1. Background

2. Program content

3. Reception

4. Home Video Release

5. References

6. Sources

James Paul McCartney is the title of a 1973 television special produced by ATV and starring English musician Paul McCartney and his then current rock group Wings. It was first broadcast on 16 April 1973 in the United States on the ABC network, and was later broadcast in the United Kingdom on 10 May 1973. It's scheduled to be issued on DVD (its first home video release of any kind) as part of the super-deluxe "Red Rose Speedway" box set in December 2018.

Background

Paul McCartney agreed to star in a television special for the British ATV network in order to settle his two-year legal dispute with Sir Lew Grade.{{sfn|Woffinden|1981|p=67}}{{sfn|Sounes|2010|pp=303–04}} As the owner of the network and its music publishing division – and, by extension, the Beatles' Northern Songs catalogue{{sfn|Sounes|2010|p=303}} – Grade had objected to McCartney crediting his wife Linda as his co-writer since 1971, citing her lack of professional experience as a songwriter and musician.{{sfn|Schaffner|1978|p=151}}{{sfn|Doggett|2011|pp=167–68}} McCartney's commitment to the television project allowed him to retain the second composer's publishing royalties,{{sfn|Woffinden|1981|p=67}} which otherwise would have been assigned to Grade's company.{{sfn|Sounes|2010|pp=303–04}}{{sfn|Doggett|2011|pp=168, 194–95}}

James Paul McCartney was McCartney's first such special since the Beatles' 1967 television film Magical Mystery Tour{{sfn|Doyle|2013|pp=78–79}} and was intended to showcase his versatility as an artist and entertainer.{{sfn|Woffinden|1981|p=67}}{{sfn|Schaffner|1978|p=156}} Many of the portions featured his and Linda's band Wings; in others he would perform alone.{{sfn|Badman|2001|pp=96–97}} ATV hired Gary Smith and Dwight Hemion as producer and director, respectively, although McCartney was assured full creative control over the program's content.{{sfn|Madinger|Easter|2000|p=180}} Having recently completed their second album, Red Rose Speedway, Wings travelled to Marrakesh in early February 1973 to plan and rehearse for the show.{{sfn|Badman|2001|p=90}}{{sfn|Madinger|Easter|2000|p=179}}

Program content

The program opens with a live performance by Wings in front of an audience of television screens.

An acoustic medley of songs is performed by McCartney during a photographic session with his wife Linda as the photographer.

A short music video-style performance set in an outdoor location of McCartney's version of "Mary Had a Little Lamb".

A television studio performance with Wings and orchestra in front of a live audience.

Another music video segment, this time for "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey". The "Admiral Halsey" section of the song was not included in the final broadcast version, however.

A short voice-over from McCartney introduces a segment set in the Chelsea Reach public house near Liverpool. This features members of his family and Wings in a pub singalong.

A Busby Berkeley-style musical number, featuring dancers dressed in half-man/half-woman costumes.

A music video segment were McCartney introduces "Live And Let Die", the title theme from the 1973 James Bond movie.

"Beatles Medley": a filmed segment with street passers-by singing various Beatles songs (off key) to comedic effect.

"Wings in Concert", recorded on a sound stage at Elstree Studios (Borehamwood), before a live audience.

The coda of "Another Day", followed by a live acoustic performance of "Yesterday". Credits roll over the performance.

Reception

Critical reception to the program was highly unfavourable.{{sfn|Madinger|Easter|2000|p=180}}{{sfn|Frontani|2009|p=166}}{{sfn|Doyle|2013|p=81}} According to authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter, the show "was roundly panned by every critic with a pulse, and was not a stunning success in the ratings either".{{sfn|Madinger|Easter|2000|p=180}} Melody Maker stated: "McCartney has always had an eye and ear for full-blown romanticism, and nothing wrong with that, but here he too often lets it get out of hand and it becomes over-blown and silly."{{sfn|Badman|2001|p=97}} The New York Times{{'}} reviewer described it as "a series of disconnected routines strung together with commercials for Chevrolet cars", while The Washington Post criticised the amount of screen time allocated to Linda McCartney, saying that "her previous careers ... certainly don't qualify her to perform in public."{{sfn|Frontani|2009|pp=166, 269}}

