Format 7" single Genre Rock, pop | Recorded March 1972 Length 4:07 | |
B-side "The Mess (Live at The Hague)" (recorded on 21 August 1972) Released 23 March 1973 (UK)
9 April 1973 (US) | ||
"My Love" is a love song written by Paul McCartney to his first wife Linda. The ballad was a number one single and the most successful track from the Paul McCartney and Wings 1973 album Red Rose Speedway.
Contents
Recording
The song was recorded live with an orchestra at Abbey Road Studios with Richard Hewson conducting: according to his recollections, a large number of takes were performed, as the guitar solo was different every time. It contains a guitar solo by the Northern Irish guitarist Henry McCullough, then part of the Wings line-up. McCartney said in 2010 about the solo:
Chart performance
"My Love" was also released as a single in March 1973, reaching number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 9 on the UK Singles Chart. It also went to number 1 on the Easy Listening chart for three weeks. Billboard ranked it as the No. 5 song for 1973. The single was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of over one million copies.
Music video
A promo for the song was shot with the band surrounded by smog in a den with a ceiling window. This promo used an alternate McCartney lead vocal, not heard on any other release of the song. Recent remasters of this promo use the standard album version.
Later release
The song also appeared on the Wings compilation album Wings Greatest (1978), and later on the Paul McCartney compilation albums All the Best! (1987), Wingspan: Hits and History (2001) and Pure McCartney (2016). Live versions appear on Wings over America (1976), Back in the World (2002) and Good Evening New York City (2009).
Cover versions
"My Love" has been covered by several vocal artists, including Nancy Wilson, Johnny Gill, Cher, Brenda Lee, Cass Elliott, Margie Joseph, Salena Jones, Mina, Shinehead, Andy Williams, Warren Hill, and Dottie West. There have also been three jazz instrumental cover versions, by Ivan "Boogaloo Joe" Jones, Pieces of a Dream (from 1996 album The Best Of Pieces of a Dream), and Michael Lington (from 2004 album Stay With Me).
Harry Connick Jr. covered the song on the 2014 covers album The Art of McCartney.
In 2011, Corinne Bailey Rae released a cover of the song on The Love E.P.
In 1974 Lincoln Mayorga included an instrumental version on his LP Lincoln Mayorga & Distinguished Colleagues – Volume III, on the esoteric audiophile label Sheffield Lab, naming the track "The Perfect Song".
An instrumental of the song can be heard during Monica and Chandler's wedding in the American sitcom Friends.