US single release: Jet by Paul McCartney and Wings

Paul McCartney and Wings’ single ‘Jet’ was released in the United States on 28 January 1974.

McCartney initially wanted no singles to be taken from Band On The Run. However, Capitol Records radio plugger Al Coury persuaded him that ‘Jet’ would work well.

Al Coury, Capitol’s ace plugger, rang up and told us ‘I persuaded Pink Floyd to take ‘Money’ off Dark Side Of The Moon as a single, and you want to know how many units we sold? We want ‘Band On The Run’! We want ‘Jet’! We want ’em off!’ And he’s such a good spieler, this fella, that I’ll say, well, it sounds like sense. No skin off my nose, try it, and it just kept coming back up much to my delight.

At its original length of over four minutes, ‘Jet’ was considered too long to be played on the radio, so McCartney grudgingly allowed Capitol to create an edit. This was issued as a mono promotional single with four sections removed, bringing the total length to 2’49.

The ‘Jet’ single reached number seven on the US Billboard Hot 100, and number five on the Cash Box Top 100.

Initial copies of the ‘Jet’ single had ‘Mamunia’ on the b-side. The single was withdrawn and its replacement, released on 18 February 1974, had ‘Let Me Roll It’ on the flipside.