Artist: PAUL McCARTNEY
Album: McCARTNEY REMASTERED (CD)

Year: 1970/ 1993
Media type: CD

McCartney is the first solo album by Paul McCartney and was released in 1970. It is notable for the fact that McCartney, a multi-instrumentalist, performed the entire album (all instruments and voices) by himself, except for some backing vocals from his first wife, Linda McCartney. McCartney stated that he played "bass, drums, acoustic guitar, lead guitar, piano, Mellotron, organ, toy xylophone, and bow and arrow" on the album.

Recorded privately at his home in London; at Morgan Studios, London; and at Abbey Road Studios, London under the pseudonym "Billy Martin" from late 1969 to March of 1970; the development of McCartney was undertaken as the Beatles were falling apart.

McCartney had been the most keen to keep the band together after the death of manager Brian Epstein in 1967, but with John Lennon's de facto departure after the Abbey Road sessions, greater interest in performing and being with Yoko Ono, George Harrison's emergence as a fine songwriter and Ringo Starr's growing interest in movies and a solo album in the works, it was clear to the general public and members alike that the Beatles had effectively dissolved.

Accepting that the band was now a sunken ship, McCartney decamped with wife Linda McCartney and their new family, including Linda's daughter from her first marriage, Heather, and their newborn, Mary, to their home in London in the autumn of 1969 so he could plot his next move.

As ever, McCartney had brought his instruments with him, as well as a portable Studer four-track tape recorder, and recorded the ad-libbed "The Lovely Linda" to test the equipment before the year was out. Enjoying the experience, he continued on, composing and improvising new material as he went along and overdubbing himself in the process. By late March 1970, as Phil Spector was concurrently mixing the Let It Be album, the simply-titled McCartney was completed.

Scheduled for release on 17 April 1970 the other Beatles realised that McCartney could conflict with the impending Let It Be album and film. The amicable Ringo Starr, whose own first album was almost ready for release, was sent to request that McCartney delay his solo debut. McCartney later commented, "They eventually sent Ringo round to my house at Cavendish with a message: 'We want you to put your release date back, it's for the good of the group', and all of this sort of shit. He was giving me the party line; they just made him come round, so I did something I'd never done before or since: I told him to get out. I had to do something like that in order to assert myself because I was just sinking. I was getting pummelled about the head, in my mind anyway."

The McCartney album was thus released on 17 April as planned, but not before a major announcement.

On 10 April, after intense disputes with Phil Spector over the final results of the long-delayed Let It Be album, McCartney finally snapped and publicly announced his departure from the Beatles, therefore completing the dissolution of the group. The world was stunned and – whether deliberate or not – the media circus surrounding the band's dissolution proved to be beneficial to market McCartney, which was released a week later. Advance copies sent to the press included a Q & A package containing questions McCartney could – and probably would – have been asked about the Beatles' break-up and their future; he gave a strong impression of his views, but stated that he did not know whether the group's break-up would be temporary or permanent. (The complete questionnaire, as well as McCartney's own song-by-song commentary, was included in Richard DiLello's book, The Longest Cocktail Party, as an appendix.)

As for McCartney, the album quickly shot to #1 in the US for three weeks, eventually going double platinum. In the UK, it was only denied the top spot by the highest-selling album of 1970 (and one of the all-time top-selling albums) Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water, which stayed at #1 for 41 (non-consecutive) weeks. There McCartney debuted straight at #2, where it remained for 3 weeks.

Although McCartney contains several pieces that are considered to be less than profound, it also includes "Every Night" and, more importantly, "Maybe I'm Amazed", one of McCartney's many love songs for his first wife, and one of his most enduring songs. McCartney has subsequently revealed that Linda was instrumental in bolstering his spirits and confidence during the album's making, and helping him out of his depression over losing the Beatles.

Shortly after the album's release, George Harrison described "Maybe I'm Amazed" and "That Would Be Something" as "great", and regarded the other tracks as "fair". John Lennon was less than impressed with McCartney, stating in his 1970 interview with Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner that, given McCartney's penchant for demanding perfectionism in the studio from his fellow Beatles, he was surprised at the lack of quality in the album. Lennon also made several remarks comparing McCartney negatively to his own solo album debut, Plastic Ono Band.

With a raw honesty that had never typified a McCartney-related recording before, McCartney indeed has an unpolished sound; but its minimalist, intimate feel was – and remains – a refreshing change from much of McCartney's more ambitious recorded works. Although some of its initial critics considered it slight (especially compared with the scope of the recent Abbey Road), the album's reputation has increased with time, and McCartney is a firm favourite with many McCartney devotees.

In 1993, McCartney was remastered and reissued on CD as part of "The Paul McCartney Collection" series. There were no bonus tracks available.
All songs by Paul McCartney.

TRACKLIST:

01 "The Lovely Linda" – 0:42
02 "That Would Be Something" – 2:37
03 "Valentine Day" – 1:40 Instrumental
04 "Every Night" – 2:30
05 "Hot as Sun/Glasses" – 2:06
- "Hot as Sun", one of McCartney's earliest songs, was composed during his Quarrymen days in 1959; The beginning of "Glasses" consists of notes being "sung" on the rims of crystal glasses; the track then breaks into a fragment of another McCartney song, "Suicide"

06 "Junk" – 1:54
- Originally written in 1968 in India where The Beatles were studying transcendental meditation, and demoed at George Harrison's house with some of McCartney's inclusions for the double album The White Album; also subsequently considered for the Abbey Road album

07 "Man We Was Lonely" – 2:57
08 "Oo You" – 2:47
09 "Momma Miss America" – 4:04
- Originally titled "Rock 'n' Roll Springtime", hence the engineer's announcement at the track's beginning

10 "Teddy Boy" – 2:22
- Written in 1968 in India, and originally recorded by The Beatles in January 1969 as a contender for the Let It Be project before being dropped

11 "Singalong Junk" – 2:34
- An instrumental version of "Junk", featuring Mellotron strings

12 "Maybe I'm Amazed" – 3:49
- Achieved the #338 position in the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list compiled by Rolling Stone magazine in 2004

13 "Kreen-Akrore" – 4:14 Instrumental
- The Kreen-Akrore are a forest Indian tribe living in the Amazon basin of Brazil