Paul McCartney & Wings' 'Band On The Run' Is Back on the U.S. Charts

Paul McCartney & Wings' Band On The Run has just made a fresh appearance on the U.S. Billboard charts, in the wake of its 50th anniversary re-issue, including a special "underdubbed" version.

Proving the staying power and instant name recognition of the classic album, Band on the Run has actually made appearances on a number of the various charts recorded by Billboard. The album has re-entered the traditional album sales chart, Top Album Sales, at No. 5; debuts at No. 7 on the Vinyl Albums total; re-enters at No. 6 on Tastemaker Albums (the top-selling albums each week based on an influential panel of indie stores and small regional chains); and debuts at No. 37 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums.

On the Billboard 200 chart, where the album hit No. 1 in 1974, the anniversary set re-enters at No. 156 – its first appearance on the chart since Jan. 1, 2011.

According to Luminate, Billboard's source of music and entertainment data, Band on the Run sold 8,000 physical copies in the U.S. for the week ending Feb. 8. That's a 14,681 percent increase since the prior week.

Never miss a story — sign up for the Q newsletter for the latest music news on all your favorite artists, all in one place.

Since its initial release in November 1973, the album has been not only a fan favorite, but also one that critics and consumers alike rank as one of McCartney's best post-Beatles efforts.

As McCartney has explained in a book by Bruce Spizer, "It's a collection of songs and the basic idea about the band on the run is a kind of prison escape. At the beginning of the album, the guy is stuck inside four walls and breaks out. There is a thread, but not a concept."

From the anthemic opening track to the rocket-propulsion of "Jet," the wistful "Bluebird," long-time live staple "Let Me Roll It" and climactic closer "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five," Band On The Run was eventually certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and would go on to sell 6 million copies worldwide, becoming EMI's top-selling album of the 1970s in the UK.

For fifty years on though, McCartney decided to let the record and streaming public hear what he labeled as the 'underdubbed' version of the tracklist. It's a fascinating trip to hear the songs in their native form, stripped of orchestral strings and engineering canoodlings... until you come to realize that the album was awarded a Grammy to trusted McCartney ally Geoff Emerick for Best Engineered Non-Classical Album in 1974!

Band On the Run 50th Anniversary Edition is available from paulmccartney.com