From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Mull of Kintyre" is a popular 1977 song by former Beatle Paul McCartney and his band Wings. The song was penned by McCartney and bandmate Denny Laine in tribute to the picturesque Mull of Kintyre peninsula in Argyll, Scotland, where McCartney had owned a home and recording studio since the late 1960s.

The lyrics are an ode to the area's natural beauty and sense of home:

Mull of Kintyre

Oh mist rolling in from the sea,

My desire is always to be here

Oh Mull of Kintyre

McCartney explained how the song came into being:

The song was recorded in August 1977 as part of the sessions for what would become the London Town album. Bagpipes from Kintyre's local Campbeltown Pipe Band were a prominent part of the recording. The advancement of Linda McCartney's pregnancy brought a halt to the overall sessions, and "Mull of Kintyre", backed with Double A-side "Girls School", was released as a single on 11 November 1977 independently of any album.

Its broad appeal was maximised by the pre-Christmas release and it became a Christmas number one single in the UK, spending 9 weeks at the top. It also became a massive international hit, dominating the charts in Australia and many other countries over the holiday period. It went on to become the first single to sell over two million copies in the UK, earning McCartney the first ever 'rhodium disc' and becoming the UK's best-selling single of all-time (eclipsing The Beatles' own "She Loves You") until overtaken by Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas" in 1984 (which also featured Paul on the B-Side). The song remains the UK's best-selling completely non-charity single. (Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" has sold more in its two releases, but the profits of the 1991 release went to charity.) [1]

One place where it was not a major hit was the United States, where it only managed to make it to #33 in the Billboard Hot 100, and that was as "Girls School", not Mull Of Kintyre. As a consequence, McCartney has not played "Mull of Kintyre" during his subsequent concert tours of America, only adding it back on forays into Canada. The millionth copy of the disk sold in the UK included a special certificate. It was sold to David Ackroyd, who was presented with a gold disk of the single by Denny Laine.^[2]

The song has been parodied by Frank Sidebottom as "Mull of Timperley".

It has also been adopted by fans of Charlton Athletic Football Club as a match day song.

• Paul McCartney: Acoustic guitar, acoustic bass guitar, vocals.
• Linda McCartney: Percussion, vocals.
• Denny Laine: Electric & acoustic guitar, vocals.
• Campbeltown Pipe Band: Bagpipes.

• List of best-selling singles (UK)
• List of best-selling singles by year (UK)
• List of Christmas number one singles

• MPL Communications - Song Archive
• Paul McCartney - Mull of Kintyre at Graham Calkin's Beatles Pages.