Paul McCartney has debuted a visualizer video for “Arrow Through Me,” a song he recorded with his post-Beatles band Wings. The track originally appeared on Wings’ final studio, Back to the Egg, which was released in 1979.
Videos by American Songwriter
“Arrow Through Me” also is featured on the new WINGS compilation, which was curated by Sir Paul and was released on November 7. The clip, which you can watch now on McCartney’s official YouTube channel, features footage from the original music video for the song combined with stylized graphics and animation, archival photos of the band members, and scrolling images of a handwritten lyric sheet.
“Arrow Through Me” was one of Wings’ final charting hits before the band’s broke up. It peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song featured a mix of pop, funk, and reggae influences. According to Wikipedia, McCartney and drummer Steve Holley were the only Wings members who played on the track. Paul contributed vocals, keyboard bass, electric piano, and clavinet, while Holley played drums, percussion, and drum machine. The track also included a four-piece horn section featuring Howie Casey, Tony Dorsey, Steve Howard, and Thaddeus Richard.
In a recent installment of McCartney’s “You Gave Me the Answer” online Q&A feature, Paul revealed that “Arrow Through Me” was one of his favorite deep cuts by Wings.
More About “Arrow Through Me”
McCartney also discussed “Arrow Through Me” in his 2021 book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present.
In the short chapter dedicated to the tune, he shared, “I have always had a soft spot for this song. There’s a nice horn riff in it, and it’s funky. Sometimes you write to get a sort of feeling rather than a perfectly ‘correct’ lyric. Sometimes the lyric can be secondary to the feeling. This one has as much, or more, to do with the feel of the song, the groove.”
McCartney also touched on the meaning behind the tune.
“This is a love song in which Cupid arrow is referenced, but it’s a malevolent arrow,” he noted. “It’s possible I’d seen an illustration of Cupid and thought, ‘Cupid fires a bow, but I’ll switch it. It won’t be love; it will be the opposite.’”
McCartney added, “The character in the song has been wounded. He’s been cheated on. And it could’ve been a great relationship, could’ve been fantastic. As things stand, you couldn’t ‘have found a more down hero,’ because there was nobody more down than me at that moment. So, get it together and bring your love.”
More About the WINGS Compilation
As previously reported, the WINGS compilation is available as a three-LP set and a two-CD collection featuring 32 tracks, a single CD or LP with 12 songs, and via digital formats. In addition, a Blu-ray version will feature Dolby Atmos, 5.1 surround, and stereo mixes of the aforementioned 32 tracks.
“Arrow Through Me” appears on both the 32-track and the 12-song versions of WINGS.
Limited-edition colored-vinyl and black-vinyl versions of WINGS also are available, featuring two posters and a sticker sheet. The colored-vinyl set, which features clear, green, and pink LPs, also comes with an exclusive litho print.
The artwork for WINGS was overseen by McCartney and Aubrey “Po” Powell of the famed Hipgnosis design agency. Po worked on seven Wings album covers.
The physical formats are packaged with a booklet featuring an introduction written by McCartney. The booklet also boasts album-by-album notes on the artwork penned by Po, and additional editorial content written by British rock journalist Peter Paphides.
Other Recent McCartney News
The compilation was released in conjunction with McCartney’s new memoir, Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, which was published on November 4.
The memoir was based on dozens of hours of interviews with McCartney and “numerous key players” associated with Wings. The book charts Paul and the band’s journey from its formation in the early 1970s through its 1981 dissolution. An audiobook version of the memoir will be released on December 18.
A new documentary about the same era of McCartney’s career, Man on the Run, will get its TV premiere via Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service starting February 25, 2026.
Meanwhile, McCartney wrapped up a fall North American leg of his Get Back Tour in Chicago on November 25. No official word yet if Paul will be touring in 2026.
(Photo by Watal Asanuma/Shinko Music/Getty Images)
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