"Little Woman Love" is a

Wings A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expre ...

song released as the B-side of the non album single "

Mary Had a Little Lamb "Mary Had a Little Lamb" is an English language nursery rhyme of nineteenth-century American origin, first published by American writer Sarah Josepha Hale in 1830. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 7622. Background The nursery rhyme was ...

" on 12 May 1972 by Apple Reords.

History

It was composed by

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

in 1970 and recorded during the ''

Ram Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * ...

'' sessions but left off the album. In keeping with McCartney's practice at the time, the composition was credited to Paul and Linda McCartney. Beatle biographer John Blaney describes "Little Woman Love" as a "breezy rocker" with a

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western musical styles such as country with that of rhythm and blu ...

feel. The song is unusual for Wings in that instead of Paul McCartney playing electric bass guitar,

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

musician

Milt Hinton Milton John Hinton (June 23, 1910 – December 19, 2000) was an American double bassist and photographer. Regarded as the Dean of American jazz bass players, his nicknames included "Sporty" from his years in Chicago, "Fump" from his time on the ...

plays slap bass. '' Cash Box'' described it as a "

Lady Madonna "Lady Madonna" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written primarily by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. In March 1968, it was released as a mono single, backed with "The Inner Light". The song was recorded on 3 a ...

-ish rocker."

Reception and charts

While "Mary Had a Little Lamb" was dismissed by the critics, it climbed to the top 10 in the United Kingdom. In the United States, however, radio stations also played "Little Woman Love." As a result, the picture sleeve for "Mary Had a Little Lamb" was revised by Apple Records to have a separate listing for the flip side. The single reached number 28 on the

Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streamin ...

in the US. On the '' Cash Box'' chart, which listed single sides separately, "Little Woman Love" only appeared for one week at number 95.

Release

"Little Woman Love" was never released on an album until 1993, when it was included as a bonus track to '' Wild Life'' in ''

The Paul McCartney Collection ''The Paul McCartney Collection'' is a series of 16 remastered CDs by Paul McCartney of his solo and Wings albums, with most adding bonus tracks. The albums in the collection were released separately, with the first eight released on 7 June 1993 ...

''. It was included on the Special and Deluxe editions of ''Ram'' and ''Red Rose Speedway''. It was later included on ''

The 7" Singles Box ''The 7" Singles Box Set'' is a box set by Paul McCartney released in December 2022 containing 80 seven-inch vinyl singles originally released between 1971 and 2022. The box set was packaged in a wooden crate manufactured in the United Kingdom an ...

'' in 2022.

Personnel

– piano, lead vocal * Linda McCartney – backing vocal *

David Spinozza David Spinozza is an American guitarist and producer. He worked with former Beatles Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and John Lennon during the 1970s, and had a long collaboration with singer-songwriter James Taylor, producing Taylor's album '' Walkin ...

– guitar *

Hugh McCracken Hugh Carmine McCracken (March 31, 1942 – March 28, 2013) was an American rock guitarist and session musician based in New York City, primarily known for his performance on guitar and also as a harmonica player. McCracken was additionally a ...

– guitar *

Denny Seiwell Denny Seiwell (born July 10, 1943) is an American drummer and a founding member of Wings. He also drummed for Billy Joel and Liza Minnelli and played in the scores for the films ''Waterworld'', '' Grease II'', and ''Vertical Limit''. His d ...

– drums, percussion *

–

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar i ...

Notes

References

1972 singles Apple Records singles Music published by MPL Music Publishing Paul McCartney songs Song recordings produced by Paul McCartney Songs written by Linda McCartney Songs written by Paul McCartney Paul McCartney and Wings songs {{Beatles-song-stub