UMe announced the release of Paul McCartney and Wings’ Red Rose Speedway as a limited edition half-speed mastered vinyl LP. The 50th Anniversary pressing will be available from April 22 for Record Store Day 2023, days before the actual anniversary of the album’s original April 30, 1973 release date.
The first Paul McCartney and Wings album to top the US album chart, Red Rose Speedway kicked off a run of #1 albums that included Band On The Run, Venus And Mars, At The Speed Of Sound and Wings Over America. The album’s sole single, “My Love,” was received with similar warmth, becoming Wings’ first #1 single in the US, as well as a staple of Wings and Paul shows for decades to come.
Red Rose Speedway has steadily grown in stature amongst fans, critics and fellow musicians since its April 1973 release. Album opener “Big Barn Bed” has been cited as one of Paul’s greatest underrated tracks by the likes of Guitar World and Ultimate Classic Rock, while “My Love” has spawned a staggering array of cover versions by artists including Tony Bennett, Brenda Lee, Nancy Wilson, Cass Elliot, Johnny Gill, Cher and many more. More recently, “Little Lamb Dragonfly” was singled out in 2022 by USA Today as “enchanting,” and by Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott in Stereogum’s 80 Artists Pick Their Favorite Paul McCartney Song… roundup: “You know a song has made an impression if you can rewind to a place and a smell and the weather and you get these phantom images of where you think he played the song. For an acoustic type of song, it has everything.”
