‘I’ve Had Enough’ was the second single released from Wings’ album London Town.
That came about when I was just sitting around in the studio one day, doing rock ‘n’ roll kind of chords, just very simple bluesy kind of chords. And I just had the chorus. And the rest of it I used to just mumble. So we did it on the boat with me mumbling the vocal track and just shouting ‘I’ve had enough’ when it comes to the chorus. And I wrote some words to it and again we finished that off in London.
BBC Radio 1, 1978
Wings recorded ‘I’ve Had Enough’ on 5 May 1977 on board the Fair Carol, a motor yacht stationed at Watermelon Bay in St John’s in the Virgin Islands.
We hired a charter boat that people use for holidays. The captain went spare when he saw all the instruments. We remodelled his boat for him, which he wasn’t too keen on. We converted his lounge into a studio and we turned another deck into a sound control room, and it was fantastic! We had a recording boat and two others we stayed on. We didn’t have any problems with salt water in the machines or sharks attacking us. At night, there was much merriment, leaping from top decks into uncharted waters and stuff. I had a couple too many one night and nearly broke something jumping from one boat to another. But then you always break yourself up on holiday. The studio worked out incredible well and the very first day we got a track down. There was a nice free feeling. We’d swim in the day and record at night.
Melody Maker, November 1977
‘I’ve Had Enough’ was completed at Abbey Road towards the end of 1977. The overdubs included McCartney’s vocals, since the song had few lyrics during the earlier sessions.
Wings performed ‘I’ve Had Enough’ during their UK Tour in 1979.
The release
‘I’ve Had Enough’ is the eighth song on London Town, which was released in the USA on 27 March 1978, and four days later in the UK.
It was issued as a single on 16 June, as Wings’ follow-up to ‘With A Little Luck’. The album track ‘Deliver Your Children’ was on the b-side.
‘I’ve Had Enough’ was not a commercial success, peaking at number 25 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and 42 on the UK singles chart.
