Venus and Mars
Encyclopedia
Venus and Mars is the fourth album by Wings
. Released as the follow-up to the enormously successful Band on the Run
, Venus and Mars continued Wings' string of success and would prove a springboard for a year-long worldwide tour. It was Paul McCartney
's first post-Beatles
release under the Capitol Records label.
as a three-piece with wife Linda
and guitarist Denny Laine
, McCartney added Jimmy McCulloch
on lead guitar and Geoff Britton
on drums to the Wings line-up in 1974. Having written several new songs for the next album, McCartney decided upon New Orleans, Louisiana
as the recording venue, and Wings headed there in January 1975.
As soon as the sessions began, the personality clash that had been evident between McCulloch and Britton during Wings' 1974 sessions in Nashville became more pronounced, and Britton — after a mere six month stay — quit Wings, having only played on three of the new songs. A replacement, American Joe English, was quickly auditioned and hired to finish the album.
The sessions themselves proved to be very productive, not only finishing the entire album, but also several additional songs including two future McCartney B-sides
: "Lunch Box/Odd Sox" and "My Carnival". McCartney also decided to link the songs together much like The Beatles had on Abbey Road to give the album a more continuous feel.
John Lennon
, often in a nostalgic mood while in Los Angeles, had told May Pang
(his then girlfriend) that he planned to visit the McCartneys during the recording sessions for Venus and Mars, but this was not to be. Lennon's planned visit would be permanently postponed due to his reunion with Yoko Ono
.
Two additional singles, "Letting Go" and "Venus and Mars/Rock Show
" were released, though to less success. Although the latter almost reached the US Top 10, it didn't chart at all in the UK.
By September, Wings kicked off what would be their year-long Wings Over the World tour
in the UK, with Australia, the US and Canada penciled in for the coming months; Venus and Mars material would be heavily featured.
In 1983 it was first issued on compact disc by Columbia Records
, although early 1983 pressings were pressed in Japan by CSR Compact Disc which was etched in the inner ring. This CD was one of the first pressed at CBS/Sony's Digital Audio Disc Plant in Terre Haute, Indiana CD pressing plant. The Columbia McCartney Discs are prized by audiophiles for their mastering.
In 1993, Venus and Mars was remastered and reissued on CD as part of "The Paul McCartney Collection" series with "Zoo Gang" (a UK television theme that was the UK B-side of "Band on the Run
" in 1974), "Lunch Box/Odd Sox" (B-side of "Coming Up
" in 1980), and "My Carnival" ("Spies Like Us
"' B-side in 1985) as bonus tracks. In 2007, Venus and Mars was reissued in digital form on iTunes with these bonus tracks plus the 6-minute-plus "party mix" of "My Carnival".
Wings' interpretation of the theme to Crossroads, a British soap opera, was sometimes used to end the show in place of the regular theme tune, usually when there was a cliffhanger ending with a hint of sadness involved.
The album was also originally released in 4-channel quadraphonic
. In 1996 the quadraphonic version of the album was released on Compact disc
in the DTS 5.1 Music Disc
format.
Wings (band)
Wings were a British-American rock group formed in 1971 by Paul McCartney, Denny Laine and Linda McCartney that remained active until 1981....
. Released as the follow-up to the enormously successful Band on the Run
Band on the Run
Band on the Run is an album by Paul McCartney & Wings, released in 1973. It was Wings' third album. It became Wings' most successful album and remains the most celebrated of McCartney's post-Beatles albums...
, Venus and Mars continued Wings' string of success and would prove a springboard for a year-long worldwide tour. It was Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
's first post-Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
release under the Capitol Records label.
Context
After recording Band on the RunBand on the Run
Band on the Run is an album by Paul McCartney & Wings, released in 1973. It was Wings' third album. It became Wings' most successful album and remains the most celebrated of McCartney's post-Beatles albums...
as a three-piece with wife Linda
Linda McCartney
Linda Louise McCartney, Lady McCartney was an American photographer, musician and animal rights activist. Her father and mother were Lee Eastman and Louise Sara Lindner Eastman....
and guitarist Denny Laine
Denny Laine
Denny Laine is an English songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, guitarist, and lead singer of The Moody Blues' 1965 debut album "The Magnificent Moodies"; and, later, best known for his role as co-founder of Wings...
