Fine line - Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney released the album 'Chaos and creation in the backyard' in 2005. At the time, he was happily married with Heather Mills (that didn't last long...). Shortly before the release of the album, the first single 'Fine line' was released. It reached number 20 in the UK singles chart. The B-side of the 7" single was an otherwise unreleased track, 'Growing up falling down'.

I bought this single as a present for someone, but when I listened to it at home I decided that I wanted to keep it myself. Somehow it was never administrated as my own, so now, three years later, it has become my most recent acquisition - at least in my singles catalogue.

My collection: 7" single no. 3583

Found: HMV, London, November 8, 2005

Cost: 2 pounds

Tracks: 'Fine line' / 'Growing up falling down'

Say say say - Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson

A year after the release of 'The girl is mine', Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson were at it again, this time with a track for Paul McCartney's album 'Pipes of peace'. Composed and performed by the two, it would be their last collaboration before Michael Jackson acquired ATV music, which owned the publishing rights to the Beatles catalogue.

In 1983, 'Say say say' was one of the most played songs on the radio and after a while it became very boring. It's only now, 25 years later, that I can listen to this track again.

My collection: 7" single no. 3564

Found: La La Land, Den Haag, January 31, 2009

Cost: 1,5 euro

Tracks: 'Say say say' (Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson) / 'Ode to a koala bear' (Paul McCartney)

Download: 'Say say say' / 'Ode to a koala bear'

The girl is mine - Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney

This duet by Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney was the first single taken from the album 'Thriller'. Following its release, some observers assumed 'Thriller' would only be a minor hit album. At the time of recording, Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney were still on speaking terms. This would change some years later, when Michael acquired the rights over Beatles songs.

This single was pressed on red vinyl and is part five of a limited edition nine disc set released in 1983.

My collection: 7" single no. 3526
Found: eBay, January 6, 2009
Cost: 2 euro
Tracks: 'The girl is mine' / 'Can't get outta the rain'
Download: here

Wonderful Christmas time - Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney: living legend or schmalz-king? The question comes back regularly. Between songs like 'Live and let die', 'No more lonely nights' and 'From a lover to a friend' there's always strange duds like 'We all stand together' and this, 'Wonderful Christmas time'. It is an original, but a bit repetitive, Christmas song. The B-side, an instrumental version of 'Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer' is even weirder.

It's a great little ditty, though, and so useful for the Christmas season.

My collection: 7" single no. 43

Found: Rapsody, Den Haag, 1980

Cost: 3 guilders

Tracks: 'Wonderful Christmas time' / 'Rudolph the red-nosed reggae'

Download: here

Do they know it's Christmas? - Band Aid

The song that embodied the Christmas spirit in the Eighties was Band Aid's 'Do they know it's Christmas?'. The project initiated by Midge Ure and Bob Geldof started when the two met up and worked out this song Bob had written in a rather rudimentary way. They phoned up the musician friends they knew and before you knew it you had a media spectacle of unprecedented size.

I bought the single as soon as it came out, although, strangely, I didn't like the song that much. There were just so many of my eighties idols participated that I felt I couldn't pass up on this historic single. Two decades later, it's somehow reassuring (or troubling) that everything has stayed the same in Africa: it's still a continent of war, hunger and drought.

My collection: 7" single no. 249

Found: Wouters, Den Haag, 1984

Cost: 6 guilders

Tracks: 'Do they know it's Christmas?' / 'Feed the world'

Download: 12" single 'Do they know it's Christmas?', including both tracks (password: burningtheground-djpault.blogspot.com )