Late Night Music Final Four Edition Part 185......"Beatle Solo Songs"
It's been a stressful week, so
nothing like a little Beatle action to get you in a better mood. In
order to be considered for this list, the song had to be released (not
necessarily recorded) after the Beatles official break up April 4, 1970.
The song had to be recorded by a Beatle or a band featuring a former
Beatle.
"La De Da"- Ringo Starr. After the worldwide success of the Anthology project celebrating the 25th anniversary of the break up of the Beatles, Ringo Starr capitalized on the exposure to attempt a comeback with this lead single to his 1998 solo album Vertical Man. Despite heavy promotion, this entertaining video, and a VH1 "Storytellers" special, the Ringo Starr solo act never really caught on like it had in the 1970's. Nevertheless, we were blessed with a quite catchy song and one of Starr's better efforts in not only songwriting, but drums wise as well. This single peaked at #63 on the British Singles Chart, and while it received a certain amount of radio/TV play in the United States, it never caught on and never charted on the Billboard Charts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlbedF4VIvc
"I Got My Mind Set On You"- George Harrison. In 1987, George Harrison made a huge splash with his return as a solo artist before the Traveling Wilburys came together in 1988 (more on them later). Harrison's first solo single in nearly 5 years was this cover song by James Ray in 1962. This version was included on Harrison's album Cloud Nine and peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became easily one of Harrison's biggest solo hits. This video came out at the height of the MTV era and was replayed for years just due to its hilarious concept and its feeling it gives you that you are on a Disney attraction like Country Bear Jamboree or the Tiki Tiki Room, or maybe even Chuck E. Cheese before the rebranding. I mean what says funny like singing animal heads?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGYYDvZnpg
"Silly Love Songs"- Wings. This Paul McCartney penned classic would be the lead single for the 1976 smash Wings album Wings At The Speed of Sound and would put an exclamation point on a unbelievably successful period for Wings that included the albums Band On The Run, Venus and Mars, and this one. This single, which included great backup vocals by his then wife Linda, shot to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and remained a favorite of the couple to play until her death in 1997. Surprisingly, when I saw Paul in concert in 2002, this song was not included in the set list. I have come up with two possible theories for this (because he seriously played 36 songs that night as part of his "Back In The USA" tour). The first is that it was just too difficult to come up with a brass section and too tedious to bring them in for one song when you don't use much brass otherwise. The other is that he "retired" the song after Linda's death in 1997. Either way, this will always be one of McCartney's best ever songs he's wrote.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_9QooYDYtU
"(Just Like) Starting Over"- John Lennon. This posthumous mega hit for John Lennon gave us a peak at just how big Double Fantasy would have been had he been alive to fully see it come to fruition. Easily his biggest American hit, this single was released just 6 weeks before his murder, and it went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 after his death in 1981. Like the rest of the album of Double Fantasy, this song was deeply personal, and was showing that after taking 4 years off from the limelight, John Lennon was ready to take the world by storm again. Despite most people's feelings about Yoko Ono, this song and video really showed how much in love he really was and how at peace he was with his life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op-uIUIktWY
"Say Say Say"- Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney. In 1983, Paul and Michael Jackson topped the charts twice with "The Girl Is Mine" from Jackson's mega album Thriller, and this single from McCartney's album Pipes of Peace. This single shot to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became amazingly, Michael Jackson's 7th top 10 single inside that calendar year. According to McCartney, Jackson wrote most of the lyrics to the song, while he wrote most of the music and played nearly every instrument on the track. This success led to the two pop icons establishing a relationship that would end in controversy when Michael Jackson would wind up obtaining control of all the Beatles catalog copyrights in the late 1980s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC2Grms55Fw
"I Won't Back Down"- Tom Petty. Just watch this video and you'll see why I counted this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvlTJrNJ5lA
"Ebony and Ivory"- Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder. Before his smash hit with Jackson, Paul teamed up with music legend Stevie Wonder in 1982 on his album Tug of War to record this cheesy yet powerful duet. This outspoken single went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and despite it's amazing commercial success, it has been panned by critics as possibly the worst single of McCartney and Wonder's careers and is considered by many critics as one of the worst songs ever recorded. I'll let you be the judge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmALA8miQY8
"The End of the Line"- Traveling Wilburys. After finding success as a solo artist again, George Harrison joined the super group of Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and the late Roy Orbison, the Traveling Wilburys. This last single from their 1989 debut album Volume 1, was filmed shortly after Oribson's death and includes a tribute to the rock legend in the video. This catchy single peaked at #63 on the Billboard Hot 100 and features Harrison singing the opening chorus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwqhdRs4jyA
"Coming Up"- Paul McCartney. In 1980, Paul McCartney had just recorded his last album with Wings, and he drastically changed his sound for his first solo album since 1971, McCartney II. This upbeat single once again established McCartney as a household name when it peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 becoming his first solo #1 hit. While this video was widely popular as was the new synthesized sound, the live version received much more airplay just due to being more "radio friendly". I smell a bonus video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnHu-WLvY5U
"Photograph"- Ringo Starr. In 1973, Ringo used his post Beatle days to glam up his act and this single struck gold (literally) when it shot to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 off of his album Ringo. This video features a solid live performance from 2002's Concert For George live album featuring Eric Clapton on guitar. If you look really close, you can also see Noel Gallagher from Oasis playing guitar. I guess his dream of being a Beatle was realized. Surprisingly, Harrison co-wrote the song with Starr and played guitar on the original track. These constant collaborations after the band's break up leads me to believe that the Beatles would have eventually reunited had it not been for Lennon's death. They were at a good stopping place, but they loved working together too much to not at least give it another shot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ptctz_rnkJ8
"Whatever Gets You Through The Night"- John Lennon and Elton John (live from Madison Square Garden). This now famous surprise performance from Elton John's now famous Thanksgiving Day 1974 concert in Madison Square Garden (which part of was included on his live album Here and There) brought John Lennon out of hiding and included the only live performance of this song ever done by the then recluse John Lennon. This song from Lennon's last true studio album Walls and Bridges became his first #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and the only one he had in his lifetime. I think this also shows the respect Elton John had for John Lennon, because at the time, Elton John was arguably the #1 act in the world, and Lennon, though a part of the biggest band of all time, had long since left this throne and had not had a major concert appearance in 8 years. What a duo that I wish we could have seen more of.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoupFtYQj8s
"Souvenir"- Paul McCartney. In 1997, Paul McCartney used the new found mainstream exposure to record his first original solo album since 1993 with Flaming Pie. This song was included on this critically acclaimed album, which would go on to be nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Album at that year's ceremony. Flaming Pie also peaked at #2 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWE0N7o6JmI
"All Things Must Pass"- George Harrison. In 1970, shortly after the Beatles breakup, George Harrison released a triple (yes, TRIPLE) album with this song serving as the title track to the critically acclaimed album that shot to #1 on the Billboard Albums Chart. The fact that George had that many songs shows how much he wasn't able to have songs on Beatles albums. This song was actually written during the Beatles now infamous Get Back sessions and was up for inclusion on both Let it Be and Abbey Road, but it was left off of both. This deeply and emotional song was never once performed by George live, but remained one of this fan favorites until his death in 2001.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebtC3ORg9fU
"Happy Christmas (War Is Over)"- John Lennon. In 1971, John and Yoko were determined to make a political statement with this standalone holiday single that featured the famous Harlem Community Choir and features Yoko Ono heavily on lead vocals on the chorus. This song still receives heavy airplay on all stations around Holiday season. This single peaked at #36 on the now defunct US Cashbox Singles Chart, but has been re-released several times at Christmas in the United Kingdom where it continues to appear on the British Singles Chart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN4Uu0OlmTg
"Maybe I'm Amazed"- Paul McCartney. In what I consider to be his best song, Paul McCartney wrote this song in 1970 shortly before the inevitable breakup of the Beatles as a tribute to Linda giving him so much support during a difficult time. It appeared as his first solo single and was included on his debut solo album McCartney in 1971 and it peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100. This masterpiece song remains on his set list to this day, and I had the great fortune to see him mess up this song live and actually have to start over in front of 21,000 people at the New Orleans Arena. But who is ever gonna get upset about that?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm2YyVZBL8U
"Free As A Bird". Just had to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9DmBRR05BE
BONUS VIDEOS- "Coming Up"- radio "live version".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXNFynXEow0
"Part Time Lover"- Stevie Wonder featuring Luther Vandross.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCBGKzpxsBU
"Easy Lover"- Phillip Bailey and Phil Collins.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkRKT6T0QLg
"The Girl Is Mine"- Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE3zJgO-0S4
"Too Late For Goodbyes"- Julian Lennon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYNv23n5EPM
McCartney
George Harrison
Wings
Traveling Wilburys
Ringo
John Lennon
"La De Da"- Ringo Starr. After the worldwide success of the Anthology project celebrating the 25th anniversary of the break up of the Beatles, Ringo Starr capitalized on the exposure to attempt a comeback with this lead single to his 1998 solo album Vertical Man. Despite heavy promotion, this entertaining video, and a VH1 "Storytellers" special, the Ringo Starr solo act never really caught on like it had in the 1970's. Nevertheless, we were blessed with a quite catchy song and one of Starr's better efforts in not only songwriting, but drums wise as well. This single peaked at #63 on the British Singles Chart, and while it received a certain amount of radio/TV play in the United States, it never caught on and never charted on the Billboard Charts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlbedF4VIvc
"I Got My Mind Set On You"- George Harrison. In 1987, George Harrison made a huge splash with his return as a solo artist before the Traveling Wilburys came together in 1988 (more on them later). Harrison's first solo single in nearly 5 years was this cover song by James Ray in 1962. This version was included on Harrison's album Cloud Nine and peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became easily one of Harrison's biggest solo hits. This video came out at the height of the MTV era and was replayed for years just due to its hilarious concept and its feeling it gives you that you are on a Disney attraction like Country Bear Jamboree or the Tiki Tiki Room, or maybe even Chuck E. Cheese before the rebranding. I mean what says funny like singing animal heads?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGYYDvZnpg
"Silly Love Songs"- Wings. This Paul McCartney penned classic would be the lead single for the 1976 smash Wings album Wings At The Speed of Sound and would put an exclamation point on a unbelievably successful period for Wings that included the albums Band On The Run, Venus and Mars, and this one. This single, which included great backup vocals by his then wife Linda, shot to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and remained a favorite of the couple to play until her death in 1997. Surprisingly, when I saw Paul in concert in 2002, this song was not included in the set list. I have come up with two possible theories for this (because he seriously played 36 songs that night as part of his "Back In The USA" tour). The first is that it was just too difficult to come up with a brass section and too tedious to bring them in for one song when you don't use much brass otherwise. The other is that he "retired" the song after Linda's death in 1997. Either way, this will always be one of McCartney's best ever songs he's wrote.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_9QooYDYtU
"(Just Like) Starting Over"- John Lennon. This posthumous mega hit for John Lennon gave us a peak at just how big Double Fantasy would have been had he been alive to fully see it come to fruition. Easily his biggest American hit, this single was released just 6 weeks before his murder, and it went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 after his death in 1981. Like the rest of the album of Double Fantasy, this song was deeply personal, and was showing that after taking 4 years off from the limelight, John Lennon was ready to take the world by storm again. Despite most people's feelings about Yoko Ono, this song and video really showed how much in love he really was and how at peace he was with his life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op-uIUIktWY
"Say Say Say"- Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney. In 1983, Paul and Michael Jackson topped the charts twice with "The Girl Is Mine" from Jackson's mega album Thriller, and this single from McCartney's album Pipes of Peace. This single shot to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became amazingly, Michael Jackson's 7th top 10 single inside that calendar year. According to McCartney, Jackson wrote most of the lyrics to the song, while he wrote most of the music and played nearly every instrument on the track. This success led to the two pop icons establishing a relationship that would end in controversy when Michael Jackson would wind up obtaining control of all the Beatles catalog copyrights in the late 1980s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC2Grms55Fw
"I Won't Back Down"- Tom Petty. Just watch this video and you'll see why I counted this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvlTJrNJ5lA
"Ebony and Ivory"- Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder. Before his smash hit with Jackson, Paul teamed up with music legend Stevie Wonder in 1982 on his album Tug of War to record this cheesy yet powerful duet. This outspoken single went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and despite it's amazing commercial success, it has been panned by critics as possibly the worst single of McCartney and Wonder's careers and is considered by many critics as one of the worst songs ever recorded. I'll let you be the judge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmALA8miQY8
"The End of the Line"- Traveling Wilburys. After finding success as a solo artist again, George Harrison joined the super group of Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and the late Roy Orbison, the Traveling Wilburys. This last single from their 1989 debut album Volume 1, was filmed shortly after Oribson's death and includes a tribute to the rock legend in the video. This catchy single peaked at #63 on the Billboard Hot 100 and features Harrison singing the opening chorus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwqhdRs4jyA
