Paul McCartney has had many excellent collaborators. From John Lennon to Michael Jackson, his list of songwriting partners and featured artists is lengthy. But none of his collaborators knew him as intimately as his wife, Linda, did. Their romantic relationship produced some of the most beautiful love songs of all time, many of which featured Linda as a backing vocalist or instrumentalist. Shortly before her death, Linda added vocals to the final song on Flaming Pie. This collaboration proved to be a touching “goodbye” for one of McCartney’s greatest muses.
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The Last Paul McCartney Song to Feature His Wife, Linda
In addition to lending her talents to her husband’s solo work, Linda was also a member of McCartney’s second band, Wings. This made her a permanent and integral figure in McCartney’s post-Beatles life, more so than being married to the musician already had.
Even when she wasn’t in the credits of a song, she might as well have been, given how influential she was on McCartney’s songwriting. For this era of his life, Linda was his constant muse, and for that, all Macca fans can be grateful.
“Great Day”
Flaming Pie was the last McCartney album to feature Linda and the last to be released in her lifetime. While making this record, Linda was battling cancer, which ultimately colored McCartney’s songwriting. That color is evidenced in the final song on the album, “Great Day.”
“Great Day” was written in the ’70s but didn’t appear on a McCartney album until 1998, due to Linda’s battle with cancer. McCartney was looking for something optimistic to record. This old unreleased track was the tone he needed in the face of his wife’s disease. He dusted off this song and used it to close out Flaming Pie.
“In this case, I came across the chords and I just felt optimistic, and I liked the idea of a song saying that help is coming and there’s a bright light on the horizon,” McCartney said of this song. “I’ve got absolutely no evidence for this, but I like to believe it. It helps to lift my spirits, to move me forward, and hopefully it might help other people move forward too.”
To make this song even more touching, McCartney brought a sense of realism to it through the production. In the years between this song’s writing and its formal release, it was a staple in the McCartney household. The pair used to sing it “sitting around the kitchen or when the children were dancing.” McCartney kept that same energy in the recorded version, opting out of any polished production. Despite being released while she was still alive, “Great Day” was the perfect song to close out the final feature of Linda’s lifetime.
(Photo by Gianni Penati/Condé Nast via Getty Images)
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