Paul McCartney And Wings* – Band On The Run

Recorded at EMI Studios in Lagos (Nigeria) and ARC Studios in Ikeja (Nigeria) between 1 and 22 September 1973 and at Trident Studios and AIR Studios in London in October 1973.

UK Chartography:

This album by Paul McCartney and Wings first charted in the UK’s official music charts in December 1973 (15/12/1973) debuting at the No.45 position. This particular release appeared in the ‘Top 100’ for 103 weeks on its first chart run (15/12/1973 – 29/11/1975). The album had eight further separate chart runs amounting to a grand total of 124 weeks when it has appeared in the UK Top 100 Chart.

The LP became the UK’s official No.1 on 27/07/1974, some 33 weeks after first entering the charts. It remained at the No.1 slot for 7 weeks in all and to date has been Wings’ only No.1 album.

This release of the album has appeared in the UK ‘Top 10’ for 49 weeks and 70 weeks in the ‘Top 40’. After the album’s initial success, its other chart runs were all in the less significant placings within the UK Charts.

However, the ‘Band on the Run’ album was to appear again in the UK Music Charts some years later but as releases under different labels to its original ‘Apple’ and catalogue numbers. Firstly, it was released under the ‘Parlaphone’ label with the catalogue number 4991762 but only appearing for one week in the UK ‘Top 100’ in March 1999 (No.69). This release ‘Band On The Run’ was the ‘25th Anniversary Edition’ on 2xCD.

Its next version, a release on the ‘Concord’ label (cat no. 7232148), had a little more success appearing in the Top 100 for 5 weeks during November – December 2010. On this chart run, the LP’s highest position within the UK Music Charts was No. 17 when it first entered the music charts. This version is found on Discogs here ‘Band On The Run’ and is also in the CD format. (Source: Official Charts Company (UK) (April 2020)).