The release
Two months prior to Back To The Egg’s release, Wings issued a standalone single, ‘Goodnight Tonight’/‘Daytime Nighttime Suffering’ in March 1979. It became a top five transatlantic hit, and became Wings’ third best-selling single.
The a-side had been recorded during the London Town sessions but received further overdubs while Wings were recording Back To The Egg. ‘Daytime Nighttime Suffering’, which was originally considered for the a-side, was recorded at Replica Studio during the mixing of Back To The Egg. McCartney challenged the members of Wings to each write a song over a weekend, with the best to be recorded and possibly used on the album.
Another single, ‘Old Siam, Sir’/‘Spin It On’, followed in the UK in June.
In the US, ‘Getting Closer’ became a single, again with ‘Spin It On’ on the b-side. Both releases were moderate hits, reaching numbers 35 and 20 in their respective charts.
Back To The Egg was released in the UK on 8 June 1979; it reached number four in the charts, spending a total of just eight weeks on the countdown – the shortest run of any Wings album.
Three days later it was issued in the US, peaking at number eight. Sales of the album were initially strong, but lacked the momentum to become a chart-topper.
I saw a thing on the telly the other night. It said that there are three million copies of Back To The Egg waiting around in a warehouse, which sounds as if it is the world’s greatest flop. But for any other group to sell a million, which the album has, it is a major success. It is a good album; it’s the band’s first album. Those copies that they didn’t sell were mainly because the record company produced too many. They just thought that it was going to sell in huger quantities and they got stuck with them, which I think is a daft idea anyway. I think they should wait until somebody orders them, and then print them up.
At 12.30pm on 11 June 1979 McCartney held a press conference at EMI’s Studio Two. The studio was decorated to look like a giant frying pan, with the walls covered with black curtains, and tables adorned with yellow parasols to represent egg yolks.
The album was played to invited guests and reporters. Also at the event was the first screening of the Rockestra film, though only 15 minutes were shown. The film crew were presented with an engraved egg cup and spoon by the McCartneys.
Two collectible promotional items were created for Back To The Egg. A box set contained an egg-shaped badge, key ring, booklet, sticker, postcard, five smaller cards and a t-shirt, as well as a copy of the album.
The more valuable, however, was a picture disc pressed by EMI featuring the cover artwork on both sides. Limited to just 100 copies, it became highly sought after, although counterfeit versions are known to exist.
In-store displays and other promotional items including egg-shaped jigsaw puzzles were also manufactured at the time of the album’s release.
On 10 August 1979, ‘Getting Closer’/‘Baby’s Request’ was released as a single in the UK, but rose no higher in the charts than number 60. Three days later a US single, ‘Arrow Through Me’/‘Old Siam, Sir’, followed, and peaked at number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Back To The Egg was first issued on compact disc in July 1989, and had three bonus tracks: ‘Daytime Nighttime Suffering’, ‘Wonderful Christmastime’, and its original b-side ‘Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reggae’. The album was remastered and reissued in 1993 with the same bonus tracks.
Live performances
Wings’ final tour took place in November and December 1979 across Britain. Performing in theatres rather than stadiums, the group ended the tour in Glasgow on 17 December.
Their final performance, however, was at London’s Hammersmith Odeon on 29 December. Kurt Waldheim, the then UN Secretary General, approached McCartney to ask if Wings would give a charity concert for the victims of war-torn Cambodia (then Kampuchea). The result was a series of events, Concerts For The People Of Kampuchea, which featured The Who, Queen, and The Clash as other headliners.
The final concert was also Wings’ last. Two versions of ‘Rockestra Theme’ were performed with many of the original musicians, including John Paul Jones, John Bonham, and Pete Townshend. Other performers included Robert Plant, Dave Edmunds and Rockpile, Billy Bremner, and James Honeyman-Scott.
The audio recording was released as an EP and on the 1981 live album Concerts For The People Of Kampuchea, which also included Wings’ performances of ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’, ‘Every Night’, ‘Coming Up’, ‘Lucille’, and ‘Let It Be’.
First, thank you Joe for working your way through Paul’s solo albums!
They’re as familiar and important as The Beatles’ albums to me, so it’s nice to see them recognized here. And you always provide some little details even I didn’t know before!
Second, let me express how excellent this album is.
It’s really tight, and, as your article said, one of his most self-confident works.
Great rockers like “Spin it on”, “Old Siam Sir” and nice ballads like “Baby’s request” or “Winterrose” – and of course the incredible Rockestra-songs.
Shame, shame, shame that Paul ended this line-up so quickly with his drug bust in Japan. The tour would have been fantastic.
A lot of attention is giving to Band on the Run but in my opinion Ram and Back to the Egg are grossly overlooked. Both very strong and albums. Spit It On and Getting Closer absolutley rock but nobody talks about these songs.
I just saw “Transporter” and recognized a sample of “Old Siam, sir”!!
It’s a Rap song, here’s the link.
Cool video, check it out!
https://www.whosampled.com/sample/348/Knoc-Turn%27al-Muzik-Wings-Old-Siam,-Sir/
I was there living in Lympne at the time also at the castle when Wings were recording and on the airfield when they were recording in the hanger, an experience I will never forget
You must’ve been so fortunate.
Track listing is missing “To You.”
Also, “After The Ball/Million Miles” and “Winter Rose/Love Awake” are both medleys. The medley on RED ROSE SPEEDWAY is correctly listed, and I think the pair on ROCK `N’ ROLL are as well.
JcS
Thanks Joseph – corrected now.
I really like “Back to the Egg” a lot and I don’t get all of the criticism that it encountered on its initial release in 1979. Yes, Paul wanted to go in a different direction and absorb contemporary punk and new wave influences, hence that Chris Thomas, who had previously produced certain sessions for The Beatles’ White Album and “Abbey Road” if George Martin was on holiday or unavailable, was recruited to collaborate with Paul as producer and he had also been working with The Sex Pistols and The Pretenders.
I know that around this time, he acquired his left-handed Yamaha BB1200 bass, but he still used his trusty left-handed Rickenbacker bass on much of “Back to the Egg”, according to a talkbass forum, and he also had a fretless Rickenbacker bass. In addition, he used Bill Black’s double bass, given to him as a birthday present by Linda, on the song “Baby’s Request”.
If one follows this link and reads the individual song links, Laurence Juber provides some interesting info about which guitars he, Denny Laine and Paul played both in a then-contemporary 1979 newsletter article as well as a 2014 one and his memory seems to be generally consistent. He also acknowledges Paul’s bass playing as well.
The album still sold relatively well, despite falling short of Paul’s and CBS’s expectations, because it went platinum in the USA and gold in the UK while charting within the top 10 in both countries, so it wasn’t like it failed to chart at all. It also hit #3 in my native Australia, so it did very well there.
A criminally underrated album along with its associated singles and B sides then by critics and many fans though the album has since become somewhat of a cult favorite even by non Macca dire hards. The vocals on the rock songs are incredible and the album like many wings albums includes multi genres. I personally really love his searing hot vocals on so glad to see you, especially on the rockestra version and his vocals on one million miles.
Where is the Boxed Set to BTTE, and London Town???????