Pictured: Paul McCartney / Photo credit: Mary McCartney
Liveright / W. W. Norton and Allen Lane / Penguin Press announce the publication of
Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run
by Paul McCartney
Edited with an Introduction by Ted Widmer
Publishing November 4, 2025
A landmark account of Paul McCartney’s triumphant musical reinvention in the 1970s and the subsequent rise of one of the decade’s most iconic bands.
“I’m so very happy to be transported back to the time that was Wings and relive some of our madcap adventures through this book. Starting from scratch after The Beatles felt crazy at times. There were some very difficult moments and I often questioned my decision. But as we got better I thought, ‘OK this is really good.’ We proved Wings could be a really good band. To play to huge audiences in the same way The Beatles had and have an impact in a different way. It was a huge buzz.”
—Paul McCartney
As the Sixties came to a close, Paul McCartney was faced with the daunting prospect of being a solo artist for the first time. Wings’ ascension to the top of the charts with classic albums including Band on the Run, Venus and Mars, and At the Speed of Sound, along with the band’s stadium-filling live shows, would prove to critics and fans that not all great acts are impossible to follow. Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run is a rousing, stereophonic celebration of the songs, collaborations and performances that would shape the soundtrack of the late twentieth century.
Drawn from over 500,000 words, based on dozens of hours of interviews with McCartney and numerous key players in the band’s orbit, Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run weaves together the improbable trajectory of Paul McCartney and his newly formed band (featuring co-founding members Linda McCartney and Denny Laine) across the technicolor 1970s until their dissolution in 1981.
Edited by the prize-winning historian Ted Widmer and organized around nine Wings albums, this oral history sheds new light on the immediate aftermath and the seismic global impact of The Beatles’ breakup, as the musical landscape and tastes began to splinter and diverge along with societal views. The narrative follows the various incarnations of the band as they survive a mugging in Nigeria, appear unannounced at UK university halls, tour in a sheared-off school bus with their children, while producing some of the most indelible and acclaimed music of the decade, including: “Mull of Kintyre,” “Live and Let Die,” “Band on the Run,” “My Love,” “Jet,” “With a Little Luck,” “Silly Love Songs,” “Let ’Em In,” “Junior’s Farm,” and more.
With more than 100 black-and-white and color photographs, many never seen before, Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run is part of a larger reexamination and appreciation of the group and their catalog, including the 2024 theatrical release of the rare Wings live-in-studio performance film One Hand Clapping and its accompanying album; fiftieth-anniversary editions of the Wings albums Band on the Run (released February 2024) and Venus and Mars (releasing March 2025); and a forthcoming documentary on Paul McCartney’s solo and Wings-related musical work of the 1970s from Academy Award–winning filmmaker Morgan Neville.
“Wings was about love, family, friendship and artistic growth, often in the face of tremendous adversity. It was a joy to relive the madcap adventures of a special band by listening to their stories and compiling this oral history.”—Ted Widmer
About the authors:
Born in Liverpool in 1942, Paul McCartney was raised in the city and educated at the Liverpool Institute. Since writing his first song at fourteen, McCartney has dreamed and dared to be different. He lives in England.
Ted Widmer is a prize-winning historian, a former White House speechwriter, and a lifelong music fan. His most recent book is Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington.
Liveright (US and Canada) product information:
Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run
Paul McCartney
Edited by Ted Widmer
Publishing Tuesday, November 4, 2025
Print ISBN: 9781324096306
Ebook ISBN: 9781324096313
USD$45.00 / CAD$60.00
528 Pages
An edition will be published in the UK by Penguin/Allen Lane.
Robert Kinsler
