# Best “Wings” Collection **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 2, 2014, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-wings-collection/689872 "2014-06-02T22:49:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2014, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-wings-collection/689872/1 "2014-06-02T22:49:57Z")
I’m looking for the “best” (most complete, best quality, etc.) collection of Wings CDs. I don’t need any additional Beatles tracks, unless they’re a different (and better) version than the originals. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life chasing the ultimate Paul McCartney; I just want to buy one set that more-or-less sums up that period of his life, but a little more than a 1-disk “Best of” release. I’m looking at “Wingspan” (40 tracks on 2 CDs). Is that the most complete of what I’m looking for? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2014, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-wings-collection/689872/2 "2014-06-02T23:20:41Z")
Did Wings do enough to fill a 1-CD best-of collection? Really? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2014, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-wings-collection/689872/3 "2014-06-02T23:29:14Z")
I didn’t think thread-shitting would happen so early. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2014, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-wings-collection/689872/4 "2014-06-02T23:56:39Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I didn’t think thread-shitting would happen so early. I really didn’t intend it that way. I remember Wings well, but if they had a half-dozen songs notable to anyone but devoted fans, I can’t think of the other three. I’m a bit bemused that you think a 40-song collection might not cover the spectrum. By comparison, I found _Forty Licks_ to be about the right representation of a band that changed and defined rock over nearly forty years. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Mondegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/91b2a8/32.png) [@Lord\_Mondegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Mondegreen)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2014, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-wings-collection/689872/5 "2014-06-03T00:27:24Z")
I just had a look at _Wingspan_. It seems like a pretty good collection. My only hesitation is that it’s not Wings-specific. Were you looking only for songs recorded as “Wings” or are you happy for it to be McCartney stuff from the '70s and early '80s? Of course any collection is pretty personal. For example from _Back to the Egg_ I’d probably take “Old Siam, Sir” first and “Getting Closer” second, but they’ve chosen “Rockestra Theme”. I’d also make different choices from _London Town_. Each to their own … Even though I’m a huge fan (his concert still ranks as the best I’ve ever seen), I have such particular tastes when it comes to McCartney songs that if I wanted a “best of” I would probably make my own from individual tracks on iTunes. If that’s too much work then _Wingspan_ seems like a good compromise. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2014, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-wings-collection/689872/6 "2014-06-03T00:52:02Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I really didn’t intend it that way. I remember Wings well, but if they had a half-dozen songs notable to anyone but devoted fans, I can’t think of the other three. Are you joking? Live and Let Die Silly Love Songs With a Little Luck Band on the Run Junior’s Farm Let 'Em In My Love Hi Hi Hi Jet Mull of Kintyre ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2014, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-wings-collection/689872/7 "2014-06-03T00:54:30Z")
Season Two was probably the best. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2014, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-wings-collection/689872/8 "2014-06-03T01:55:13Z")
If you don’t mind live stuff, the newly-reissued “[Wings Over America](http://www.amazon.com/Wings-Over-America-Standard-Edition/dp/tracks/B00C7NKPPS/)” has a pretty decent song selection. And if you have a Blu-ray player, Rockshow is excellent (although some people have had audio issues with their copies). ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Jocko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncle_jocko/32/2932_2.png) [@Uncle\_Jocko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Jocko)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2014, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-wings-collection/689872/9 "2014-06-03T14:58:08Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > Are you joking? > > Live and Let Die > Silly Love Songs > With a Little Luck > Band on the Run > Junior’s Farm > Let 'Em In > My Love > Hi Hi Hi > Jet > Mull of Kintyre Maybe not up everyone’s alley, but I personally am a fan of _Goodnight Tonight_ and _Arrow Through Me_. They bring back nice memories of listening to the radio 35+ years ago, as does _Listen To What The Man Said_. _Helen Wheels_ is another radio hit from Band On The Run, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2014, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-wings-collection/689872/10 "2014-06-03T16:02:02Z")
All told, Wings had 23 Top 40 hits, 14 Top 10 hits, and 6 that went to #1. Pretending they only had 3 songs that anyone could name is more than a little crazy, which is why I thought the poster above was literally kidding. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2014, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-wings-collection/689872/11 "2014-06-03T16:23:08Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > Are you joking? > > \*\* Live and Let Die\*\* > \*\* Silly Love Songs\*\* > \*\* With a Little Luck\*\* > \*\* Band on the Run\*\* > Junior’s Farm > \*\* Let 'Em In\*\* > My Love > Hi Hi Hi > \*\* Jet\*\* > Mull of Kintyre Okay, make it six plus one (the last) I know was huge in Europe, not so much over here. Maybe the rest popped the tops during my NPR-listening phase or something. My standard for “definitive sets” runs to things like Forty Licks - which needed a tight selection criteria to get it down to the arbitrary forty - or Jimmy Buffett’s BBBB set, with almost sixty cuts.