10 Worst Paul McCartney Albums

Paul McCartney is the definition of songwriting genius. The numbers tell his tale of remarkable success, both with and without the Beatles.

During one remarkable run between 1962 and 1978, McCartney had a hand in 43 songs that went platinum or multi-platinum. (He also composed smash hits for others, including Peter and Gordon’s No. 1 single “A World Without Love.”)

McCartney wrote or co-wrote a string of chart-toppers with Wings, including “My Love,” “Band on the Run,” “Listen to What the Man Said,” “Silly Love Songs” and “Mull of Kintyre.” He added more as a solo artist, hitting No. 1 with “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey,” “Coming Up,” “Pipes of Peace,” “Ebony and Ivory” and “Say Say Say,” the latter two of which were duets with Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson, respectively.

These signature accomplishments have helped McCartney to almost 16 million RIAA-certified solo album sales, on top of 10 million LPs with Wings. Still, with more than 35 related studio releases, there were simply bound to be a few stumbles along the way.

Our look back at the 10 Worst Paul McCartney Albums touches on every era of his post-Beatles career, including a pair of Wings projects and then a string of offerings from the ’80s through the 2010s. The focus was on McCartney’s mainstream rock and pop recordings, however, so we avoided niche fare like 1967’s The Family Way soundtrack, 2000’s weirdly ambient Liverpool Sound Collage and a string of classical LPs that began with 1991’s Liverpool Oratorio.