When it was first released, this was a massive hit (one of the biggest selling singles in the UK).
What’s it about exactly?
Just a WAG, but maybe it’s about the Mull of Kintyre.
Simple enough.
Why did it become such a huge hit?
Because it filled the vast pent-up demand for bagpipes in pop music, of course.
It’s about 4:44.
Ah, comedy! HA! HA!
Probably because it had a “hook-ey” melody and lyrics and it played on a longing for something one can’t have. In other words, sorta like most ballads that are popular.
It was a hit in lots of places where there are Scottish people, but Capitol AR in the US said it wasn’t what Americans wanted and so did not promote it. This is one of the reasons why Paul took his portfolio and went to Columbia records from 1979 to 1985.
More! bring on more!
polkas on the pipes!
pop on the pipes!
loves and laluaths!
duets and doublings!
A day without pipes is a day without sunshine!
IIRC, some Scottish pipe band had a hit with Amazing Grace a year or two before, so that may have whetted the public’s appetites for bagpipe music.
Some Scottish pipe band? You mean the pipe band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, my friend.
But why on earth MoK should ever have proved a volume seller…
I ask that of most McCartney singles… :dubious:
Which album was it on?
It wasn’t on an album. It was a double-A-side single with Girls’ School.
I think it was a standalone single. According to Allmusic, it was first on All the Best, a greatest hits package.
It was on all non-US pressings of All The Best. The US version has a different track lineup, specifically omitting Mull Of Kintyre because they didn’t promote it, and it wasn’t a hit in the US. Look for a Canadian or British issue.
Mull of Kintyre came out at about the same time as Rod Stewart’s I Am Sailing. My guess, having lived through both and enjoying them too, is that they just hit a chord with the easy-listening crowd.
Now please explain the popularity of Maggie by Foster and Allen, because that one’s got me dumbfounded.
It was on Wings Greatest, an earlier, apparently now out of print, “best of” collection, which is the only place I’ve ever heard it.
:smack:
I had forgotten about that one. I have the UK version and that’s where I got it from.
I read a biography of Paul McCartney that said there was a contest run with the “Mull of Kintyre” single where they put a special notice in the one millionth copy of the single. I forget what the prize was, but the book said the millionth copy was coincidentally purchased by Dan Ackroyd.