RAM

The only album credited to both Paul and Linda McCartney, RAM reached Number 1 in the UK and stayed in the US Top 10 for five months. Recording after he’d left The Beatles and before the formation of Wings, Paul initially flew with Linda to New York to record the songs they'd written but arrived without a band. As Paul recalls, “We were thinking of forming a group at that time, Wings. We went to New York, found a really grotty little basement somewhere and auditioned a bunch of people. We got someone to throw a lot of drummers at us, out of which we picked Denny Seiwell who’s one of the best, and his personality fitted. Then we went in, worked with him, Hugh McCracken, Dave Spinozza, a couple of New York session men, and did RAM.” To avoid arousing too much interest, the auditions were held under the guise of a session for a commercial jingle. As well as Paul’s lead vocals there are harmonies from Linda. “I gave her a hard time, I must say, but we were pleased with the results. Elton John later said somewhere that he thought it was the best harmonies he’d heard in a long while. It was very much the two of us against the world at that point.” Despite an initially lukewarm Rolling Stone review, it was later hailed by them as one of his best solo albums. In 2012, RAM was reissued in remastered form with many extra elements, as part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection.

Performed by Paul & Linda McCartney with Denny Seiwell, Dave Spinozza & Hugh McCracken
Tracks 1, 2, 3, 6, 11, 12 composed by Paul McCartney
Tracks 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 composed by Paul & Linda McCartney
Produced by Paul and Linda McCartney
1993 reissue: Tracks 13 (‘Another Day’) & 14 (Oh Woman, Oh Why’) produced by Paul McCartney
Sound Engineers: Tim, Ted, Phil, Dixon, Armin & Jim
Mixing Engineer: Eirik the Norwegian