Paul McCartney "Wingspan: Hits and History"

Wingspan: Hits and History is a greatest hits compilation album by Paul McCartney featuring material spanning his first solo album McCartney in 1970 to the 1984 Give My Regards to Broad Street movie soundtrack.

Wingspan is separated into two distinct sets: the "Hits" disc features commercially successful material, while "History" showcases lesser-known songs from the same period. American and British editions of the album vary slightly, as the UK edition contains the studio version of "Coming Up" while the US edition contains "Coming Up (Live at Glasgow)", which was more popular there. The Japanese version of the album also includes "Eat at Home", which had been issued as a single in Japan.

Released in 2001 in conjunction with a prime time TV documentary, similarly called Wingspan, the associated soundtrack was a commercial success. In the United States, it went straight to number 2 on the Billboard 200 with sales of 221,000 copies in the first week of its release. The album charted there for 14 weeks, selling approximately 970,000 units as of 2005. Wingspan has been certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and also reached gold status in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. A DVD release of the broadcast documentary – which dealt with McCartney's relationship with Linda Eastman and their eventual marriage, the traumatic final year of the Beatles' career and his own role in their break-up, and the story of Wings' formation and career through the 1970s towards their dissolution in 1980 – was produced by Mary McCartney, who also interviewed her father in the film.

Track listing

Disc 1: Hits

All tracks are written by Paul & Linda McCartney, except where noted.

1. "Listen to What the Man Said" (from Venus and Mars, 1975) Wings 3:57
2. "Band on the Run" (from Band on the Run, 1973) Paul McCartney and Wings 5:13
3. "Another Day" (Non-album single, 1971) Paul McCartney 3:43
4. "Live and Let Die" (from the Live and Let Die soundtrack, 1973) Paul McCartney and Wings 3:12
5. "Jet" (from Band on the Run) Paul McCartney and Wings 4:08
6. "My Love" (from Red Rose Speedway, 1973) Paul McCartney and Wings 4:08
7. "Silly Love Songs" (from Wings at the Speed of Sound, 1976) Wings 5:55
8. "Pipes of Peace" (from Pipes of Peace, 1983) P. McCartney Paul McCartney 3:26
9. "C Moon" (Non-album single, 1972) Wings 4:35
10. "Hi, Hi, Hi" (Non-album single, 1972) Wings 3:09
11. "Let 'Em In" (from Wings at the Speed of Sound) Wings 5:10
12. "Goodnight Tonight" (Non-album single, 1979) P. McCartney Wings 4:21
13. "Junior's Farm" (DJ edit; non-album single, 1974) Paul McCartney and Wings 3:03
14. "Mull of Kintyre" (Non-album single, 1977) P. McCartney, Denny Laine Wings 4:45
15. "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" (from Ram, 1971) Paul and Linda McCartney 4:50
16. "With a Little Luck" (DJ edit; original version from London Town, 1978) P. McCartney Wings 3:13
17. "Coming Up" (from McCartney II, 1980) P. McCartney Paul McCartney 3:53
18. "No More Lonely Nights" (from Give My Regards to Broad Street, 1984) P. McCartney Paul McCartney 4:47

Total length: 75:38

Disc 2: History

All tracks are written by Paul McCartney except where noted.

1. "Let Me Roll It" (from Band on the Run) P. McCartney, L. McCartney Paul McCartney and Wings 4:51
2. "The Lovely Linda" (from McCartney, 1970) Paul McCartney 0:45
3. "Daytime Nighttime Suffering" (B-side to the "Goodnight Tonight" single, 1979) Wings 3:23
4. "Maybe I'm Amazed" (from McCartney) Paul McCartney 3:52
5. "Helen Wheels" (Non-album single/Band on the Run [US edition only], 1973) P. McCartney, L. McCartney Paul McCartney and Wings 3:46
6. "Bluebird" (from Band on the Run) P. McCartney, L. McCartney Paul McCartney and Wings 3:26
7. "Heart of the Country" (from Ram) P. McCartney, L. McCartney Paul and Linda McCartney 2:24
8. "Every Night" (from McCartney) Paul McCartney 2:34
9. "Take It Away" (Single version; original version from Tug of War, 1982) Paul McCartney 4:05
10. "Junk" (from McCartney) Paul McCartney 1:57
11. "Man We Was Lonely" (from McCartney) Paul McCartney 2:59
12. "Venus and Mars/Rock Show" (Single edit; original version from Venus and Mars) P. McCartney, L. McCartney Wings 3:46
13. "The Back Seat of My Car" (from Ram) Paul and Linda McCartney 4:29
14. "Rockestra Theme" (from Back to the Egg, 1979) Wings 2:36
15. "Girlfriend" (from London Town) Wings 4:44
16. "Waterfalls" (DJ edit; original version from McCartney II) Paul McCartney 3:24
17. "Tomorrow" (from Wild Life, 1971) P. McCartney, L. McCartney Wings 3:27
18. "Too Many People" (from Ram) Paul and Linda McCartney 4:12
19. "Call Me Back Again" (from Venus and Mars) P. McCartney, L. McCartney Wings 4:59
20. "Tug of War" (Single version; original version from Tug of War) Paul McCartney 4:04
21. "Bip Bop/Hey Diddle" (Previously unreleased; recorded in 1971) P. McCartney, L. McCartney Paul and Linda McCartney 3:36
22. "No More Lonely Nights" (Playout version) (Edit; original version from Give My Regards to Broad Street) Paul McCartney 3:55

Total length: 77:26

The Beatles "The Beatles In Mono"

The Beatles in Mono is a boxed set compilation comprising the remastered monaural recordings by the Beatles. The set was released on compact disc on 9 September 2009, the same day the remastered stereo recordings and companion The Beatles (The Original Studio Recordings) were also released, along with The Beatles: Rock Band video game. The remastering project for both mono and stereo versions was led by EMI senior studio engineers Allan Rouse and Guy Massey.

