UK album release: McCartney II by Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney’s second solo album, McCartney II, was released in the United Kingdom on 16 May 1980.

McCartney II was a completely solo recording, made during six weeks in the summer of 1979. The recordings began in a farmhouse on the McCartneys’ estate in Peasmarsh, East Sussex, and continued at the Spirit of Ranachan Studio at his farm in Campbeltown, Scotland.

In the United States, McCartney II was released on 26 May 1980.

The album’s first single, ‘Coming Up’, reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, and number two in the UK, following its release in April 1980.

McCartney II topped the album charts in the UK and reached number three in the US, and sold more copies than its predecessor, Wings’ Back To The Egg.