Paul McCartney is throwing an official listing party for Wings' Wild Life on Friday, February 4th. Fans are fans around the world are welcome to share their memories of the group's beloved 1971 debut album. Log in to Spotify or Apple Music at 12 noon ET — and look out for trivia and messages from the PaulMcCartney.com team.
That same day, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Wings' debut album, “Macca” will release a new half-speed mastering vinyl edition of Wild Life. The new version of the album was cut using a high resolution transfer of the original 1971 master tapes.
Ram drummer and Wings co-founder Denny Seiwell recalled McCartney pitching the idea of forming Wings during the spring of '71, after Ram was released when he invited the drummer and guitarist Hugh McCracken to chill out on his Scottish farm: “A couple of months after Ram had been out, y'know, he said, 'How about you and your wife like to come over and just hang out in Scotland a little bit and take a vacation?' So we just did that — we thought we were over there for a little vacation. At the same time, Hugh McCracken was in Europe doing a Gary Wright tour or something, and Paul invited him up to hang out a little bit. While we were there, he said, 'Why don't we put a group together?' And that's when McCracken wanted to stay in New York, and I said, 'Sure.' Sounded like a good idea to me.”
Wild Life, which was McCartney's third post-Beatles solo set, was released on December 7th, 1971 and topped out at Number 10 on the Billboard 200.