With a Little Luck
| "With a Little Luck" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Wings | ||||
| from the album London Town | ||||
| B-side | "Backwards Traveller"/"Cuff Link" | |||
| Released | 20 March 1978 | |||
| Format | 7" | |||
| Recorded | May 1977 | |||
| Genre | Synthpop, soft rock | |||
| Length |
5:45 (full version) 3:13 (DJ copy) | |||
| Label |
Parlophone (UK) Capitol (US) | |||
| Writer(s) | Paul McCartney | |||
| Producer(s) | Paul McCartney | |||
| Certification | BPI (UK) Silver 1 April 1978[1] | |||
| Wings singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"With a Little Luck" is a single by the band Wings from their 1978 album London Town.
Writing, recording and release
Written in Scotland, "With a Little Luck" would become Wings' follow-up single to the then best-selling UK Single of all time, "Mull of Kintyre."
Recorded in 1977 aboard the boat Fair Carol in the Virgin Islands for the proposed album, working title Water Wings, which was released as the band's seventh album London Town. During these recordings, Wings' lead guitarist Jimmy McCulloch and drummer Joe English had left, returning the band to the three piece line up which had recorded Band on the Run in 1973. McCartney played electric piano, bass and synthesizer in the song: probably English was on drums, while Laine and Linda McCartney helped with some keyboards.[2]
Released in March 1978, the first single from the album, "With a Little Luck" hit No.1 in the United States[3] and No.5 in the UK.[3][4] While it was at the top of the charts in the USA, McCartney announced the new Wings line up featuring lead guitarist Laurence Juber and drummer Steve Holly.
The single features an edit of the much longer version on its parent album and its b-side consists of the segue of two short tracks, "Backward Travellers"/"Cuff Link", also on the album, the first of which is a song and the second an instrumental that features a heavily synthesized guitar theme.
Author Chris Ingham praised the song as one of the best on the album, stating it was "full of the most sensitive pop synthesizer touches."[5] Tom Waseleski of the Beaver County Times regarded "With a Little Luck" as having "more substance" than other of McCartney's soft rock tracks.[6]
The song's music video, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, aired in the UK on 9 May 1978, as part of Granada Television's Paul TV show.[7]
Later release
"With a Little Luck" was also released on Wings Greatest (1978), All the Best! (1987), and the two-disc compilation, Wingspan (2001). There were two versions of the song: the full version on London Town which runs 5:45, and a single version which only runs 3:13 (as it cuts out, among other things, the entire instrumental interlude). The album version was included on Wings Greatest and the UK version of All the Best!, while the single version appears on Wingspan and in the American version of All the Best!.
It was featured in the closing credits of the 1979 film Sunburn starring Farrah Fawcett, Charles Grodin and Art Carney.
References
- ↑ "Certified Awards Search". BPI. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
- ↑ Luca Perasi, Paul McCartney: Recording Sessions (1969-2013), L.I.L.Y. Publishing, 2013, ISBN 978-88-909122-1-4, pp.157-8.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Paul McCartney singles". AllMusic. Retrieved 12 August 2010.
- ↑ "Official Charts: Paul McCartney". The Official UK Charts Company. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
- ↑ Ingham, C. (2009). The Rough Guide to the Beatles (3rd ed.). Penguin. p. 117. ISBN 978-1-4053-8445-2.
- ↑ Waseleski, T. (April 12, 1978). "Paul McCartney: His Return to Basics is Perfect". Beaver County Times. p. B-14. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
- ↑ Miles, Barry; Badman, Keith, ed. (2001). The Beatles Diary After the Break-Up: 1970-2001 (reprint ed.). London: Music Sales Group. ISBN 9780711983076.
External links
| Preceded by "If I Can't Have You" by Yvonne Elliman |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single 20 May 1978 – 27 May 1978 |
Succeeded by "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" by Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams |
| Preceded by "The Closer I Get to You" by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway |
Canadian "RPM" Singles Chart number-one single 27 May 1978 – 10 June 1978 (3 weeks) |
Succeeded by "Shadow Dancing" by Andy Gibb |
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