Release and Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Deseret News | (Very favourable) |
| The Los Angeles Times | |
| The New York Times | (Mixed) |
| Rolling Stone | |
Upon its May 1997 release, the critical reaction to Flaming Pie was very strong, with McCartney achieving his best reviews since 1982's Tug of War. The commercial reaction was everything McCartney could have hoped for. With fresh credibility even with young fans who had been introduced to him through the Anthology project, and anticipation raised with the excellent reviews, Flaming Pie debuted at number 2 in the UK in May, giving McCartney his best new entry since Flowers in the Dirt eight years before. It was kept off the top spot there by the Spice Girls' album Spice.
In the US, reaction was also very positive. The album debuted at number 2 (the best chart peak for a McCartney album there since Tug of War) with 121,000 copies sold in its first week, also behind the Spice album that sold only 16,500 more copies that week. In both the UK and the US Flaming Pie managed to be the best new entry of the week, and also reach gold in both countries. Reception of the album was relatively weaker than its predecessor in other countries, however, managed to reach at least one number 1 position (in Greece) and certified gold in Norway. According to Nielsen SoundScan, the album had sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide up to June 2007.
Singles "Young Boy", "The World Tonight" and "Beautiful Night" became UK hits, all making the top 40 in the sales charts. The only single in the US from the album was "The World Tonight", a top 30 entry on the Billboard mainstream rock listing.
To promote the album, McCartney held an online chat party, and consequently, the event entered the Guinness Book of World Records for the most people in an online chatroom at once. There was no tour.
Some consider Flaming Pie to be one of Paul McCartney's finest solo outings. It did, indeed, receive a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year, although Bob Dylan won the award with his back-to-form album Time Out of Mind.
"Young Boy" and "The World Tonight" appeared in the 1997 Ivan Reitman comedy Fathers' Day, while "Great Day" appeared in the 2009 film Funny People by Judd Apatow, playing over the opening credits, and was available as a free download on paulmccartney.com for a limited time.
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