 behind "My Love". However, this one's probably even more forgettable than "My Love". It's a 4.
ANOTHER JUST MISSED:
Clint Holmes' corny as hell, overly nostalgic "Playground in My Mind" also peaked at #2 behind "My Love". It's also a 4.
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