Paul McCartney loves a ‘project’ and in August 1974, while “Band on the Run” was enjoying a seven-week run at the top of the UK album charts, he and Wings headed to Abbey Road Studios for some filming and live-in-the-studio sessions, with a vague idea of turning it into something. A documentary film perhaps? Possibly a live studio album? Like some of Paul’s ideas it came to nothing, but these sessions did acquire a name: “One Hand Clapping”. So some 50 years after the event, they are being released for (almost) the first time, via three different audio formats.
David Litchfield had filmed and recorded (over four days) a new Wings line-up, which featured Paul, Linda, Denny Laine, guitarist Jimmy McCulloch and (short-lived) drummer Geoff Britton. Orchestral arranger Del Newman and saxophonist Howie Casey, were also present to contribute.
The sessions were a mixture of recent hits, such as ‘Live and Let Die’, ‘Band on the Run’, ‘Jet’, ‘Junior’s Farm’, ‘My Love’ and a bit of dipping back into the past for some Beatles classics ‘Let It Be’, ‘The Long and Winding Road’ and ‘Lady Madonna’. Denny Laine sings the Moody Blues’ ‘Go Now’ and Paul also revisits ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ from 1970’s “McCartney”. There’s also some messing around as Paul tackles the Harry Akst/Benny Davis Tin Pan Alley classic ‘Baby Face’ and dabbles with ‘I’ll Give You A Ring’, a McCartney original that would not see the light of day until a re-recording appeared as the B-side to 1982 single ‘Take It Away’.
The reason this is almost the first release of this material is because tracks from it have surfaced, here and there, over the years. The “One Hand Clapping” performance of ‘Live and Let Die’ was issued over 20 years ago on the soundtrack to Andrew Fleming’s 2003 film The In-Laws. Also, when Paul started his Archive Collection series in 2010, with “Band on the Run”, “One Hand Clapping” was mined as a source of bonus material to help fill out the deluxe editions. For example, six performances were on the “Band on the Run” bonus CD (2010), one on the “McCartney” bonus CD (2011) and both DVDs with those packages included “One Hand Clapping” footage.
“One Hand Clapping” will be issued as a 2CD set and a 2LP vinyl set, . A special 2LP+7″ version is only orderable via McCartney/Universal Music channels where the seven-inch single includes exclusive solo performances recorded on the final day of the sessions in the backyard of Abbey Road studios: These include the unreleased track ‘Blackpool’ (a version of which was lined up to be B-side to the cancelled 1983 single ‘The Man’), ‘Blackbird’ and cover versions of Eddie Cochran’s Twenty Flight Rock and Buddy Holly’s ‘Peggy Sue’ and ‘I’m Gonna Love You Too’.
The latter point begs the question, why do the formats for this reissue include no video at all? Very strange, considering a TV sales brochure for the unreleased film was created at the time!
“One Hand Clapping” will be released on 14th June 2024 via Capitol/UMe.
The Fat Angel Sings 