The idea was a hasty one, and McCartney thought better of the whole One Hand Clapping project, which was to also involve a documentary about the record's making, and got to work writing some new songs, which would ultimately become Venus and Mars, an album that was not quite as highly regarded as Band on the Run but definitely didn't get undeservedly slammed the way the wonderful RAM did. It was probably the right move, but McCartney's fans were not done with that hasty yet intriguing abandoned project yet. When the bootleggers got their hands on the One Hand Clapping tapes, they had the proverbial field day. The film made its way out there too.
Fifty years later, One Hand Clapping, the album, is finally getting an official release as a double LP plus bonus seven inch vinyl set. It feels a bit like a dry-run for the massively successful Wings Over America concerts that would follow a couple of years later and wow audiences with the first selection of Beatles chestnuts Paul performed since the end of The Beatles. He goofed around with some of those songs on One Hand: "Lady Madonna", "Blackbird", and "The Long and Winding Road". The band did "Go Now" in deference to Denny Laine's days with The Moody Blues and the guy's wonderful and underused voice.
One Hand Clapping diverges from that later set with a few songs Wings would cut from their act over the next couple of years (mostly stuff from the little-loved Wild Life), as well as a handful of simple, demo-like piano/voice numbers, such as a version of "Let's Love", which he'd written for Peggy Lee; "All of You"; and "I'll Give You a Ring", which he would not polish and release for eight more years when it crept out on the B-side of "Take It Away". There are also a clutch of rock and roll classics from the closets of Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, and Elvis Presley. Despite their age and the fact that most of them are played in simple guitar/voice arrangements, these songs freshen up One Hand Clapping since performances of them are unique in McCartney's catalog.
Not that the other songs don't sound great. Wings was often a critical punching bag, but they were always a great band, even when they were basically McCartney overdubbing himself, as he did on Band on the Run. Plus McCartney always just sounds happy to play. That joy comes through clearly on One Hand Clapping. Is it as essential as RAM, Band on the Run, or Venus and Mars? Nope, but it's definitely deserving of release, even if it took fifty years to happen.
