4 of Paul McCartney’s Most Moving Love Songs About His Late Wife, Linda

Within his staggeringly voluminous and wonderful catalog, you’ll find plenty of examples of Paul McCartney’s ability to craft a gorgeous, touching love song. Many of those songs were directly inspired by his long marriage to his first wife Linda.

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We could have gone much deeper into this list, considering how many odes to Linda that Paul wrote. But we’re sticking with just four musical testaments to one of the great love stories in rock music history.

“Maybe I’m Amazed”

When The Beatles broke up, Paul McCartney briefly went into a pretty severe state of depression. Two things helped keep him from completely losing it. First, he got back to making music, even if it was informally on his Scottish farm. Second, Linda supported him and encouraged him to get back to doing what he did best. This led to the album McCartney, his first post-Beatles release. Many of the songs were off-the-cuff and presented with few embellishments. But for “Maybe I’m Amazed”, a towering tribute to Linda, Macca gave it the whole one-man band approach and turned it into one of his most powerful songs.

“My Love”

In addition to this being one of the most memorable of all Paul McCartney’s love songs to wife Linda, “My Love” also stands as one of the most important songs of his career. At the time he recorded it with Wings for the album Red Rose Speedway, Macca’s post-Beatles band was struggling to show that they could deliver the commercial success he’d enjoyed both with the Fab Four and as a solo act. “My Love” proves that you don’t have to get too deep into poetics to make a romantic point. A stirring melody can do the trick just as well. The song certainly struck a chord and became Wings’ first US No. 1 single.

“Warm And Beautiful”

This song isn’t one of the more well-known on this list, but it certainly can stand up to the others in terms of quality. By the 1976 album Wings At The Speed Of Sound, McCartney had relaxed the idea that Wings had to be a hard-rocking band at all times. Doing so allowed him to play up the musical variety that his writing had always engendered. “Warm And Beautiful” features one of his delicate melodies, one that proved perfect for orchestral flourishes. The lyrics speak to the enduring power of a special love, one that can withstand any of life’s pressures and even win out over time itself.

“Calico Skies”

The album Flaming Pie found McCartney diving back into his solo career with gusto after taking some time away for the Beatles Anthology project. By that time, Linda had already been diagnosed with cancer. That illness would eventually claim her life, although it was mostly in abeyance while Paul made that record. Linda died in 1998, a year after Flaming Pie was released. As such, a song like “Calico Skies” takes on added poignancy for being one of the last love songs that Paul was able to record for her. The touching musings on fate certainly seemed to apply to their life together.

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