James Paul McCartney Originally aired April 16, 1973
Okay, back from vacation so I can comment on this. Thanks to the book, 'The McCartney Legacy Volume 1: 1969-1973' it lays out a timeline of recording for the special.
March 9, 12, 15, 19, 27 - Recording Paul and Linda's individual scenes sans Wings. The unedited musical performance consists of Paul singing 'That'll Be The Day', 'Country Dreamer', 'Mama's Little Girl', the newly composed 'Bluebird', 'Hands Of Love', 'Long Haired Lady', 'Heart Of The Country', 'Blackbird', 'Michelle' and 'Yesterday', the later three Beatles songs recorded because the American sponsor Cheverolet insisted that Paul acknowledge his Beatle past.
The sessions concluded with a concept video for the 'Uncle Albert' portion of 'Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey' in which Linda makes tea while Paul does a crossword puzzle which dissolves into a room full of men all on the telephone talking to Paul.
Next up was 'Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance' - Paul wrote the song for his friend Twiggy, set to star in her second film 'Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance', a movie musical to be set on a Trans-Atlantic cruise liner in the 1930s. Twiggy invited Paul to write the title song, which he did. The movie was completed but shelved after the poor box office of Twiggy's debut film, 'The Boy Friend'. Paul took the song and used it for his special.
In the special, the sequence opens with Paul at the piano playing the opening verse before moving on to the big production number where Paul sang and danced with thirty-five chorus women.
Now this is part I have a hard time believing. Paul, Jack Parnell the sequence's musical director, Sue Weston, one of the dancers and Robert Iscove, the choreographer, all say that Paul and the dancers were never in the same shot together. They all say that Paul was filmed first, once on the soundstage, then against a bluescreen, then the dancers were filmed, and Paul was composited in. If what they say is true, then they did a very good job of masking/hiding it.
On March 13, Henry McCullough gave notice that he was prepared to quit Wings over monetary concerns. As a member of Wings he was only earning 70 pounds per week on retainer, but as an in-demand session musician he could make more than that and that his income was being curtailed by being at Paul's beck and call and having to turn down session work. Paul responded by giving Henry and the other members of Wings (Denny Seiwell, Denny Laine) a 500-pound bonus for work done on 'Red Rose Speedway' and a further 1000-pound end of the year (1972) loyalty bonus. Henry accepted the money but didn't withdraw his resignation notice.
March 20 saw the filming of the 'Mary Had A Little Lamb' sequence.
March 22 saw the band travel to Liverpool to film the family and friends get together in a pub. What was initially meant as a small gathering of twenty or so people ballooned into a crowd of five hundred when it got out that Paul had returned to his hometown of Liverpool and what was planned as a four-hour shoot stretched into several hours as Paul gamely tried to entertain the crowd.
Henry and the two Denny's left early. On the way back to the hotel, the limo driver pulled over, got out of the car, threw up and passed out. Denny Seiwell, by virture of being the one who had drank the least, drove the limo the rest of the way while in the back seat Henry McCullough and Denny Laine entertained themselves by putting cigarette butts out on their skin.
March 24th saw Wings performing in front of a live audience while the 25th saw the band in the studio filming 'My Love' and 'Live and Let Die'. As a sign of his growing displeasure with Paul and being in Wings, Henry showed up drunk/hungover, throwing up several times off camera and nearly passing out during filming.
It was also on the 24th that Paul met Producer Richard Perry. Paul was using AIR Studios to touch up the tracks for the upcoming special and he invited Perry into the control room to help oversee the mixing. Richard, who was producing Ringo Starr's upcoming album, 'Ringo', was in London in advance of Ringo, to check out AIR Studios, asked Paul if he would be willing to add backing vocals to the John Lennon composed song 'I'm The Greatest'. Paul deferred, but offered to write a song for Ringo and asked Richard when he needed it by. Richard replied, 'Next Wednesday (the 28th).' Paul called Richard the next morning and said he had a song written.
Filming for the special ended on March 27th.
The 28th saw Paul and Linda in the studio with Ringo Starr and Producer Richard Perry recording the newly composed song 'Six O'Clock' for Ringo's upcoming album 'Ringo'. Paul also added his mouth sax solo to the song 'You're Sixteen' during the session.
Different edits of the special were made, one for the American market to include more commercials and Beatle songs, one for the Japanese market and one for ATV.
Actually, it was list of the ways in which West wearies Loveless...and you were on the mark regarding two of them.