Recording Mull of Kintyre - 40 Years On

Mull of Kintyre - Looking back on a Scottish mega-hit - BBC News


The late summer might seem like a strange time to write and record a Christmas number one but that is exactly what happened on a Kintyre farm 40 years ago this month.

The song in question was Paul McCartney's "Mull of Kintyre", co-written with Denny Laine and featuring the local Campbeltown Pipe Band.

For a number of years it was the biggest-selling single of all time, and was the first UK single to sell more than two million copies.

Co-writer Laine had joined McCartney's group Wings in 1971, having previously enjoyed chart success with The Moody Blues, and over the next decade they wrote a number of songs together.

One morning at breakfast while staying at the former Beatle's High Park Farm on the Kintyre peninsula, McCartney played Laine the chorus of a new song.

He said: "Paul said he was having a go at writing a Scottish song but wasn't sure how people would feel about it, an Englishman singing a Scottish song."

The next day armed with a bottle of whisky the pair sat on the steps of a cottage in the afternoon sun and wrote the verses.

"We just looked around at all the hillsides and the glens and everything and just wrote the words and the rest of the song that afternoon," Laine said.

But it became more than just another song when McCartney roped in the local pipe band.

In a video on his website McCartney explained how he got the late Tony Wilson, the leader of Campbeltown Pipe Band, on board.

McCartney said: "I said: 'Hey, I've written a song and I'd like you to help me record it with the pipe band'. He said: 'Aye, very good, very good'."

But for the world's most famous Liverpudlian and an ex-Moody Blue from Birmingham it was soon apparent that there was a rather steep learning curve to work out how to incorporate a Scottish pipe band into a rock band.

The song had been written and recorded in the key of A, but pipes can only play in B flat or E flat.

"I don't remember how we did it, whether we slowed it down or sped it up," says Laine.

"But we got the key the same as the pipers' B flat.

"Then we had to transpose one section to E flat when they came in for the second part of the song which was great because it made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

"It gave it that boost, a change of key when they came in, and I think that was the selling point really."

The pipes were recorded outside in the open air and Laine thinks that gave it a special sound that couldn't have been found in a studio.

Meanwhile, McCartney had promised the thirsty pipers a drink or two but was wary about unleashing the booze before they had the definitive take.

McCartney said: "I said we won't drink before the session because it could go horribly wrong. We'll break out the drinks when we've got the take."

But once the recording was in the can the party could begin.

"We were all having a celebratory drink and they were all standing round and beaming," said McCartney.

"They'd never been in a recording studio before so they're all loving hearing the whole track coming out of the speakers."

Pipe Band leader Tony Wilson died in 1994 but among the pipers listening back in the control room that night was a young Ian McKerral, now the main piping instructor for schools across Kintyre.

In his home overlooking Campbeltown bay a picture of the pipe band with the McCartney, his late wife Linda and Denny Laine has pride of place.

"We did a ten to fifteen minute tune up and then just went for it," he said.

"McCartney came out and said that's it boys. We just couldn't believe it. Everybody was just buzzing, it was just a great atmosphere."

And outside his house overlooking Campbeltown bay Ian was more than happy to relive the moment as a duo with John Lang Brown, another piper who played on that session as a star struck 16-year-old.

He remembers listening back that night 40 years ago.

"To be honest I thought that's not us. It sounded so good with everything, the guitars, the bass, the drums. The whole lot put together was an amazing sound. I couldn't believe it. I still don't believe it!"

The rest, as they say, is history.

Mull of Kintyre spent nine weeks at number one over Christmas 1977 and for years it remained the biggest selling single of all time.

Not bad for a song written and recorded on a Kintyre farm by a Brummie and a Scouser and featuring the local pipe band.

 

Just one of those examples of McCartney pulling something out of the hat that connects with the public. MOK was played to DEATH upon it's release. For years I never wanted to hear it again. Now I enjoy it and can appreciate it's class and simple beauty. Girls' School isn't bad either!

