Band on the Run

Band on the Run is the third studio album by Paul McCartney and Wings, released in December 1973 on Apple Records and produced by McCartney himself, recorded in Lagos, Nigeria, after most of the Wings lineup quit before the sessions, leaving McCartney, Linda, and guitarist Denny Laine to record the bulk of the album with hired local musicians before adding overdubs in London. McCartney wrote all the original material; the album's conceptual theme, escape and freedom from constriction, reflected in song titles like 'Jet,' 'Let Me Roll It,' and the title track's jailbreak narrative, is among the most sustained in McCartney's solo catalog and gives the album a thematic coherence unusual for his work. 'Jet' and 'Helen Wheels' were released as singles, with 'Helen Wheels' reaching the top ten in the United States, and the title track became one of McCartney's most celebrated post-Beatles compositions. Band on the Run was McCartney's first critical and commercial rehabilitation since Ram: it reached number one on both the UK Albums Chart and the Billboard 200, won the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal by a Duo, Group or Chorus, and was certified five-times platinum in the United States. The album is universally regarded as McCartney's finest post-Beatles solo work and is cited by critics as a definitive example of mainstream rock album-craft in the early 1970s.