Video: 'Band On The Run (full album) by Paul McCartney and Wings' (note: the original North American releases contained "Helen Wheels" track 8 between "No Words" and "Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)"

(Saturday, December 22, 1973) — Band on the Run, the third studio album by the British–American rock band Paul McCartney and Wings, debut at #33 on today’s Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart.

It was McCartney’s fifth studio album after leaving The Beatles in April 1970.

Although sales were modest initially, its commercial performance was aided by two hit singles – “Jet” and “Band on the Run” – such that it became the top-selling studio album of 1974 in the United Kingdom and Australia, in addition to revitalizing McCartney’s critical standing.

It remains McCartney’s most successful album and the most celebrated of his post-Beatles works.

The album was mostly recorded at EMI’s studio in Lagos, Nigeria, as McCartney wanted to make an album in an exotic location.

Shortly before departing for Lagos, drummer Denny Seiwell and guitarist Henry McCullough left the group. With no time to recruit replacements, McCartney went into the studio with just his wife Linda and Denny Laine. McCartney therefore played bass, drums, percussion and most of the lead guitar parts.

The studio was of poor quality and conditions in Nigeria were tense and difficult; the McCartneys were robbed at knifepoint, losing a bag of song lyrics and demo tapes. After the band’s return to England, final overdubs and further recordings were carried out in London, mostly at AIR Studios.

In 2012, Band on the Run was listed at 418 on Rolling Stone‘s revised list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.”