1984 Paul McCartney – Give My Regards To Broad Street

Give My Regards to Broad Street is the soundtrack album to the 1984 film of the same name and the fifth solo studio album by Paul McCartney. Unlike the film, the album was commercially successful, in Britain, where it achieved number 1 on the UK chart. The lead single, “No More Lonely Nights”, was BAFTA and Golden Globe Award nominated.

The majority of the album – which is sequenced in the order of the songs’ appearance in the film – features re-interpretations of many of Paul McCartney’s past classics of The Beatles and Wings: “Good Day Sunshine”, “Yesterday”, “Here, There and Everywhere”, “Silly Love Songs” (the only Wings song included), “For No One”, “Eleanor Rigby” and “The Long and Winding Road”. There were also interpretations of songs from McCartney’s more recent albums; “Ballroom Dancing” and “Wanderlust” from Tug of War and “So Bad” from Pipes of Peace. Besides “No More Lonely Nights” (also heard in a dance version), the only previously-unheard tracks were “Not Such a Bad Boy”, “No Values” and a symphonic extension of “Eleanor Rigby” entitled “Eleanor’s Dream”. The scope of the album was so immense that when it saw release that October, its vinyl issue had specially edited versions of its songs. The cassette and the later CD edition preserved the tracks’ full lengths, while the CD went one further by including a bonus 1940s-styled piece called “Goodnight Princess”.

Preceded by “No More Lonely Nights (Ballad)”, a worldwide top 10 hit featuring guitar work by David Gilmour, Give My Regards to Broad Street entered the UK charts at number 1 while going gold with a number 21 peak in the United States (selling under expectations there). It would also mark the end of McCartney’s relatively brief alliance with Columbia Records in the US which had started with the final Wings album Back to the Egg in 1979. McCartney would re-sign with EMI worldwide (where he remained until 2007) with his Columbia output reverting to his new – and original – label in the US. Simultaneously with the film’s premiere in November McCartney’s Rupert Bear recording “We All Stand Together”, started back in 1980 and credited to ‘Paul McCartney and the Frog Chorus’, was released and became a hit single in the UK, reaching number 3. The accompanying animated film was shown in cinemas immediately preceding the main Give My Regards to Broad Street feature. The soundtrack’s original release was on Columbia Records in 1984 in North America. It was remastered in 1993 and reissued on CD as part of ‘The Paul McCartney Collection’ series with two extended dance mixes of “No More Lonely Nights (playout version)” as bonus tracks.