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Released in 1978

With A Little Luck

Written by Paul McCartney

Last updated on February 22, 2014

Album This song officially appears on the London Town Official album.

Timeline This song was officially released in 1978

Master album

Related sessions

This song was recorded during the following studio sessions:

Related interviews

From Wikipedia:

“With a Little Luck” is a single by the band Wings from their 1978 album London Town.

Written in Scotland, “With a Little Luck” would become Wings’ follow-up single to the then best-selling UK Single of all time, “Mull of Kintyre” and was one of the first synthpop records to appear on radio and in the charts and the beginning of McCartney’s period of involvement and experimentation with synthesisers.[original research?]

Recorded in 1977 aboard the boat Fair Carol in the Virgin Islands for the proposed album, working title Water Wings,[citation needed] which was released as the band’s seventh album London Town. During these recordings, Wings’ lead guitarist Jimmy McCulloch and drummer Joe English had left, returning the band to the three piece line up which had recorded Band on the Run in 1973. McCartney played electric piano, bass and synthesizer in the song: probably English was on drums, while Laine and Linda McCartney helped with some keyboards.

Released in March 1978, the first single from the album, “With a Little Luck” hit No.1 in the United States and No.5 in the UK. While it was at the top of the charts in the USA, McCartney announced the new Wings line up featuring lead guitarist Laurence Juber and drummer Steve Holly.

The single features an edit of the much longer version on its parent album and its b-side consists of the segue of two short tracks, “Backward Traveller”/”Cuff Link”, also on the album, the first of which is a song and the second an instrumental that features a heavily synthesized guitar theme.

Author Chris Ingham praised the song as one of the best on the album, stating it was “full of the most sensitive pop synthesizer touches.”

The song’s music video, directed by Michael Lindsay Hogg, aired in the UK on 9 May 1978, as part of Granada Television’s Paul TV show.

“With a Little Luck” was also released on Wings Greatest (1978), All the Best! (1987), and the two-disc compilation, Wingspan (2001). There were two versions of the song: the full version on London Town which runs 5:45, and a single version which only runs 3:13 (as it cuts out the entire instrumental interlude). The album version was included on the first two compilations, while the single version appears on Wingspan and in the American version of All the Best!.

It was featured in the closing credits of the 1979 film Sunburn starring Farrah Fawcett, Charles Grodin and Art Carney.

Lyrics

With a little luck we can help it out

We can make this whole damn thing work out

With a little love we can lay it down

Can't you feel the town exploding?

Chorus

There is no end to what we can do together

There is no end

The willow turns his back on inclement weather

And if he can do it, we can do it, just me and you

And a little luck, we can clear it up

We can bring it in for a landing

With a little luck we can turn it on

There can be no misunderstanding

Chorus

With a little push, we could set it off

We can send it rocketing skywards

With a little love we could shake it up

Don't you feel the comet exploding?

With a little luck, with a little luck, with a little luck, etc

Repeat verse one

With a little love, we can set it off

We can send it rocketing skywards

With a little luck, we could shake it up

Oh yeah

Repeat verse one

Repeat verse three

Officially appears on

See all official recordings containing “With A Little Luck”

Bootlegs

See all bootlegs containing “With A Little Luck”

Related film

Videos

Album London Town (1993)

Live performances

Paul McCartney has never played this song in concert.

Going further

Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989

With 25 albums of pop music, 5 of classical – a total of around 500 songs – released over the course of more than half a century, Paul McCartney's career, on his own and with Wings, boasts an incredible catalogue that's always striving to free itself from the shadow of The Beatles. The stories behind the songs, demos and studio recordings, unreleased tracks, recording dates, musicians, live performances and tours, covers, events: Music Is Ideas Volume 1 traces McCartney's post-Beatles output from 1970 to 1989 in the form of 346 song sheets, filled with details of the recordings and stories behind the sessions. Accompanied by photos, and drawing on interviews and contemporary reviews, this reference book draws the portrait of a musical craftsman who has elevated popular song to an art-form.

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Paul McCartney writing

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