# Mysteries of Music #1: How did the dull song "Mull of Kintyre" become megapopular in Britain? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 16, 2013, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-of-music-1-how-did-the-dull-song-mull-of-kintyre-become-megapopular-in-britain/676473 "2013-12-16T16:16:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-of-music-1-how-did-the-dull-song-mull-of-kintyre-become-megapopular-in-britain/676473/1 "2013-12-16T16:16:37Z")
Maybe some Brit Dopers can help here. The song: I think the average listener of pop in the year 2013, if coming across this song by accident, would simply not notice or remember it. It's not horrible. It sounds like album filler to me. But this is one of the biggest hits in the history of the UK: > **[Mull of Kintyre (song)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mull_of_Kintyre_%28song%29)** > > "Mull of Kintyre" is a song by the English-American rock band Wings. It was written by Paul McCartney and Denny Laine in tribute to the Kintyre peninsula in Argyll and Bute in the south-west of Scotland and its headland, the Mull of Kintyre, where McCartney has owned High Park Farm since 1966. > The single was Wings' biggest hit in Britain and is one of the best selling singles of all time in the United Kingdom, where it became the 1977 Christmas number one and was the first single to sell ove... > [@](#): > > The song was Wings’ biggest hit in the United Kingdom where it became the 1977 Christmas number one, and was the first single to sell over two million copies in the UK. I suppose there has to be some sort of reason. It matched the UK zeitgeist in 1977. Something. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-of-music-1-how-did-the-dull-song-mull-of-kintyre-become-megapopular-in-britain/676473/2 "2013-12-16T16:21:22Z")
Crap, meant to post in Cafe. Mods, can ye move? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-of-music-1-how-did-the-dull-song-mull-of-kintyre-become-megapopular-in-britain/676473/3 "2013-12-16T16:22:08Z")
I remember when that song reached #1 in pretty much every country that kept a chart, but didn’t even crack the American Top 200. Finally heard the whole thing a few weeks ago, and understood why. Bagpipes on American Top 40 radio in 1977? Nope, not gonna fly. I thought it was a good song, and a beautiful video too. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-of-music-1-how-did-the-dull-song-mull-of-kintyre-become-megapopular-in-britain/676473/4 "2013-12-16T16:27:04Z")
I’m a yankee. Not what you asked for. But the song moves me. It’s got bagpipes. It fills me with a sense of longing. It appealed to the kids, because Paul McCartney, and the geriatrics, because it sounds like a traditional Scottish ballad someone forgot to write. I think sometimes the public is hungry for something that sounds _different_. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-of-music-1-how-did-the-dull-song-mull-of-kintyre-become-megapopular-in-britain/676473/5 "2013-12-16T16:38:17Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > . . .Bagpipes on American Top 40 radio in 1977? Nope, not gonna fly. . . At least not until 1983, when [In a Big Country](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw2o_Go4QWI) was released by Big Country. (OK, it’s not really bagpipes, but guitars that sound a little like bagpipes, but a lot of us didn’t know that at first.) ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-of-music-1-how-did-the-dull-song-mull-of-kintyre-become-megapopular-in-britain/676473/6 "2013-12-16T18:16:26Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Bagpipes on American Top 40 radio in 1977? Nope, not gonna fly. The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards made #11 on the Billboard Top 40 with a bagpipe-heavy version of “Amazing Grace” only five years earlier in 1972. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-of-music-1-how-did-the-dull-song-mull-of-kintyre-become-megapopular-in-britain/676473/7 "2013-12-16T18:33:04Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > It matched the UK zeitgeist in 1977. Not just for 1977, it’s simply _very_ British. (And I use the term to include the whole of the British Isles, not specifically England.) It’s got a swaying, anthemic melody, it’s infectious, it’s perfect material for a pub singalong. ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-of-music-1-how-did-the-dull-song-mull-of-kintyre-become-megapopular-in-britain/676473/8 "2013-12-16T18:44:02Z")
Quite simply, we Brits are shockingly willing to send any manner of detritus to No 1 in the charts. Mull of Kintyre will seem like Mozart’s Requiem Mass in D minor alongside Mr Blobby, Bob the Builder, or St Winifred’s School Choir, all of whom have topped the UK charts (twice I believe in the case of Bob the Builder!) Most likely though I suspect that, along with the list above, MoK falls in that category of “novelty song” which can sometimes prompt otherwise non record-buying members of the population to lose their heads and go out and buy the damn things. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-of-music-1-how-did-the-dull-song-mull-of-kintyre-become-megapopular-in-britain/676473/9 "2013-12-16T18:54:39Z")
