UK single release: Mull Of Kintyre by Wings

Wings’ single ‘Mull Of Kintyre’ was released as a single in the United Kingdom on 11 November 1977.

A double a-side with ‘Girls School’, it became Wings’ most successful single, selling more than 2.5 million copies. It hit number one in the UK on 3 December, remaining there for nine weeks.

Three different promotional films were made, each featuring Paul and Linda McCartney, Denny Laine, and the Campbeltown Pipe Band miming to the song, either in the studio or on the Mull.

The UK release was marked with a launch party and presentation at Abbey Road Studios, where the McCartneys and Laine were presented with gold and silver discs for Wings At The Speed Of Sound. Guests also watched a promotional film for ‘Mull Of Kintyre’, filmed at High Park Farm on 13 October.

‘Mull Of Kintyre’ became the UK’s biggest-selling single of 1977, a somewhat improbable achievement at the height of the punk movement. It smashed the sales record previously held by The Beatles’ 1963 hit ‘She Loves You’. It also won an Ivor Novello award and was 1977’s Christmas number one single.

The single’s popularity was such a cause for celebration with EMI that the label awarded the purchaser of the millionth copy, David Ackroyd, a gold record. It was presented to Ackroyd by Denny Laine at MPL’s Soho office.

The big thought from me, and from everyone, was that it was 1977; we couldn’t release the song in those days of punk. I mean, it was madness, but I just thought, ‘Well, sod it.’ But even though I was a Sassenach, it became a big Scottish song. It ended up spending nine weeks at number one, and I think it’s still something like the fourth best-selling singing in the UK ever.

And the strange thing was, even punks liked it. One day, Linda and I were in traffic in London in the West End somewhere, and there was a big gang of punks who looked very aggressive, and we were kind of crouching a little bit, trying not to get noticed, and thinking, ‘Jesus, what are they gonna do?’ And then they noticed us, and one of them comes to the car, so I wound down the window a little bit, and he goes, ‘Oh, Paul, that ‘Mull Of Kintyre; is f*****g great!’

‘Mull Of Kintyre’ also topped the charts in Australia, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland.

‘Mull Of Kintyre’ remained the biggest selling UK single until 1984, when Band Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ was released.