The Beatles: 10 Perfect Solo Albums

As much as Paul McCartney may have been one of the main songwriters in the Beatles, the '70s were really a dark time for his new band Wings. Looking to build a new outfit from the ground up, the critics seemed to tear him to shreds at every opportunity, with Red Rose Speedway being way too drawn out and Wild Life not having nearly enough meat on its bones to constitute a full album. Paul really needed a miracle to save his career, and the road to making Band on the Run was just as hard.

Going to Nigeria to cut most of the album, half of Wings quit before they had even got on the plane, leaving only Paul, Linda, and Denny Laine to create the music in a studio that was falling apart. Even with everything resulting in disaster, this was the moment where Paul really started to come into his own as a songwriter, giving an answer to Happiness is a Warm Gun with the different parts of the title track and even giving a nod to John Lennon with the production of Let Me Roll It.

While parts of this album certainly remind you of the Beatles' sound, Paul is his own man now and half of the songs on here are pure McCartney, from the acoustic ditty Bluebird to capping things off with a bang with the swaggering piano on 1985. It took a while for him to get things going, but once this hit the charts, Paul didn't have to worry about the critics dragging him down anymore.