This came out in 2001 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
If you were a child of the ’60s, you had The Beatles. If you were a child of the ’70s, you had Paul McCartney and Wings. Sure, they could never outshine his old band. But with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, it’s hard not to be impressed by the list of hits Macca was able to compile in his first decade without The Fab Four.
This worthy two-CD retrospective — a companion piece to a TV documentary airing on ABC — has 40 of the biggest, best and most historic, from rockier earlier fare like Band On The Run, Jet and Live And Let Die to later pop fluff like Silly Love Songs and No More Lonely Nights, all nicely remastered and ready to take you on a trip down memory lane. For the collectors, there’s the unreleased Bip Bop / Hey Diddle, a home recording from 1971 of what sounds like Paul serenading his kids. It’s not exactly a long-lost classic, but hey, better than than later-period glop like Ebony and Ivory and Say Say Say. That stuff makes Silly Love Songs seem like Let It Be.
