Release and Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Blender | |
| Robert Christgau | C+ |
| Rolling Stone | favourable |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| MusicHound | |
Band on the Run was issued to mostly positive reviews. The commercial reaction was slow, with the album gradually inching its way up the charts, but by the spring of 1974, bolstered by the hits "Jet" and the title track "Band on the Run", Band On The Run was a major success. It reached #1 in the US on three separate occasions, and eventually went triple platinum. In the UK, it spent seven weeks at the summit that summer, becoming the top selling British album of 1974. Its lingering success was also beneficial in allowing Wings the time to find a new guitarist and drummer, and to integrate them into the band before beginning new recordings.
In early 1975, Paul McCartney & Wings won the Grammy award for "Best Pop Vocal Performance By a Duo, Group or Chorus" for Band on the Run. In 1993, Band on the Run was remastered and reissued on CD as part of "The Paul McCartney Collection" series with "Helen Wheels" and its b-side "Country Dreamer" as bonus tracks. In 1999, a special 25th Anniversary Edition was released. On this version, "Helen Wheels" was track 8, between "No Words" and "Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)" (as it was positioned in the original US release). In May 2007, the album was made available through the iTunes Store.
The 8-track tape version of this album has the distinction of being one of the few 8-tracks that is arranged just like the record album. The song "Bluebird" is divided in two parts, but the rest of the songs are complete. It was also released in quadrophonic. In 1996, it was released on 5.1 Music Disc.
The album continues to be regarded positively even if not universally regarded as substantive. The Allmusic review cites some of the songs as being excellent and the album overall as "enjoyable" while concluding that it is a "triumph of showmanship." And the Rolling Stone review of the 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition notes that "the real action still lies in the original LP's revved-up pleasures".
Read more about this topic: Band On The Run
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