The Man On The Run Doc Has Us Wishing These Under-The-Radar Wings Tracks Were Bigger Hits

The 2026 documentary "Paul McCartney: Man on the Run" focuses on the former Beatle's 1970s band Wings, and it showcases many of the group's unfortunately overlooked and unfairly forgotten songs. The film suggests that McCartney struggled to emerge from the large shadow cast by his time in the Beatles and that he struggled for credibility with Wings, a band that leaned into McCartney's sentimental and pop-oriented tendencies and included his non-musically-trained wife, Linda, on keyboards. But Wings actually had a ton of hits throughout the '70s, like "Band on the Run," "Another Day," and "Mull of Kintyre," McCartney's biggest solo hit that's virtually unknown in the U.S. "Man on the Run" celebrates McCartney's non-Beatles output, reminding viewers that Wings can rank with the most important rock bands of the 1970s.

The documentary so effectively makes a case for Wings that it makes us wish more people were aware of the band's deep and varied catalog. The band had so many singles that not all of them could ascend to the top of the charts or stay in the public consciousness, not to mention album tracks and larks that didn't get much attention in the first place. Here are some lesser-known Wings songs that are so good they really should've been smash hits.

An A-side track on the 1973 Paul McCartney and Wings triple-platinum LP "Band on the Run," "Mrs. Vanderbilt" was released as a single in Finland, Denmark, and New Zealand, but it never appeared on the Hot 100 chart in the U.S. Given a chunk of time to shine in the documentary "Paul McCartney: Man on the Run," it embraces the ideal Wings song formula so thoroughly that it's inexplicable this one didn't hit it big in the U.S. the way so many other Wings songs did.

McCartney is nothing if not a hook merchant, and he piles them on, one by one, as "Mrs. Vanderbilt" unfolds. The leader of Wings played bass as his primary instrument, and it's unsurprisingly high in the mix. But it doesn't just anchor the rhythm — it carries the melody too, moving along with that recognizable McCartney speed, hypnotic and reminiscent of something an oompah band might produce, paired with that quintessential shuffling drumbeat. Rapid-fire lyrics, half-sung and half-shouted by McCartney, are also familiar and alluring, and he maybe never wrote as hooky of a nonsense vocal line as the pervasive "ho hey ho" that runs through "Mrs. Vanderbilt."

The initial recording of "Soily" was documented in 1974 for the ultimately unreleased Wings documentary "One Hand Clapping." Those sessions weren't released in album form until 2024, although a live version of "Soily" appeared as the closing track on 1976's "Wings Over America," and the track made it to the flip side of Wings' 1977 Top 10 hit "Maybe I'm Amazed." It very well could have been a '70s B-side that outshined its lead single.

McCartney has often been dismissed as a lightweight because of his sentimental and earnest material, overshadowing how he could really go fast, loud, and heavy when he wanted to cut loose. Fitting into the McCartney collection of hard rockers where he really goes for it is "Soily." It's got searing lead guitar work and thunderous, shredding riffs from Denny Laine, along with a thick and booming bass line provided by McCartney himself. The lyrics are a bit hard to make sense of, like so many heavy metal or punk songs. But McCartney absolutely wails his way through "Soily" until his famously high and angelic voice is raspy and raw. "Soily" is one of the rougher and rowdier entries in the McCartney canon, falling somewhere between "Live and Let Die" and "Helter Skelter."

Only the second single attributed to Wings, "Mary Had a Little Lamb" spent seven weeks on the pop chart in 1972, peaking at just No. 28. Perhaps self-serious rock fans wouldn't give a song called "Mary Had a Little Lamb" a chance, figuring it was children's music. It even earns some derision from close McCartney associates in the 2026 documentary "Paul McCartney: Man on the Run." But this wasn't a matter of "what was he thinking" — it's a forgotten gem that reflects the musician's values and priorities in the early 1970s as well as his preternatural ability to interpret any song, even a simple children's nursery rhyme, and turn it into a bubbly pop-rock delight.

"Mary Had a Little Lamb" is indeed a version of the very old and very public-domain childhood song of the same name. As depicted in "Man on the Run," McCartney was living the good life in 1972, residing on a farm in Scotland and raising young children, explaining his attraction to the pastoral and juvenile. But he couldn't help but make "Mary Had a Little Lamb" into a Paul McCartney song. It's got that signature chug and bounce, and the friendly and engaging vocal delivery, of hits he wrote for the Beatles or himself. "Mary Had a Little Lamb" is a frivolous novelty, but one that sounds a lot like "Lady Madonna" or "Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey."