Everybody knows Paul McCartney either wrote or co-wrote some of the biggest hits in rock history, but even die-hard fans might be surprised to learn just how many: The former Beatle actually holds the Guinness World Record for songwriter with the most No. 1 singles in the U.S., with 32 songs topping the Billboard Hot 100 over the course of his career.
While 20 of those No. 1 hits were with the Beatles, the rest came later…and the very first No. 1 song of McCartney’s solo career was actually a medley of unfinished tunes: “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” from the 1971 album Ram.
McCartney trusted engineer Eirik Wangberg with the task of stitching those musical fragments together in the studio. Wangberg also added the pioneering thunderstorm sound effect to the track.
“For this sound, I used a mono track which I got from a film studio, recorded it over twice and made an artificial stereo out of it,” Wangberg said in a 2005 interview. “Then, in the mix, I panned the thunder over…I am particularly proud of this bit! It’s not often mentioned, but if you check the song out it was one of the first recordings where the synthesizers were used on the vocals. Listen to it carefully: it sounds like the choir was done beneath the water!”
The recording of “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” marked Linda McCartney‘s first time singing in a professional studio.
“What I liked about Linda’s singing was the tone of her voice,” McCartney told Classic Rock in 2021. “I’d never worked singing with a woman before, all my harmonies to that date had been with males, so I liked this idea of her range. But she wasn’t a professional singer by any means.”
As for the lyrical inspiration behind the track, “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” was inspired by McCartney’s real-life uncle, as he explained in the book Wingspan: Paul McCartney’s Band on the Run.
Related: 1969 Timeless Love Anthem Recorded 57 Years Ago Today Was Banned Before Becoming a Classic
“I had an uncle — Albert Kendall — who was a lot of fun, and when I came to write ‘Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey’ it was loosely about addressing that older generation, half thinking ‘What would they think of the way my generation does things?'” McCartney recalled.
“That’s why I wrote the line ‘We’re so sorry, Uncle Albert,'” he continued. “There’s an imaginary element in many of my songs — to me, Admiral Halsey is symbolic of authority and therefore not to be taken too seriously. We recorded it in New York and George Martin helped me with the orchestral arrangement. I was surprised when it became a big hit.”
A big hit, indeed: “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on Sept. 4, 1971, and stayed there for one week.
Related: 1968 Rock Song, ‘Openly and Vocally Detested’ by John Lennon, Took 42 Hours to Record
Leave a Reply