The boxed set was released on 180-gram heavyweight vinyl on 8 September 2014, mastered directly from the original analog tapes and not the digital masters used for the CD release.

The Beatles in Mono was released to reflect the fact that most of the Beatles' catalogue was originally mixed and released in the monophonic format. Stereo recordings were a fairly new concept for pop music in the 1960s and did not become standard until late in that decade. This explains why the Beatles' initial album releases were mixed for mono. By the late sixties, however, stereo recording for pop music was becoming more popular and, thus, the new standard. Therefore, the last few Beatles albums—Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road, and Let It Be—were mixed and released only in stereo. Many feel that the mono mixes reflect the true intention of the band. For example, in the case of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, all the mono mixes were done together with the Beatles themselves, throughout the recording of the album, whereas the stereo mixes were done in only six days by Abbey Road personnel George Martin, Geoff Emerick and Richard Lush after the album had been finished, with none of the Beatles attending. George Harrison commented:


At that time [...] the console was about this big with four faders on it. And there was one speaker right in the middle [...] and that was it. When they invented stereo, I remember thinking 'Why? What do you want two speakers for?', because it ruined the sound from our point of view. You know, we had everything coming out of one speaker; now it had to come out of two speakers. It sounded like ... very ... naked.

Amazon.com advertised the set as a limited edition item in the United States, and less than a month prior to the set's release announced the site had sold out of units. Less than two weeks before 9 September, many other online retailers announced the selling out of units from their inventories, including the Canadian Amazon.ca site.

EMI announced on 3 September that more mono boxed sets were to be pressed due to high demand from online pre-orders. It is still to remain a "limited edition", but since it has already been certified platinum by the RIAA, it was not limited to 10,000 copies as originally stated. As of July 2018, the CD set is still readily available; however, the vinyl box set is out of print. Individual mono albums on vinyl still available are: Rubber Soul, Revolver, The Beatles, and Mono Masters, a 3-LP set of singles.


Five years after the initial CD release, mono editions of each of the albums are available individually in the vinyl format, though the mono editions for CD are still only available in the box set. All of the American albums can be had on CD individually in mono paired with the original stereo mixes; this is the only other way to acquire the mono mixes on CD.

The thirteen-disc (fourteen on LP) collection contains the remastered mono versions of every Beatles album released in true mono. The original 1965 stereo mixes of Help! and Rubber Soul are included on the CD version as bonuses on their respective albums. (In 1986 both albums had been remixed by George Martin for their CD release in 1987.) The box contains a new two-disc compilation album titled Mono Masters, which compiles all the mono mixes of singles, B-sides and EP tracks that did not originally appear on any of the UK albums or Magical Mystery Tour.

Please Please Me (1963)
With the Beatles (1963)
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Beatles for Sale (1964)
Help! (1965)
Rubber Soul (1965)
Revolver (1966)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
The Beatles (1968)
Mono Masters (1962–1970)
The albums Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road and Let It Be are not included in this set, as no true mono mixes of these albums were issued. The same holds true for the songs "The Ballad of John and Yoko", "Old Brown Shoe" and the single mix of "Let It Be", which were also omitted. A mono version of the Yellow Submarine album was released in the UK, but it was simply a fold-down (two stereo channels combined into one channel) from the stereo mix, not a unique, separate mono mix. Abbey Road and Let It Be were issued in the UK in mono on reel-to-reel tape and on LP in Brazil and other countries, but again, only as fold-downs from the respective stereo versions.

The previously unavailable true mono mixes of the four new Beatles songs released on the Yellow Submarine album ("Only a Northern Song", "All Together Now", "Hey Bulldog" and "It's All Too Much"), originally intended for a separate, but ultimately scrapped mono EP which would have also included a mono mix of "Across the Universe", are included on the Mono Masters compilation.

Also omitted from this set, but included in the stereo box set, is a DVD containing the mini-documentaries included with the stereo remasters of the different albums.

The White Album was originally released in mono and stereo in the UK and several other countries, but in the United States, it was only released in stereo. However, the mono mixes of "Don't Pass Me By" and "Helter Skelter" had been previously issued in the US in 1980 on the Capitol Records Rarities compilation album.

All CDs replicate their original album labels as first released, from the various Parlophone Records label variations, to the Capitol Records label (for Magical Mystery Tour) and the UK Apple Records side A and B labels for discs 1 and 2 respectively for The Beatles. For Mono Masters, disc 1 uses a mid-1960s Parlophone label design and disc 2 uses the unsliced Apple label design.


The set also includes a 44-page booklet which includes an essay on the important role that the mono mixes played in the Beatles' recording career, plus a track-by-track listing of the recordings.

The set debuted at number 40 on Billboard's Top 200 chart and the magazine reported that 12,000 copies were sold in its first week of release. In Japan, it debuted at number 10, selling over 20,000 copies in its first week on the Oricon album charts. The set was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in April 2010.