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Remember When Wings Responded to Getting Banned From the Radio With a Nursery Rhyme?
In 1972, Paul McCartney and his band Wings had an unlikely hit with a tune the former Beatles star wrote, set to the nursery rhyme “Mary Had A Little Lamb”. Released as a non-album single in May 1972, the song reached No. 9 on the U.K. chart and peaked at No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Videos by American Songwriter
During a segment of the latest episode of the Audible audio series Words + Music, “The Man On The Run”, McCartney explained how Wings came to record “Mary Had A Little Lamb”.
“[When] my daughter Mary was a little baby … at home, I would sing my version of ‘Mary Had A Little Lamb’,” he recalled. “And so it kind of developed into a song through just singing it to her. I thought it was catchy. Had a little catchy chorus. You know, we recorded it. I thought that’s quite nice.”
Wings recorded the song during the sessions for their 1973 studio album, Red Rose Speedway. The track featured the group’s early lineup of Paul and his wife, Linda; multi-instrumentalist Denny Laine; drummer Denny Seiwell; and guitarist Henry McCullough. It also included backing vocals by young Mary and Linda’s older daughter, Heather.
McCartney and Wings mimed the song during the James Paul McCartney BBC TV special, which first aired in April 1973. The band also released four separate promotional music videos for the tune, each with a different setting. They included clips of Wings performing “Mary Had A Little Lamb” in a barn, in the countryside, in the desert under a circus tent, and with a psychedelic background.
About the Controversy with Wings’ Previous Single
“Mary Had A Little Lamb” was a follow-up to Wings’ debut single, the politically controversial protest song “Give Ireland Back To The Irish.” McCartney, with wife Linda, wrote “Give Ireland Back To The Irish” in response to the event known as Bloody Sunday, an incident on January 30, 1972, when British troops stationed in Northern Ireland shot and killed 13 civilian protestors.
The BBC and several other radio stations banned the song.
When Wings released “Mary Had A Little Lamb”, many people assumed that the band had put it out with the intent to be as uncontroversial as possible.
During the Words + Music interview, McCartney maintained, “[It] certainly [wasn’t] going to get banned, but I don’t think that was the motive. We just thought, ‘Yeah, it’s nice. It’s catchy and … it might work well on the radio.’ Well, of course, people read into it, and it was seen as the opposite side of ‘Give Ireland Back To The Irish.’”
At least one Wings member had mixed feelings about releasing “Mary Had A Little Lamb” as a single. In a 1972 interview with Melody Maker, Laine commented, “As a song, I was happy with ‘Mary Had A Little Lamb’, but as a single, I don’t know. Personally, I would have preferred to have started off with something a bit more rocking.”
More About the ‘Words + Music’ Episode “The Man On The Run”
As previously reported, the Words + Music “The Man On The Run” episode is a three-hour presentation that examines McCartney’s life and musical career following the 1970 breakup of The Beatles.
The feature includes interview clips of McCartney recorded during the making of the documentary Man On The Run, which got its TV premiere in February on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service.
The audio presentation includes interview segments that didn’t appear in the movie.
You can check out the Words + Music episode “The Man On The Run” now at Audible.com.
Photo by Dick Barnatt/Redferns
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