11 tracks
Side one "Coming Up" "Temporary Secretary" "On the Way" "Waterfalls" "Nobody Knows" Side two "Front Parlour" "Summer's Day Song" "Frozen Jap" "Bogey Music" "Darkroom" "One of These Days"

11 tracks
Side one "Coming Up" "Temporary Secretary" "On the Way" "Waterfalls" "Nobody Knows" Side two "Front Parlour" "Summer's Day Song" "Frozen Jap" "Bogey Music" "Darkroom" "One of These Days"

"Coming Up" is a song written and performed by Paul McCartney. It is the opening track on his second solo album McCartney II, which was released in 1980. Like the rest of the album, the song has a minimalist synthesised feel to it. It featured vocals sped up by using a vari-speed tape machine. McCartney played all the instruments and shared vocal harmonies with wife Linda McCartney.

The single was a major chart hit in Britain, peaking at number 2 on the singles chart. In the United States and Canada, the live version of the song performed by Paul McCartney and Wings (released as the B-side to the single) saw much greater success.

In a Rolling Stone interview, McCartney explained how the song came about:

I originally cut it on my farm in Scotland. I went into the studio each day and just started with a drum track. Then I built it up bit by bit without any idea of how the song was going to turn out. After laying down the drum track, I added guitars and bass, building up the backing track. I did a little version with just me as the nutty professor, doing everything and getting into my own world like a laboratory. The absent-minded professor is what I go like when I'm doing those; you get so into yourself it's weird, crazy. But I liked it.

Then I thought, 'Well, OK, what am I going to do for the voice?' I was working with a vari-speed machine with which you can speed up your voice, or take it down a little bit. That's how the voice sound came about. It's been speeded up slightly and put through an echo machine I was playing around with. I got into all sorts of tricks, and I can't remember how I did half of them, because I was just throwing them all in and anything that sounded good, I kept. And anything I didn't like I just wiped.

Former band-mate John Lennon liked the song and credited it for driving him out of retirement to resume recording.

Somebody asked me what I thought of Paul's last album and I made some remark like I thought he was depressed and sad. But then I realized I hadn't listened to the whole damn thing. I heard one track - the hit, 'Coming Up,' which I thought was a good piece of work. Then I heard something else that sounded like he was depressed.

I heard a story from a guy who recorded with John in New York, and he said that John would sometimes get lazy. But then he'd hear a song of mine where he thought, 'Oh, shit, Paul's putting it in, Paul's working!' Apparently 'Coming Up' was the one song that got John recording again. I think John just thought, 'Uh oh, I had better get working, too.' I thought that was a nice story.

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Wikipedia