Man On The Run Doc Spotlights Paul McCartney's Biggest Solo Hit — And It's Virtually Unknown In US

There's a lengthy segment in "Paul McCartney: Man on the Run," the 2026 documentary about the former Beatle finding resilience and creative fulfillment with his band Wings, concerning "Mull of Kintyre." The track, co-written with Wings guitarist Denny Laine, was a personal and professional triumph for McCartney after an inconsistent 1970s. "Mull of Kintyre" takes the form of a traditional British folk song and uses a bagpipe section to pay tribute to Kintyre, an area of Scotland where McCartney had purchased a farm. According to "Man on the Run," it was his retreat when the Beatles fractured and where he recorded his solo album "McCartney" in a home studio and spent many idyllic years raising his children with his wife and Wings bandmate, Linda McCartney. Unabashedly and proudly sentimental, it's an earnest and heartfelt paean to the place that saved McCartney from himself.

"Mull of Kintyre" deeply and quickly resonated with U.K. record buyers. It's a competitive and major achievement for a song to occupy the No. 1 position on Christmas Day, and that's what McCartney's sweet and inviting song did in 1977. And then it went on to set all kinds of music industry records. In the U.S., however, it was a completely different story — as if "Mull of Kintyre" had never existed. It didn't even make the Hot 100 pop chart in America. Here's the tale of one song by a very popular artist — "Mull of Kintyre" by Paul McCartney and Wings — with two very different responses.

Released as a single in 1977 and recorded with Wings, "Mull of Kintyre" is the most commercially successful recording in Paul McCartney's career as far as the U.K. is concerned — including his work as a solo artist and with the Beatles. And that's really saying something, as McCartney had a hand in 17 number one British singles with his old band. At one point, "Mull of Kintyre" was the best-selling song of all time in McCartney's native U.K. (although it's since been outdone by only three other tracks). It spent nine weeks at No. 1 and is one of only 11 songs to have ever lasted at the top of the U.K. pop chart for that long. "Mull of Kintyre" was also the first single in the country's history to hit the 2 million sales milestone.

McCartney wrote the song, a nostalgic and beautiful homage to the natural beauty and wonders of Scotland, for his fellow Britons. "I was very happy to romanticize it. I thought my way into the minds of travelers, soldiers returning home, and that dream of coming back to the beautiful country, the beautiful village. The point of view of the homecoming person is deep in people's souls," McCartney wrote in "The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present." "Sometimes we do this song in concert when we're in expat places like Canada and New Zealand. We've got some security guys who are Scottish, and you see them welling up."

The failure of "Mull of Kintyre" in the U.S. definitely didn't have anything to do with Paul McCartney. After all, the musician and Wings bandleader was just as popular in the states in the 1970s as he was in the U.K. He'd had a hand in 20 No. 1 U.S. singles with The Beatles, and among the former Fab Four, his solo work was the most successful  — Billboard ranks him as the eleventh best-selling artist ever. As a solo artist and with Wings, McCartney topped the U.S. pop chart six times. Among those smashes, the classic love song "My Love" held the No. 1 spot the longest in 1973, and the tongue-in-cheek "Silly Love Songs" held the No. spot the longest in 1976. But "Mull of Kintyre" didn't go anywhere near that lofty peak or even approach the mountain range.

"Mull of Kintyre" hit American record stores in 1977 in the form of a 45 RPM disc, with the Wings track "Girls' School" as the B-side. The single initially sold so poorly that it didn't place on the Hot 100 chart. However, it would seem that enough disappointed DJs who still wanted to give a new McCartney or Wings single another shot turned the 45 over and started playing the other, filler song. "Girls' School" proved moderately successful, reaching No. 33 in early 1978 and relegating "Mull of Kintyre," simultaneously a cultural phenomenon across the Atlantic Ocean, to the B-side of a minor American hit.