Apple 3363
Producer: Paul McCartney
Track listing: The Lovely Linda / That Would Be Something / Valentine Day / Every Night / Hot as Sun Glasses / Junk / Man We Was Lonely / Oo You / Momma Miss America / Teddy Boy / Singalong Junk / Maybe I’m Amazed / Kreen — Akrore
May 23, 1970
3weeks
Possibly the most significant thing about Paul McCartney’s first solo album, simply known as McCartney, was that it officially confirmed the demise of the Beatles. The album was set for release on April 17, 1970, just two weeks before e Beatles’ Let It Be was to hit the street. Yet a week prior to the album’s release, a mock interview McCartney conducted with himself, which was to be included with promotional copies of the album was leaked to the press. In the interview, McCartney asked and answered three questions that seemingly put the Beatles to rest for good.
“Are you planning a new album or single with the Beatles?,” McCartney asked, only to answer, “No.” “Do you foresee a time when Lennon-McCartney become an active songwriting partnership again?,” McCartney asked, answering again with a “No.” “Do you miss the Beatles and George Martin? Was there a moment, e.g., when you thought, ‘Wish Ringo was here for this break?”‘ Once again the answer was “No.”
Missing the Beatles seemed to be the furthest thing from McCartney’s mind. Indeed, he seemed to relish his new solo status, writing, performing, and producing the whole album by himself in Compbelltown, England, in late 1969. In fact, the only other person to receive a credit on the album was McCartney’s wife, Linda, who contributed vocal harmonies and shot the photos of McCartney and his family that graced the album’s gatefold.
As the gatefold photos suggest, McCartney was enjoying a period of domestic bliss. Twenty-five years later, McCartney told his fanclub newsletter Club Sandwich that his self-titled effort, recorded on a four-track machine in his living room at home, was his most enjoyable solo album to record. “Linda and I were newlyweds, and we had a baby, so we had that golden glow that you get in the first year of marriage,” he said. That happiness was reflected in songs such as “The Lovely Linda” and “Maybe I’m Amazed,” which would become a hit when it was revived as a live recording years later.
“I felt a certain relief at not being tied into the Apple situation, because along with a regret about the break-up of the Beatles there was also a good side to it, which was the feeling of a new start… even if it was a little bit terrifying,” McCartney told Club Sandwich.
The album also found McCartney in an experimental mode, recording material ranging from the Beatles’ outtake “Teddy Boy” to some new instrumentals. “It was so intimate, it was just me, and, listening to it now, I think that I did stuff that I wouldn’t normally have done,”
McCartney told Club Sandwich. “Some of the instrumentals I like a lot. They may not mean much —’Momma Miss America’ doesn’t really add up to much — but I like them.”
Fans also responded. The record, known as “The Cherry Album” because of its cover art, reached the top of the album chart in its third week, despite the fact it failed to spawn a hit single.
While McCartney was displaced from the pole position, ironically, by Let It Be after a three-week run at the top, it did accomplish what McCartney set out to do: establish the former Beatle as a solo force.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of May 23, 1970
1. McCartney, Paul McCartney
2. Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon & Garfunkel
3. Déjà vu, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
4. Chicago, Chicago
5. Band of Gypsys, Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Miles & Billy Cox