My Love – the Evolution of an Iconic Guitar Solo

As 1971 turned into 1972, Wings had recorded and released their debut album, Wild Life, but still lacked a lead guitarist. Henry McCullough joined the band soon after the New Year, on the recommendation of Denny Laine.

One of the new line-up’s earliest rehearsals was captured on film at London’s ICA building. Here, we can see the band working through a very rough version of what would become one of McCartney’s greatest ballads, My Love. McCullough launches into a solo at 1:50, but it’s a pretty tentative affair. It gives the impression that he is still finding his way around the chords:

In February 1972 Wings embarked on their first ever tour – which involved hiring two vans and turning up, completely unannounced, at a number of English universities. Two of these performances can be heard in very rough audiences tapes. Taking the first performance from Nottingham University on the 9th February at 41:30 – again, not much seems to be happening in the guitar department, even making allowances for the poor quality of the recording:

Wings went on the road again in July and August of 1972, this time performing at a number of venues focussed on northern Europe. We have a sound-board recording of My Love from The Hague in the Netherlands on the 21st August. The guitar solo from 2:08 at least now holds some sort of shape and direction.

Sessions for Wings’ next studio album, Red Rose Speedway, began in March 1972, but the recording of My Love was reserved for a slot at EMI Studios, London (later re-named Abbey Road) in October 1972.

My Love was recorded over a series of twenty takes over a three-hour duration. The band played live accompanied by an orchestra conducted by Richard Hewson. Hewson had orchestrated The Long and Winding Road on The Beatles’ Let It Be album.

According to McCartney, McCullough decided to change the solo on the day of the recording.

We had the whole orchestra waiting for the downbeat and Henry McCulloch said….”Do you mind if I change the solo?”…and actually it was one of the best solos he ever played.

The solo is completely different from what has come before. It is now fully-formed and confident, but perfectly in-keeping with the song’s subdued romanticism. It matches the emotional ebb and flow of the verse-refrain structure, but avoids copying the vocal melody.

It begins with a simple statement of the tonic of Bb4 over the chord of Bb major7, before offering a languid whole-tone bend up from C4 to D4. At 2:14, McCullough gently slides to F#4, the major third of the secondary dominant chord of D major. This is followed by more slides over the chord of Gm, which is then sequentially raised to A minor at 2:25 as high strings impart a sense of urgency. At 2:30 McCullough ascends to the peak of F5 over the chord of B half-diminished, before hurriedly descending back down to F4 to meet the chord of F major exactly on the downbeat at 2:33 – as McCartney resumes his vocal. The solo is a perfect expression of musical tension and release.

Finally, it is worth comparing the version on Red Rose Speedway with that recorded (again live) on the James Paul McCartney TV Special from 1973. Here, McCullough plays the essentially the same solo, but adds some minor inflections in the spirit of improvisation.

Although McCullough sadly passed away in 2016 at the age of seventy-two, his guitar solo for My Love stands as one of the most inspired interludes from all of McCartney’s recordings after The Beatles.

Read more about My Love and many other Wings and McCartney songs here: