written and produced by Paul McCartney

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I made this one June 18th, 2021, the 79th birthday of Sir James Paul

McCartney. Happy Birthday, PM!!

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The beyond legendary Paul McCartney... I don’t even know where to

begin with this one. Lennon’s much-storied writing partner, Lady

Linda Louise’s second spouse by whom she was survived, founder of ’70s Fab Four follow-up band (Paul McCartney &) Wings, the Beatle holding the quirky distinction of marching across Abbey Road barefoot... can you tell I’m a bit intimidated making this entry?

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Originally, I was going to make this a page for “Live And Let Die,” but that song is technically a Wings record, and I wanted a purely solo McCartney classic for his birthday tribute. I’ve got several McCartney numbers in my List, including his collaborations with Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder. “Coming Up” was the first solo PM song to come to mind for this page. Another I’m very familiar with and hold particularly dear is a song that would be in place six months from now in either direction, in December: “Wonderful Christmastime”—a song he trotted out around the same time as “Coming Up.”

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So this song was Paul’s effort to ring in the ’80s, the first of three singles released from his McCartney II record. It was released a month before the album dropped, in spring 1980... tragically, who would’ve guessed that six months from then, he would have to bid a fond farewell to his beloved partner and friend John Winston, rest his soul... but through the remainder of the year, John stated that “Coming Up” inspired him to return to recording. In the fall of the year, Lennon whipped out his final non-posthumous project, the wonderful triple-single Double Fantasy. So we’ve Paul to thank in part for “(Just Like) Starting Over,” “Woman” and “Watching The Wheels.”

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Paul was playing about with a voice-modulating machine to tweak the vocals, resulting in the equally quirky singing sound on the studio recording. Check out the video to see Paul performing dectuple duty, playing a total of ten different parts including himself.

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Have notes to add? Let me know!

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YT:

full version

music video

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Paul’s official website