Released today (December 2nd) in celebration of his 80th year, on Paul McCartney issued his 7-Inch Singles Box. The massive, numbered limited-edition collection of 80 7-inch singles spanning 1971 to the present was personally supervised by McCartney and contains recreations of 65 singles/promos using restored original artwork from 11 different countries.
The set features 15 singles never-before-released on 7-inch 45 r.p.m. discs. The package also includes one exclusive test pressing randomly selected from the manufacturing process. The Singles Box features a 48-page book containing foreword from "Macca," an essay by Rob Sheffield, recording notes, release dates, and chart information on each of the singles. The physical set runs for $611 and is also available digitally.
By the time 1980's chart-topping "Coming Up" was released, McCartney's proposed world tour had been sidelined by the former Beatle's infamous pot bust the previous January, which landed McCartney in a Tokyo jail for 10 days. Wings lead guitarist Lawrence Juber recalled that with Wings still together — but with McCartney also pursuing a solo career — it was a strange time to be scoring a Number One hit: ["The shame of it was, that if we had continued — he would've been touring the States with a Number One record, 'cause 'Coming Up' was Number One. But the fact that there was this conflict, this dichotomy between Paul as 'Paul' and Paul as 'Wings,' as the band, it was most epitomized by 'Coming Up.' Because in England, the studio. . . Paul's McCartney II version came out. In America, nobody wanted to play the McCartney II version."] SOUNDCUE (:24 OC: . . . the McCartney II version)
Among the more recent singles represented in the box set is the 2018 standout "Come On To Me" from McCartney's 2018 chart-topping Egypt Station release. At the time, the former-Beatle called into to New York City's National Public Radio affiliate WFUV and shed light on the catchy rocker: ["A lot of songs start off with a guitar riff, and so the opening guitar riff on the song was what I had; 'kinda sexy little riff. It started to remind me of parties I'd been to, where, y'know, you would see a beautiful girl, and you just think — 'Wait a minute, did she give me a smile that was a bit of a come on?' So, that was the idea behind the song, and I just followed that trail kind of thing. So, 'Wait a minute — did you give me a look? I swear you did.' Now the thing is — I hasten to add — these are parties that I used to go to before I met my lovely wife."] SOUNDCUE (:23 OC: . . . my lovely wife)