, McCartney added Jimmy McCulloch
Jimmy McCulloch
James 'Jimmy' McCulloch was a Scottish musician and songwriter, born in Dumbarton and raised in Clydebank and Cumbernauld, Scotland, who was best known for playing lead guitar in Paul McCartney's Wings from 1974 to 1977...
on lead guitar and Geoff Britton
Geoff Britton
Geoff Britton is a rock drummer known for his work with Paul McCartney's Wings from 1974 to 1975, where he was featured on the Venus and Mars album,...
on drums to the Wings line-up in 1974. Having written several new songs for the next album, McCartney decided upon New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
as the recording venue, and Wings headed there in January 1975.
As soon as the sessions began, the personality clash that had been evident between McCulloch and Britton during Wings' 1974 sessions in Nashville became more pronounced, and Britton — after a mere six month stay — quit Wings, having only played on three of the new songs. A replacement, American Joe English, was quickly auditioned and hired to finish the album.
The sessions themselves proved to be very productive, not only finishing the entire album, but also several additional songs including two future McCartney B-sides
B-Sides
B-Sides is an iTunes-exclusive album from the Coventry Trio The Enemy, consisting of ten songs that were B-sides to the single releases from their debut album We'll Live and Die in These Towns.-Track list:#Fear Killed the Youth of Our Nation...
: "Lunch Box/Odd Sox" and "My Carnival". McCartney also decided to link the songs together much like The Beatles had on Abbey Road to give the album a more continuous feel.
John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
, often in a nostalgic mood while in Los Angeles, had told May Pang
May Pang
May Fung Yee Pang is best known as the former girlfriend of John Lennon. She had previously worked as a personal assistant and production coordinator for Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono....
(his then girlfriend) that he planned to visit the McCartneys during the recording sessions for Venus and Mars, but this was not to be. Lennon's planned visit would be permanently postponed due to his reunion with Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
.
Releases
Preceded by the single "Listen to What the Man Said" in May, Venus and Mars appeared two weeks later to decent reviews and brisk sales. The album reached #1 in the United States, the United Kingdom and worldwide (as did "Listen to What the Man Said" in the US) and sold several million copies during the 70's, with sales now pitched at over 10 million, even if the reaction was less than what had greeted Band on the Run a year earlier.Two additional singles, "Letting Go" and "Venus and Mars/Rock Show
Venus and Mars/Rock Show
"Venus and Mars/Rock Show" is a a medley of two songs written by Paul and Linda McCartney and originally performed by Wings that make up the first two songs of the album Venus and Mars. The single was released in the US on 27 October 1975 and in the UK on 28 November 1975. The B-side was "Magneto...
" were released, though to less success. Although the latter almost reached the US Top 10, it didn't chart at all in the UK.
By September, Wings kicked off what would be their year-long Wings Over the World tour
Wings Over the World tour
In 1975 and 1976, Wings embarked on the ambitious Wings Over the World tour.-History:In contrast to Wings' two low-profile, smaller-scale outings of 1972, this was a major, highly publicised concert tour that took place mostly in arenas...
in the UK, with Australia, the US and Canada penciled in for the coming months; Venus and Mars material would be heavily featured.
In 1983 it was first issued on compact disc by Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
, although early 1983 pressings were pressed in Japan by CSR Compact Disc which was etched in the inner ring. This CD was one of the first pressed at CBS/Sony's Digital Audio Disc Plant in Terre Haute, Indiana CD pressing plant. The Columbia McCartney Discs are prized by audiophiles for their mastering.
In 1993, Venus and Mars was remastered and reissued on CD as part of "The Paul McCartney Collection" series with "Zoo Gang" (a UK television theme that was the UK B-side of "Band on the Run
Band on the Run (song)
"Band on the Run" is the title song from Paul McCartney & Wings' acclaimed Band on the Run album. The single sold one million copies in 1974 in the United States, where it reached number 1, and it went to number 3 in the United Kingdom...
" in 1974), "Lunch Box/Odd Sox" (B-side of "Coming Up
Coming Up (song)
"Coming Up" was the opening track from Paul McCartney's McCartney II album, written by McCartney and released in 1980. Like the rest of the album, the song had a minimalist synthesized feel to it. It featured lead vocals from McCartney distorted by using vari-speed, and he played all the...
" in 1980), and "My Carnival" ("Spies Like Us
Spies Like Us (song)
"Spies Like Us" is the title song to the 1985 Warner Bros. motion picture of the same name, starring Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd and Donna Dixon. It was written and performed by Paul McCartney, and was a top-ten hit in the United States in early 1986, reaching #7 on the singles chart, making it...