Writing for Rolling Stone, Lenny Kaye found McCartney "remote and distant from the camera" and added: "if the consequent production did nothing to heal McCartney's ongoing image problem, it certainly didn't help his musical offerings, which came off as forgettably ordinary and certainly disappointing."^[1] Referring to the former Beatle's return to television, Alan Coren of The Times wrote: "[James Paul McCartney] was not the sort of programme you make a come-back with. It was the sort of programme you make a come-back after."{{sfn|Frontani|2009|p=269}}

Among more recent critiques, Peter Doggett describes the special as "insipid" and "unrecognisable as the work of the man who had conceived Magical Mystery Tour".{{sfn|Doggett|2011|p=208}} Robert Rodriguez writes that, in its attempts to present McCartney as all-round entertainer, the show embarrassed and alienated his rock audience, and that even the in-concert segment was lacklustre. Rodriguez concludes: "the band must surely have been conscious of their shortcomings alongside virtually any other recording act of the day. When Henry McCullough buries his head in his hands during the [McCartney] solo finale of 'Yesterday,' one feels his pain."{{sfn|Rodriguez|2010|pp=329–30}} Tom Doyle contends that the show "wasn't all bad" but considers the "Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance" segment and the Chelsea Reach pub scene to have been particularly ill-advised for McCartney's image at the time.{{sfn|Doyle|2013|pp=79–80}}

Home Video Release

The special was never released on VHS or DVD, but was commonly bootlegged. ^[2]

In 2018, a DVD remaster was released as part of the 'Paul McCartney Archive' deluxe reissue of Red Rose Speedway. ^[3]

References

Sources

• {{cite book|last=Badman|first=Keith|title=The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Break-Up 1970–2001|publisher= Omnibus Press|location=London|year=2001|isbn=978-0-7119-8307-6|ref=harv}}
• {{cite book|last=Clayson|first=Alan|title=Paul McCartney|publisher=Sanctuary|location=London|year=2003|isbn=1-86074-486-9|ref=harv}}
• {{cite book|last=Doggett|first=Peter|title=You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup|publisher=It Books|location=New York, NY|year=2011|isbn=978-0-06-177418-8|ref=harv}}
• {{cite book| last=Doyle| first=Tom| year=2013| title=Man on the Run: Paul McCartney in the 1970s| publisher=Ballantine Books|location=New York, NY| isbn=978-0-8041-7914-0| ref=harv}}
• {{cite book|last=Frontani |first=Michael |chapter=The Solo Years|editor-last=Womack |editor-first=Kenneth|year=2009 |title=The Cambridge Companion to the Beatles|location=Cambridge, UK|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-68976-2|ref=harv}}
• {{cite book|last1=Madinger|first1=Chip|last2=Easter|first2=Mark|title=Eight Arms to Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium|publisher=44.1 Productions|location=Chesterfield, MO|year=2000|isbn=0-615-11724-4|ref=harv}}
• {{cite book|last=Rodriguez|first=Robert|title=Fab Four FAQ 2.0: The Beatles' Solo Years, 1970–1980|publisher=Backbeat Books|location=Milwaukee, WI|year=2010|isbn=978-1-4165-9093-4|ref=harv}}
• {{cite book|last=Schaffner|first=Nicholas|title=The Beatles Forever|publisher=McGraw-Hill|location=New York, NY|year=1978|isbn=0-07-055087-5|ref=harv}}
• {{cite book|last=Sounes|first=Howard|title=Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney|publisher=HarperCollins|location=London|year=2010|isbn=978-0-00-723705-0|ref=harv}}
• {{cite book|last=Woffinden|first=Bob|title=The Beatles Apart|publisher=Proteus|location=London|year=1981|isbn=0-906071-89-5|ref=harv}}

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