Bob the Builder? WTF? I thought you were kidding. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-of-music-1-how-did-the-dull-song-mull-of-kintyre-become-megapopular-in-britain/676473/10 "2013-12-16T19:22:58Z")
I don’t think I’ve ever heard it before now. If I didn’t know the name before I listened, I would have thought he was saying “Mulligan Tire.” It would make a good jingle! ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-of-music-1-how-did-the-dull-song-mull-of-kintyre-become-megapopular-in-britain/676473/11 "2013-12-16T19:51:13Z")
I can’t believe no-one’s mentioned Jasper Carrott’s Funky Moped (and the infamous obscene B-side, “The Magic Roundabout”). Or the Wombles. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-of-music-1-how-did-the-dull-song-mull-of-kintyre-become-megapopular-in-britain/676473/12 "2013-12-16T20:23:18Z")
Couple of things we need to remember about the British charts: –They’re based only on record sales. American charts are a mix of sales and top 40 airplay. So all those novelty or out of the norm singles that sell well but don’t get much airplay do much better in the UK than the US. –Singles in the UK traditionally sold to all demographics, while in the US almost all sales went to teenagers and kids. This granny-friendly song probably was snapped up mostly by older folks. Yeah it’s a treacly number but any more treacly than say [“You Don’t Bring Me Flowers”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj10EzNKA2M) which did hit number one in the U.S.? ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-of-music-1-how-did-the-dull-song-mull-of-kintyre-become-megapopular-in-britain/676473/13 "2013-12-16T21:29:34Z")
To echo those above, strange things end up on the British charts. “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” was #1 there. Truly one of the greatest songs ever, but it’s an unexpected chart-topper. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-of-music-1-how-did-the-dull-song-mull-of-kintyre-become-megapopular-in-britain/676473/14 "2013-12-16T21:41:41Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > Yeah it’s a treacly number but any more treacly than say [“You Don’t Bring Me Flowers”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj10EzNKA2M) which did hit number one in the U.S.? To expand on that, [here is the U.S. #1 list for 1977.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hot_100_number-one_singles_of_1977_(U.S.)) Decca’s _Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band_? Really? ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-of-music-1-how-did-the-dull-song-mull-of-kintyre-become-megapopular-in-britain/676473/15 "2013-12-16T22:26:06Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > To echo those above, strange things end up on the British charts. “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” was #1 there. > > Truly one of the greatest songs ever, but it’s an unexpected chart-topper. Laurie Anderson’s [“O Superman”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VIqA3i2zQw) made #2 in the UK charts in 1981, and I don’t think anyone knows how that happened. 😃 That was back when you had to sell quite a lot of records too. ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-of-music-1-how-did-the-dull-song-mull-of-kintyre-become-megapopular-in-britain/676473/16 "2013-12-16T22:30:33Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > Laurie Anderson’s [“O Superman”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VIqA3i2zQw) made #2 in the UK charts in 1981, and I don’t think anyone knows how that happened. 😃 That was back when you had to sell quite a lot of records too. I loved that song! ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-of-music-1-how-did-the-dull-song-mull-of-kintyre-become-megapopular-in-britain/676473/17 "2013-12-16T23:17:09Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > Laurie Anderson’s [“O Superman”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VIqA3i2zQw) made #2 in the UK charts in 1981, and I don’t think anyone knows how that happened. 😃 That was back when you had to sell quite a lot of records too. I know (and like) that song, and never would have guessed that. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-of-music-1-how-did-the-dull-song-mull-of-kintyre-become-megapopular-in-britain/676473/18 "2013-12-16T23:32:20Z")
“Mull of Kintyre” was an appeal to nostalgia and it’s not surprising Americans didn’t take to it - it wasn’t about our past so there’s no reason we’d feel the emotional connection with it. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-of-music-1-how-did-the-dull-song-mull-of-kintyre-become-megapopular-in-britain/676473/19 "2013-12-16T23:58:17Z")
I’ll take “Mull of Kintyre” any day over “The Long and Winding Road”! ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-of-music-1-how-did-the-dull-song-mull-of-kintyre-become-megapopular-in-britain/676473/20 "2013-12-17T00:07:04Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I’ll take “Mull of Kintyre” any day over “The Long and Winding Road”! Both do nothing for me, but I agree! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysteries-of-music-1-how-did-the-dull-song-mull-of-kintyre-become-megapopular-in-britain/676473.md?page=2)