Wings recorded “Live and Let Die” during sessions for Red Rose Speedway, but this, one of their defining songs, was made for another project and wasn’t included on the album. Paul McCartney wrote the song for the 1973 James Bond film of the same name. And there was controversy over who would sing it.
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Bond on the Run
He’d struggled early in his post-Beatles career, fighting depression and writer’s block in the aftermath of leaving the biggest band in the world. He had a foil in John Lennon and an identity as a “Beatle,” but the new decade found him at war with critics’ anti-McCartney bias.
McCartney’s early home studio recordings have aged well, but contemporary critics weren’t pleased. After recording Ram with his wife, Linda, in 1971, McCartney formed a new band called Wings. Inspired by Bob Dylan’s breakneck recording pace, they recorded their debut quickly, and U.K. critics viewed Wild Life as rushed and overhyped. Now, the man who wrote “Yesterday” needed a hit.
Wings released Red Rose Speedway in 1973. This time, they added Paul McCartney’s name to the band’s credit to increase visibility after the commercial failure of their first album. It worked, and the album reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (formerly Top LPs and Tape Chart). However, McCartney was still one album away from his most celebrated post-Beatles work to date, Band on the Run.
Red Rose Speedway was to be a double album, but EMI convinced McCartney to edit it. The record label didn’t think he had enough solid material for two albums, and McCartney whittled the album down to a more commercial and less expensive record that he hoped would be better received.
A New 007
Based on Ian Fleming’s 1954 novel of the same name, the spy film is the eighth in the James Bond series and the first to feature Roger Moore as Bond. The film’s producers asked McCartney to write the theme song and gave him a copy of Fleming’s novel.
He struggled to write the song around an existing title but moved forward, playing on the phrase “live and let live.” McCartney composed the song in a day.
When you were young, and your heart was an open book
You used to say live and let live
(You know you did; you know you did; you know you did)
But if this ever-changing world in which we’re living
Makes you give in and cry
In the story, James Bond is sent to New York to investigate the murder of three MI6 agents. Bond navigates a maze of New York gangsters and double agents while trying to solve the mystery. He meets a tarot card reader, Solitaire, who can see the future. However, she loses her supernatural power after Bond seduces her. Bond avoids being eaten by crocodilians, rescues Solitaire from a voodoo sacrifice, and explodes the gangster’s poppy fields.
Beatles Gonna Beatle
One of the film’s producers, Harry Saltzman, wanted Shirley Bassey or Thelma Houston to perform the title song, but McCartney insisted it had to be Wings. The contract also specified the song must play over the opening credits. Legendary Beatles producer George Martin produced the song and arranged the score.
According to Roger Moore, when Saltzman heard the demo, he asked George Martin, “Who are we going to get to sing it?” Martin, shocked, replied that he’d just heard Paul McCartney sing the song!
What does it matter to you?
When you got a job to do
You got to do it well
You got to give the other fellow hell
Guns N’ Roses
Guns N’ Roses covered “Live and Let Die” for their 1991 album “Use Your Illusion I.” Axl Rose invited Blind Melon’s Shannon Hoon (1967-1995) to sing backing vocals on the cover. The two were introduced by Hoon’s sister, Anna, Rose’s friend from high school. Hoon also sang on the Gn’R songs “Don’t Cry” and “The Garden.”
[RELATED: Paul McCartney Was “Very Happy” That Guns N’ Roses Covered “Live and Let Die”]
The Wings cover is one of their most popular songs; they filmed the music video shortly before Izzy Stradlin quit the group.
9/11 Panic
American panic following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center towers reached a peak when Clear Channel emailed program directors at radio stations across the country with a list of songs insensitive to the time. “Live and Let Die” was included on the list alongside “Great Balls of Fire” by Jerry Lee Lewis. Corporate absurdity didn’t end there, as John Lennon’s anti-war song “Imagine” made the list, too.
The overreaction to a tragedy is only matched by Harry Saltzman’s underreaction when George Martin played him McCartney’s demo of “Live and Let Die.” You know you did; you know you did; you know you did.
Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images
