Venus and Mars is the fourthstudio album by the British–American rock bandWings. Released in May 1975 as the follow-up toBand on the Run,Venus and Mars continued Wings' run of commercial success and provided a springboard for a year-long worldwide tour. The album wasPaul McCartney's first post-Beatles album to be released worldwide byCapitol Records rather thanApple.
After recordingBand on the Run as a three-piece with wifeLinda McCartney and guitaristDenny Laine, McCartney recruited guitaristJimmy McCulloch and drummerGeoff Britton to the band in 1974. Recording sessions for the album took place inLondon,New Orleans andLos Angeles in November 1974 and early 1975. During the sessions, personal tensions caused Britton to quit after nine months, forcing the band to recruit American drummerJoe English to finish the album.
Preceded by the single "Listen to What the Man Said",Venus and Mars peaked at number 1 in the US, the UK and other countries around the world. It also received mostly favourable reviews from music critics but was ultimately considered inferior to its predecessor. The album was reissued with bonus tracks in 1987 on CD and in 1993 as part ofThe Paul McCartney Collection. It was remastered in 2014 and released as a deluxe edition with bonus tracks and unreleased material.
After recordingBand on the Run (1973) as a three-piece with wifeLinda and guitaristDenny Laine, McCartney addedJimmy McCulloch on lead guitar andGeoff Britton on drums to the Wings line-up in 1974. Having written several new songs for the next album, McCartney decided to record the album inNew Orleans, and Wings headed there in January 1975.
Before leaving for New Orleans, the group recorded three songs atAbbey Road Studios in London in November 1974: "Letting Go", "Love In Song" and "Medicine Jar", all overdubbed later atSea-Saint Studios in New Orleans alongside the recording of new material.[2] Sea-Saint co-ownerAllen Toussaint would play piano on the track "Rock Show". As engineer Alan O'Duffy disclosed to author Luca Perasi, some handbells were overdubbed onto "Love In Song" at Sea Saint.[3] The engineer himself contributed some uncredited percussion and backing vocals on some tracks.[4]
As soon as the sessions began, the personality clash that had been evident between McCulloch and Britton during Wings' 1974 sessions inNashville became more pronounced, and Britton – after a nine-month tenure – quit Wings, having played on only three of the new songs. A replacement, AmericanJoe English, was quickly auditioned and hired to finish the album.[5]
The sessions proved to be productive, not only resulting in a finished album, but also several additional songs, including two future McCartneyB-sides, "Lunch Box/Odd Sox" and "My Carnival". McCartney also decided to link the album's songs together much like the Beatles had onAbbey Road to giveVenus and Mars a more continuous feel.[6]
John Lennon, often in a nostalgic mood during his "lost weekend" period, had told his then-girlfriendMay Pang that they would visit the McCartneys during the recording sessions forVenus and Mars, and considered writing with Paul again. Lennon's planned visit never happened, however, due to his subsequent reunion withYoko Ono.[7]
Wings' interpretation of the theme toCrossroads, a Britishsoap opera, was sometimes used to end the television programme in place of the regular theme tune, usually when there was a cliffhanger ending with a hint of sadness involved.
The album cover, which Paul summed up as "a package that would be nice to get, and also something recognizable" was photographed by Linda, depicting twobilliard balls in a black background, which are yellow and red to fit the colours of the planetsVenus andMars.[18] Interior photographs of Wings were shot in theMojave Desert to capture a group photograph in an outerworldly location.[19]Hipgnosis did the art design, incorporating billiard balls and cues in the lettering and illustrations byGeorge Hardie;[20] in return, McCartney would later lend a 16-track tape recorder to Hipgnosis memberPeter Christopherson's bandThrobbing Gristle to record their 1979 album20 Jazz Funk Greats.[21]
Preceded by the US number-one single "Listen to What the Man Said",Venus and Mars was released two weeks later, on 30 May 1975.[22][23] It received generally favourable reviews and strong sales.[24] The album reached number one in the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries around the world and sold four million copies worldwide.[10] The reaction, though mainly positive, was less so than what had greetedBand on the Run a year earlier.
Two additional singles, "Letting Go" and "Venus and Mars/Rock Show", were released. Although the latter almost reached the US top ten,[25] it did not chart at all in the UK.
In September, Wings began what would be their year-longWings Over the World tour in the UK,[26] with concerts in Australia, Europe, the US and Canada to follow. Songs fromVenus and Mars featured heavily in the concert setlist.
The album was first issued oncompact disc byColumbia Records in 1984, although early pressings were pressed in Japan by CSR Compact Disc, which was etched in the inner ring. In 1993,Venus and Mars was remastered and reissued on CD as part of "The Paul McCartney Collection" series with "Zoo Gang" (a UK television theme that was the UK B-side of "Band on the Run" in 1974), "Lunch Box/Odd Sox" (B-side of "Coming Up" in 1980) and "My Carnival" ("Spies Like Us"' B-side in 1985) as bonus tracks. In 2007, the album was reissued in digital form oniTunes with the same bonus tracks, plus the extended "party mix" of "My Carnival"; however, this version has since been replaced by the 2014 reissue.
The album was also originally released in 4-channelquadraphonic sound. In 1996 the quadraphonic version of the album was issued on compact disc in theDTS5.1 Music Disc format.
A half-speed mastered vinyl version of the album was reissued on 21 March 2025 to celebrate its 50th anniversary.[29]
Standard edition 2-CD; the original 13-track album on the first disc, plus 14 bonus tracks on a second disc.
Deluxe edition 2-CD/1-DVD;
the original 13-track #1 album remastered at Abbey Road Studios in London;
a bonus audio disc with 14 tracks including the hit single "Junior's Farm" and rare and previously unreleased songs;
a 128-page numbered hardbound book featuring new interview with Paul McCartney, rare and previously unpublished photographs by Linda McCartney and Aubrey Powell (entitled "Nashville Diary 1975"), inserts of archive material (including a facsimile of Paul's original handwritten lyric "scroll"), expanded track-by-track annotation and full history of the album, a deck pass "Paul and Linda McCartney – Venus and Mars", a complete illustrated history of the making ofVenus and Mars and a poster and a flyer "Wings in concert at Elstree";
a DVD featuring previously unreleased and exclusive content including the original TV commercial for the album (directed by Karel Reisz), footage of the band in New Orleans ("Recording My Carnival" and "Bon Voyageur") and rehearsing the songs fromVenus and Mars at Elstree Studios ("Wings at Elstree");
an access to downloadable 24bit 96 kHz high-resolution audio versions of the remastered album and bonus audio tracks.
Remastered vinyl The albums will also be available on special gatefold vinyl editions (vinyl editions include a download card).
High resolution Digital album was made available as both standard and deluxe versions – including mastered for iTunes and Hi-Res formats.
^Madinger, Chip; Easter, Mark (2018) [First published 2000].Eight Arms To Hold You. Chesterfield, MO. p. 597.ISBN978-0615117249.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
