Which Version of ‘Coming Up’ by Paul McCartney Do You Like?
- edgarstreetbooks
- Jun 23
- 2 min read
‘200 Greatest 80s Rock Songs’ Book Excerpt
Frank Mastropolo
By 1980, the last few albums produced by Paul McCartney and Wings did not enjoy the success of LPs like 1973’s Band on the Run. McCartney decided to record a solo album, McCartney II, on which he played all the instruments. Its title was a nod to 1970’s McCartney, his debut solo album recorded without other musicians.
“Coming Up” was the opening track of McCartney II. “I originally cut it on my farm in Scotland,” McCartney told Rolling Stone. “I went into the studio each day and just started with a drum track. Then I built it up bit by bit without any idea of how the song was going to turn out. After laying down the drum track, I added guitars and bass, building up the backing track.”
“Then I thought, ‘Well, OK, what am I going to do for the voice?’” McCartney wrote in The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present. “I was working with a Vari-speed machine with which you can speed up your voice, or take it down a little bit. That’s how the voice sound came about.
“It’s been speeded up slightly and put through an echo machine I was playing around with. I got into all sorts of tricks, and I can’t remember how I did half of them, because I was just throwing them all in and anything that sounded good, I kept. And anything I didn’t like, I just wiped.”
McCartney and Wings recorded a live version of “Coming Up” in Glasgow, Scotland in December 1979. Columbia Records wanted to include this live version, which did not have the manipulated voice, on McCartney II. McCartney resisted and Columbia included the live version on the track’s B-side. DJs flipped it over and made the live track a №1 hit in 1980.
“Coming Up” reportedly inspired John Lennon while working on his Double Fantasy album. Lennon called the song “a good piece of work” and preferred the studio version to the live track.
“I thought that ‘Coming Up’ was great and I like the freak version that he made in his barn better than that live Glasgow one,” said Lennon. “If I’d have been with him, I would’ve said ‘that’s the one’ too. And I thought that the record company had a nerve changing it ‘round on him, and I know what they mean, they want to hear the real guy singing, but I like the freaky one.”
Frank Mastropolo is the author of 200 Greatest 80s Rock Songs, part of the Greatest Performances series. For more on our latest projects, visit Edgar Street Books.
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