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ALL THE BEST!
To save you some head-scratching: the US have 'Junior's Form' and 'Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey' to themselves, while the rest of us have 'Maybe I'm Amazed', ‘Once Upon A Long Ago', 'We All Stand Together', 'Mull Of Kintyre' and 'Pipes Of Peace' that they don't have. Paul's British and American singles history explains most of this. (See U.S. and Us feature in CS40.) 'Junior' was a bigger hit Stoteside than at home, while 'Albert/Halsey' (a US number one) was never a British single. The live 'Maybe I'm Amazed' was actually a bigger American than British hit: American fans may well have it on Wings Over America, while the rest of us can count it a happy bonus, 'Long Ago' and Rupert's song are British-only singles; 'Mull' was an American B-side, only later promoted as half of a double Aside, 'Pipes' remained an American B-side One other difference might escape the casual observer: the live 'Coming Up' (from Wings' last tour) on the flip of Paul's McCartney II version was the American hit (number one, in fact), so that's the one on their album.
All The Best can afford to exclude five British or American top ten hits. 'Hi Hi Hi' (on Wings' Greatest), 'Mary Had A Utile Lamb' (Wings Wild Life CD), 'Wonderful Christmastime' (Now That’s What I Call Christmas - Various Artists), 'Waterfalls (McCartney II) and 'Helen Wheels' (Band On The Run in the US). And from ‘Let Me Roll It' to 'The Man', we all have favourite album tracks we'd fit in if we could. But a hits album, rightly, is all about singles.
Thai being so, programming is obviously important. Both versions of All The Best achieve the same variety of mood that you get on a really good purpose-made album One exception is Side Four on the Rest of the World set: after 'Say Say Say', the listener can wind down to the Horlicks hour in the pleasantest possible way. Editorial policy tends towards Bournvito, but there still seems nothing wrong with this-after oil, Frank Sinatra designed whole albums for that time of day.
But why is the score ROW 20-USA 17? That's our old friend the compact disc again. To keep things tidy, tracks on the American CD, record and tape will be the same, approaching the maximum CD time limit. Elsewhere the CD will lack 'Maybe I'm Amazed', 'Goodnight Tonight' and 'With A Little Luck'. The first is on the Wings Over America double CD and the last will be out on the London Town CD before too long.
With an excellent sleeve by Michael Ross, who also did ‘Once Upon A Long Ago', and a clever film-and-animation TV advert by Derek Hayes, the signs look good for All The Best. The demand is there and much care has been taken to meet it in a satisfying way. Happy listening!
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