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TL;DR:

  • Paul McCartney’s Band on the Run didn’t inspire much thought from the singer after it was done.
  • Someone gave him advice that was supposed to make the album more successful.
  • Band on the Run and two of its singles were big hits in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Paul McCartney with a guitar during the 'Band on the Run' era
Paul McCartney | Michael Ochs Archives / Stringer

Paul McCartney‘s Band on the Run is one of the most famous albums of the 1970s. A record executive told Paul to do two things to make the album a hit. Subsequently, Paul listened to him.

Paul McCartney stopped thinking about ‘Band on the Run’ soon after he finished recording the album

The 2015 book Conversations with McCartney includes information about Band on the Run. “It’s always good to have an independent pair of ears listening to your music,” Paul said. “They can tell you what you’ve done, whereas you don’t always see it. So that was the case. 

“We’d done Band on the Run and I said, ‘Well there it is, I’ve made an album, you put it out, thank you, end of story.’ But [record executive] Al [Coury] rang and said, ‘Hey Paul, I can really make this a more successful album, if you want.'”

Record executive Al Coury encouraged Paul McCartney to release 2 Wings songs as singles

Paul wanted to know what Coury had in mind. “I said, ‘Well, of course I want. What would you do?'” Paul recalled. “‘You’ve got to put ‘Jet‘ out as a single.’ Then, of course, it was blindingly obvious.”

Coury had a plan for the follow-up. “He said, ‘If you let me do that then I’d love to follow up with ‘Band on the Run,'” he said. “Certainly they were obvious choices for singles. So it was great and he was spot-on. I always gave him credit for that.”

Paul used this anecdote to say he is willing to take advice, even if he didn’t initially see “Jet” and “Band on the Run” as single material. At Coury’s behest, Paul also added the non-album single “Helen Wheels” to the track list of Band on the Run.

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How ‘Jet’ and ‘Band on the Run’ performed on the pop charts in the United States and the United Kingdom

The songs “Jet” and “Band on the Run” reached No. 7 and No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively. Meanwhile, the album Band on the Run reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for four weeks. The album spent a total of 120 weeks on the chart, making it the most successful album of Paul’s post-Beatles career.

According to The Official Charts Company, “Jet” and “Band on the Run” respectively reached No. 7 and No. 3 in the United Kingdom. On the other hand, the album Band on the Run topped the U.K. chart for seven weeks. It spent a total of 124 weeks on the chart, making it the most popular album of Paul’s post-Beatles career in the U.K. as well.

“Jet” and “Band on the Run” are some of Paul’s best-loved songs and they might not be famous if not for Coury’s input.

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