How an Unlikely Paul McCartney Song Outsold The Beatles—With the Help of an Amateur Band

Paul McCartney‘s second band, Wings, isn’t seen as transformative as his tenure with the Beatles. Though the outfit kept McCartney’s career afloat, they aren’t seen as indelible as The Fab Four when it comes to the history of rock music. However, those pre-conceived notions might be misplaced, given McCartney and Wings once outsold the Beatles. With the help of an amateur band, McCartney was able to one-up his former band with an unlikely hit.

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The McCartney Track That Wasn’t Initially Seen as Hit-worthy, But Ended Up Outselling the Beatles

McCartney’s post-Beatles catalog is rife with hits, but there is one that rises above the rest: “Mull of Kintyre.” This song functions as McCartney’s ode to his Scottish retreat. He and his Wings bandmates wax poetically about their rural surroundings on this massively successful single. They even tapped local musicians, the Campbeltown Pipe Band, to give this song character.

Given how specific the sentiments in this song are, you wouldn’t immediately peg it for single status. Even McCartney didn’t see this song as hit material when he wrote it. The pipers he hired changed his mind.

“When we finished it, all the pipers said, ‘Aye, it’s got to be a single, that,’” McCartney once said. “It was up to them, really, to do it. I thought it was a little too specialised to bring out as a single, you would have to bring out something that has something with more mass appeal.”

“They kept saying, ‘Oh, the exiled Scots all over the world…It’ll be a big single for them,’” McCartney added. “Yet I still thought, ‘Yeah, well, but there’s maybe not enough exiled Scots,’ but they kept telling me, after a few drinks.”

Pipers’ Opinions

Eventually, McCartney agreed with the pipers and earned his biggest post-Beatles hit. “Mull of Kintyre” outsold any individual Beatles single in the UK and also became one of the best-selling singles of all time in the nation. Though the pipers didn’t get royalties on the song, they were honored to be able to pay homage to their country alongside the legendary rocker.

“All the boys are proud to have played on the record,” Pipe Master Tony Wilson once said.“McCartney’s a genius. Paul’s song has done wonders for Kintyre but we won’t be earning royalties from the song. We were paid as session musicians for the job. We did the job and got paid for it and that’s that.”

(Photo by Linda McCartney/© 1975 Paul McCartney Under Exclusive License to MPL Archive LLP)