‘With A Little Luck’ is the ninth song on Wings’s penultimate album London Town. It was the follow-up to their smash hit single ‘Mull Of Kintyre’.
The song was demoed by Paul McCartney at his Rude Studio in Scotland in the summer of 1976, and the final backing track was taped on 9 May the following year on board the Fair Facol in Watermelon Bay in the Virgin Islands.
I wrote this one up in Scotland, and we did some work on the boat, and overdubbing back in England. And here you go folks: with a little luck, we can make this whole damn thing work out!
BBC Radio 1, 1978
More overdubs were added on 10 and 12 May, and ‘With A Little Luck’ was completed at Abbey Road in January 1978. The final additions included vocals and synthesizers.
I enjoyed the chords in that, and I know we recorded it on the boat in the Caribbean when we were doing the London Town album. I have good memories of that song and its belief that things will work out. I’m playing the synth solo there. It’s one of my more hopeful little ditties.
Billboard, 17 March 2001
‘With A Little Luck’ was released as a single on 20 March 1978, ahead of the London Town album.
It topped the charts in the USA and Canada, and reached number five in the UK. The b-sides were ‘Backwards Traveller’ and ‘Cuff Link’.
A radio edit of ‘With A Little Luck’ reduced the running time from 5:45 to 3:13.
Yeah, that’s going to be the first single from the album. We don’t want to put too many singles out because I think people get a bit fed up if you put millions out. It’s tempting to do that, because the record people always tell you, ‘If you’ve got a single out, it helps the album sales.’ It’s like a trailer for the album. So there’s a lot of difference of opinion over all of that. But I don’t like to do too many, you know, because I think people who have got the album then feel cheated that you’re not doing anything new. So this one is coming out as a sort of trailer to the album.
BBC Radio 1, 1978
A video for the song was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. On 9 May 1978 it was shown in the UK on the ITV children’s programme Paul, hosted by Paul Nicholas.
‘With A Little Luck’ appeared on the compilations Wings Greatest and Wingspan: Hits And History.