"' B-side in 1985) as bonus tracks. In 2007, Venus and Mars was reissued in digital form on iTunes with these bonus tracks plus the 6-minute-plus "party mix" of "My Carnival".
Wings' interpretation of the theme to Crossroads, a British soap opera, was sometimes used to end the show in place of the regular theme tune, usually when there was a cliffhanger ending with a hint of sadness involved.
The album was also originally released in 4-channel quadraphonic
Quadraphonic
Quadraphonic sound – the most widely used early term for what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of the listening space, reproducing signals that are independent of one another...
. In 1996 the quadraphonic version of the album was released on Compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
in the DTS 5.1 Music Disc
5.1 Music Disc
The DTS Music Disc , DTS Audio CD or 5.1 Music Disc is an audio Compact Disc that contains music in surround sound format. It is a predecessor of DVD Audio. Physically, it conforms to the Red Book standard, except for the way the music is encoded on the CD...
format.
Track listing
Additional tracks
All songs written by Paul and Linda McCartney.Personnel
- Paul McCartneyPaul McCartneySir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
: vocals, bass guitar, guitars, keyboards, piano - Linda McCartneyLinda McCartneyLinda Louise McCartney, Lady McCartney was an American photographer, musician and animal rights activist. Her father and mother were Lee Eastman and Louise Sara Lindner Eastman....
: keyboards, vocals - Denny LaineDenny LaineDenny Laine is an English songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, guitarist, and lead singer of The Moody Blues' 1965 debut album "The Magnificent Moodies"; and, later, best known for his role as co-founder of Wings...
: guitars, keyboards, vocals - Jimmy McCullochJimmy McCullochJames 'Jimmy' McCulloch was a Scottish musician and songwriter, born in Dumbarton and raised in Clydebank and Cumbernauld, Scotland, who was best known for playing lead guitar in Paul McCartney's Wings from 1974 to 1977...
: guitars, vocals - Joe English: drums, percussion
Additional personnel
- Kenneth "Afro" Williams: congas
- Dave MasonDave MasonDavid Thomas "Dave" Mason is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist from Worcester, who first found fame with the rock band Traffic...
: guitar - Tom ScottTom Scott (musician)Tom Scott is an American saxophonist, composer, arranger, conductor and bandleader of the west coast jazz/jazz fusion ensemble The L.A. Express.-Biography:Scott was born in Los Angeles, California...
: saxophone - Allen ToussaintAllen ToussaintAllen Toussaint is an American musician, composer, record producer, and influential figure in New Orleans R&B.Many of Toussaint's songs have become familiar through numerous cover versions, including "Working in the Coalmine", "Ride Your Pony", "Fortune Teller", "Play Something Sweet ", "Southern...
: piano, keyboards - Geoff BrittonGeoff BrittonGeoff Britton is a rock drummer known for his work with Paul McCartney's Wings from 1974 to 1975, where he was featured on the Venus and Mars album,...
: drums
Chart positions
| Chart (1975/76) | Position |
|---|---|
| Australian Kent Music Report Chart Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998... |
2 |
| Canadian RPM Albums Chart RPM (magazine) RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,... |
1 |
| Dutch Mega Albums Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
5 |
| French SNEP Albums Chart | 1 |
| Italian Albums Chart | 11 |
| Japanese Oricon LP Chart Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc... |
9 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart | 1 |
| Norwegian Norway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million... VG-lista VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by... Albums Chart |
1 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
1 |
| U.S. Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
1 |
| West German Media Control Albums Chart | 11 |
Year-end charts
| Chart (1975) | Position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart | 8 |
| Canadian Albums Chart RPM (magazine) RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,... |
5 |
| Italian Albums Chart | 33 |
| Japanese Albums Chart | 33 |
| UK Albums Chart | 5 |
| U.S. Billboard Year-End Billboard Year-End Billboard Year-End charts are a cumulative measure of a single or album's performance in the United States, based upon the Billboard magazine charts during any given chart year. Billboard's "chart year" runs from the first week of December to the final week in November... |
57 |
| Chart (1976) | Position |
| U.S. Billboard Year-End Billboard Year-End Billboard Year-End charts are a cumulative measure of a single or album's performance in the United States, based upon the Billboard magazine charts during any given chart year. Billboard's "chart year" runs from the first week of December to the final week in November... |
45 |