"Coming Up"- Paul McCartney. In 1980, Paul McCartney had just recorded his last album with Wings, and he drastically changed his sound for his first solo album since 1971, McCartney II. This upbeat single once again established McCartney as a household name when it peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 becoming his first solo #1 hit. While this video was widely popular as was the new synthesized sound, the live version received much more airplay just due to being more "radio friendly". I smell a bonus video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnHu-WLvY5U
"Photograph"- Ringo Starr. In 1973, Ringo used his post Beatle days to glam up his act and this single struck gold (literally) when it shot to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 off of his album Ringo. This video features a solid live performance from 2002's Concert For George live album featuring Eric Clapton on guitar. If you look really close, you can also see Noel Gallagher from Oasis playing guitar. I guess his dream of being a Beatle was realized. Surprisingly, Harrison co-wrote the song with Starr and played guitar on the original track. These constant collaborations after the band's break up leads me to believe that the Beatles would have eventually reunited had it not been for Lennon's death. They were at a good stopping place, but they loved working together too much to not at least give it another shot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ptctz_rnkJ8
"Whatever Gets You Through The Night"- John Lennon and Elton John (live from Madison Square Garden). This now famous surprise performance from Elton John's now famous Thanksgiving Day 1974 concert in Madison Square Garden (which part of was included on his live album Here and There) brought John Lennon out of hiding and included the only live performance of this song ever done by the then recluse John Lennon. This song from Lennon's last true studio album Walls and Bridges became his first #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and the only one he had in his lifetime. I think this also shows the respect Elton John had for John Lennon, because at the time, Elton John was arguably the #1 act in the world, and Lennon, though a part of the biggest band of all time, had long since left this throne and had not had a major concert appearance in 8 years. What a duo that I wish we could have seen more of.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoupFtYQj8s
"Souvenir"- Paul McCartney. In 1997, Paul McCartney used the new found mainstream exposure to record his first original solo album since 1993 with Flaming Pie. This song was included on this critically acclaimed album, which would go on to be nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Album at that year's ceremony. Flaming Pie also peaked at #2 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWE0N7o6JmI
"All Things Must Pass"- George Harrison. In 1970, shortly after the Beatles breakup, George Harrison released a triple (yes, TRIPLE) album with this song serving as the title track to the critically acclaimed album that shot to #1 on the Billboard Albums Chart. The fact that George had that many songs shows how much he wasn't able to have songs on Beatles albums. This song was actually written during the Beatles now infamous Get Back sessions and was up for inclusion on both Let it Be and Abbey Road, but it was left off of both. This deeply and emotional song was never once performed by George live, but remained one of this fan favorites until his death in 2001.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebtC3ORg9fU
"Happy Christmas (War Is Over)"- John Lennon. In 1971, John and Yoko were determined to make a political statement with this standalone holiday single that featured the famous Harlem Community Choir and features Yoko Ono heavily on lead vocals on the chorus. This song still receives heavy airplay on all stations around Holiday season. This single peaked at #36 on the now defunct US Cashbox Singles Chart, but has been re-released several times at Christmas in the United Kingdom where it continues to appear on the British Singles Chart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN4Uu0OlmTg
"Maybe I'm Amazed"- Paul McCartney. In what I consider to be his best song, Paul McCartney wrote this song in 1970 shortly before the inevitable breakup of the Beatles as a tribute to Linda giving him so much support during a difficult time. It appeared as his first solo single and was included on his debut solo album McCartney in 1971 and it peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100. This masterpiece song remains on his set list to this day, and I had the great fortune to see him mess up this song live and actually have to start over in front of 21,000 people at the New Orleans Arena. But who is ever gonna get upset about that?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm2YyVZBL8U
"Free As A Bird". Just had to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9DmBRR05BE
BONUS VIDEOS- "Coming Up"- radio "live version".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXNFynXEow0
"Part Time Lover"- Stevie Wonder featuring Luther Vandross.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCBGKzpxsBU
"Easy Lover"- Phillip Bailey and Phil Collins.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkRKT6T0QLg
"The Girl Is Mine"- Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE3zJgO-0S4
"Too Late For Goodbyes"- Julian Lennon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYNv23n5EPM
McCartneyGeorge HarrisonWingsTraveling WilburysRingoJohn Lennon
posted by General 5A Pigott at 7:27 PM
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