Silly Love Songs

"Silly Love Songs"
German single sleeve
Single by Wings
from the album Wings at the Speed of Sound
B-side	"Cook of the House"
Released	1 April 1976 (US) 30 April 1976 (UK)
Format	7" single
Recorded	16 January 1976
Genre	Disco, funk
Length	5:53 (commercial 7" version) 3:22 (DJ copy edit)
Label	MPL Communications (UK) MPL Communications/Capitol (US)
Writer(s)	Paul & Linda McCartney
Producer(s)	Paul McCartney
Wings singles chronology
"Venus and Mars/Rock Show" (1975) "Silly Love Songs" (1976) "Let 'Em In" (1976)
Wings at the Speed of Sound track listing 11 tracks Side one "Let 'Em In" "The Note You Never Wrote" "She's My Baby" "Beware My Love" "Wino Junko" Side two "Silly Love Songs" "Cook of the House" "Time to Hide" "Must Do Something About It" "San Ferry Anne" "Warm and Beautiful" Alternative covers Dutch single sleeve

"Silly Love Songs" is a song written by Paul McCartney and performed by Wings. The song appears on the 1976 album Wings at the Speed of Sound. It was also released as a single in 1976, backed with "Cook of the House". The song, written in response to music critics accusing him of writing only "silly love songs", also features disco overtones.

"Silly Love Songs" was written as a rebuttal to music critics, as well as former Beatle and friend, John Lennon, accusing Paul McCartney of writing lightweight love songs. Author Tim Riley suggests that in the song, McCartney is inviting "his audience to have a laugh on him," as Elvis Presley had sometimes done.

But over the years people have said, "Aw, he sings love songs, he writes love songs, he's so soppy at times." I thought, Well, I know what they mean, but, people have been doing love songs forever. I like 'em, other people like 'em, and there's a lot of people I love -- I'm lucky enough to have that in my life. So the idea was that "you" may call them silly, but what's wrong with that?

The song was, in a way, to answer people who just accuse me of being soppy. The nice payoff now is that a lot of the people I meet who are at the age where they've just got a couple of kids and have grown up a bit, settling down, they'll say to me, "I thought you were really soppy for years, but I get it now! I see what you were doing!"

By the way, "Silly Love Songs" also had a good bassline and worked well live.

McCartney allowed the horn section to create their own parts for the song.

The US single was released on 1 April 1976 and spent five non-consecutive weeks at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Silly Love Songs" was the number 1 pop song in Billboard's Year-End Charts of 1976. It was also the group's second of three number ones on the Easy Listening chart. The single was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of over one million copies.Billboard listed "Silly Love Songs" as Paul McCartney's all-time biggest Hot 100 single. In 2008, the song was listed at No. 31 on Billboard's Greatest Songs of All Time, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The UK single was released on 30 April 1976 and reached number 2 on the UK Singles Chart.