UK album release: Memory Almost Full by Paul McCartney

Memory Almost Full, Paul McCartney’s 14th solo studio album, was released in the United Kingdom on 4 June 2007.

It was the first release by Starbucks’ Hear Music label. McCartney chose to partner with the label following the end of his 45-year relationship with EMI/Capitol.

The first single, ‘Ever Present Past’, was released in the US on 15 May 2007, and became the second UK single on 5 November.

Memory Almost Full was issued in the UK on 4 June 2007, and the following day in the US. A vinyl edition was released on 25 June.

The album charted at number five in the UK. Although sales through Starbucks were not eligible in the Official UK Charts, it was nonetheless McCartney’s highest chart position for more than four years. It spent a total of six weeks on the album chart.

The album also went top 10 in Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Norway and Sweden.

The entire album was given away in the UK with the 18 May 2008 edition of the Mail On Sunday newspaper. It was housed in a cardboard slipcase bearing the words “For promotional use only – not for sale”. The previous week’s edition also contained a track-by-track feature to the album by McCartney.

Memory Almost Full was the first Paul McCartney album to be sold as a digital download. Pre-orders on the iTunes Music Store included a bonus acoustic version of ‘Dance Tonight’. The album topped the Billboard Internet Sales chart, and reached number three on the Billboard Top Internet Albums Downloads chart.

A two-CD limited edition set was also released. Housed in an oversized digipack, the second disc included the extra tracks ‘In Private’, ‘Why So Blue’, and ‘222’, plus an audio commentary by McCartney.