MOK sounds great on the Wings Greatest CD. The original version, mind you... None of that remastered 1993 rubbish.

 

Wonderful story ....thanks for posting.

 

Wonderful song which I never tire of!

 

One of his coolest and most atmospheric tunes. A masterpiece. Goes well with a dram of good peaty single malt scotch whisky. In fact one of my friends described it as "sonic scotch".

 

The best single McCartney has ever released IMO.

 

A cool song...



McCartney/Wings - Mull Of Kintyre

 

Ditto....I loved it when I was a kid and sung it in the school choir (I was 7 when it came out). When its sincerity & omnipresence started getting slated in the 1980s, I joined in with chorus. I really hated it. Now, as a sentimental old Celt 12,000 miles from home, I love it. On the right moment (usually after a dram or two), I have been known to shed a little tear. It's the pipes, laddy!

 

First time I heard this song was Wingspan. It's since become one of my favorite songs of Sir Jim. I think it was the bagpipes.

I have the Capitol 45 of this with picture sleeve (not together, obviously). Hearing "Girls' School" for the first time was clutch.

 

I bought the 45rpm in New Jersey the day it was released at Record World in 1977.
Girls School was the A side here.
I remember playing the B side Mull of Kintyre for the first time and thinking "what is this crap?"
I love the song now ....but it was a bit hard to take upon first listen as I was a 14 year old high school freshman who was into rock and pop music.

 

my little brother bought it also, it was quite different and beautiful. gotta look for that record on my next visit to the old homestead

 

I'm a big Beatles fan, I'm a big Paul McCartney fan, but I am not a MOK fan.

 

I liked Mull of Kintyre from the radio.
A friend of mine and me, would like to play that song on guitar and sing the tune. It was great when we reached the section where there was the change of key. That
gave the hole song a boost.

Great song, best regards

 

Paul and Wings had put out a stream of excellent, and totally different to each other, singles and Mull Of Kintyre certainly continued that tradition. It was a song that seemed to span the generations and I'm sure many parents, aunties and grandparents received the single in their Christmas stocking that year.

McCartney is often derided for his sentimentality, but when he gets it right like he did here, he can move mountains.

 

Great song, one of his best.

 

I hated it throughout the winter of 1977-78... it was never off the radio or Top Of The Pops. Since Wingspan, I think it is brilliant...!!

 

Ad from Record Mirror on the single's release.

 

And a 'thank you' from the band a few weeks later. Also from Record Mirror.

 

Review from Record Mirror.



The Mike Yarwood Christmas Show was a big deal in the U.K. in those days,

 

What was this thing, they found inside the 1.000.000th copy?

Best regards

 

I was wondering that myself.

Hopefully someone on here may know the answer.

 

According to Wikipedia:

The millionth copy of the disc sold in the UK included a special certificate. It was sold to David Ackroyd, who was presented with a gold disc of the single by Laine

 

Both "Mull" and "School" were played a lot on the radio a few days before the single was released... so that I thought there were both tracks from the new album.
I was really persuaded that it meant the album then rumoured to be called "Water Wings" was going to be released imminently.
I was somehow disappointed when I was told by a record shop that there was a new Wings single, but no album, and there wasn't going to be one for the next few months...
But then, what a wonderful single!

 

Sometimes I'm just amazed at how Paul McCartney can write a song that sounds like it's been around for ages but is somehow original at the same time. It's another standard from a very gifted melody man.

Sometime around 2006 in a pub in Elephant & Castle I witnessed what was about to become a nasty fight. Upon hearing Scottish voices yelling I grabbed an acoustic and started playing "Mull Of Kintyre". Within a few bars, the lads had their arms around each other singing along drunkenly and loudly. Still one of my favourite memories!

 

Most of Paul's solo stuff is ear candy but Mull Of Kintyre is much more and you can feel Paul's passion for Scotland in the lyrics and wonderful melody. A great song and I think his best single. And it was a huge hit in Australia - 9 weeks or something at number 1.