Live and Let Die – Paul McCartney and Wings

“Live and Let Die” – Single by Wings from the album Live and Let Die.

“Live and Let Die” is the main theme song of the 1973 James Bond film Live and Let Die, written by Paul and Linda McCartney and performed by Paul’s band Wings. It was one of the group’s most successful singles, and the most successful Bond theme to that point, charting at No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No. 9 on the UK Singles Chart.

Commissioned specifically for the movie and credited to Paul and Linda McCartney, it reunited the former Beatle with the band’s producer, George Martin, who both produced the song and arranged the orchestral break. It has been covered by several bands, with Guns N’ Roses’ version being the most popular. Both McCartney’s and Guns N’ Roses’ versions were nominated for Grammys. In 2012, McCartney was awarded the Million-Air Award from Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), for more than 4 million performances of the song in the US.

Wings recorded “Live and Let Die” during the sessions for the Red Rose Speedway album, in October 1972. The song was taped at A.I.R. Studios, with Ray Cooper providing percussion instruments.

The single reached No. 2 in the United States and No. 9 in the United Kingdom. The single was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of over one million copies. Although McCartney’s previous single, “My Love“, had been credited to ‘Paul McCartney & Wings’, the label of the “Live and Let Die” single credited the performing artist simply as ‘Wings’. On the soundtrack album, however, the song was credited to ‘Paul McCartney & Wings’ and was credited as such in the opening titles to the film. “Live and Let Die” was the last McCartney single on Apple Records that was credited only to ‘Wings’.

“Live and Let Die” was the first James Bond theme song to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song (garnering McCartney his second Academy Award nomination and Linda her first), but lost to the theme song from The Way We Were.

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