Paul McCartney Album Closing Songs Ranked

Paul McCartney's album-closing songs were sometimes romantic pop asides, including "Warm and Beautiful" on 1976's Wings at the Speed of Sound, or story songs like "Momma Gets By" from 2026's The Boys of Dudgeon Lane. They might rock, too, as with "Nod Your Head" on 2007's Memory Almost Full.

The following ranked list tends to echo McCartney's particular genius in this way. Few could claim such thrilling variation.

For instance, McCartney never really let go of the album-closing medley concept he first oversaw on the Beatles' penultimate album, 1969's Abbey Road. He'd wrap up things with "Hold Me Tight / Lazy Dynamite / "Hands of Love" / Power Cut" on 1973's Red Rose Speedway, "Treat Her Gently – Lonely Old People / Crossroads" from 1975's Venus and Mars and "Hunt You Down/Naked/C-Link" on 2018's Egypt Station.

What's Paul McCartney's Best Album Closing Song?

At the same time, however, McCartney wasn't always so grandiose. He played a simple acoustic guitar on closers like "Here Today" on 1982's Tug of War, "Great Day" from 1997's Flaming Pie and "Winter Bird/When Winter Comes" on 2020's McCartney III.

Sometimes, he sounded almost nothing like his former self during moments like "Kreen-Akrore" on 1970's McCartney, "Motor of Love" from 1989's Flowers in the Dirt and "Road" on 2013's New. But McCartney also regularly reunited with Beatles producer George Martin. They paired for "Through Our Love" on 1983's Pipes of Peace and "C'Mon People" from 1993's Off the Ground, among others.

We've counted them all down – including some throwaway moments that could never rise to the level of his very best work - on the following list of Paul McCartney Album Closing Songs Ranked:

No. 24. "Mumbo (Link)"
From: Wild Life (1971)

Less than a minute of instrumental electric-guitar nonsense that was recorded on the same day as "Bip Bop Link," a bit of instrumental acoustic-guitar nonsense that's also less than a minute long. At one point, quite appropriately, "Mumbo (Link)" wasn't even included on the album track listing. That changed with the arrival of compact disc versions of Wings debut album in the late '80s.

No. 23. "Kreen-Akrore"
From: McCartney (1970)

The story behind "Kreen-Akrore" is far more interesting than McCartney's solo debut-closing song, which is essentially an extended solo from the second-best drummer in the Beatles. McCartney saw a 1970 BBC documentary on the indigenous Panara people of Brazil (then called Kreen-Akrore) on Feb. 17, 1970 and was so intrigued that he began work on this the very next day. "Kreen-Akrore" is meant to mimic their traditional hunt with bows and arrows, right down the the inclusion of actual in-studio sounds from the weapon.

No. 22. "No More Lonely Nights (Playout Version)"
From: Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984)

Most of this soundtrack was a pointless rehash of his earlier work. Its best original song was also nearly ruined by a remix to close things out. McCartney claimed at the time that distributor 20th Century Fox specifically asked him to create a more upbeat "play-out" version of "No More Lonely Nights" for the movie's final credits. Considering that Give My Regards to Broad Street made just $1.9 million on a budget of $9 million, it's safe to assume many filmgoers were long gone by then.

No. 21. "Morse Moose and the Grey Goose"
From: London Town (1978)

"Morse Moose and the Grey Goose" grew out of an unstructured jam on board a yacht called the Fair Carol that Wings had stationed in the Virgin Islands' Waterlemon Bay, back when the lineup from Venus and Mars and Wings at the Speed of Sound was still in tact. Like much of what happened on the boat, it's really just a lot of screwing around. Homesick American drummer Joe English soon left, while guitarist Jimmy McCulloch was let go amid a descent into alcoholism and drugs.

No. 20. "Rinse the Raindrops"
From: Driving Rain (2001)

McCartney arrived with two verses and then composed a bridge in the studio, yet "Rinse the Raindrops" somehow lasts more than 10 minutes. More pointless instrumental wankery. McCartney later blunted its impact in the wake of 9/11 by adding the blandly jingoistic "Freedom" as a hidden bonus track. (Hidden tracks are a thing with him.) Still, the news wasn't all bad: The sessions introduced drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. and guitarist Rusty Anderson, who'd go on to anchor McCartney's longest-running band.

No. 19. "Motor of Love"
From: Flowers in the Dirt (1989)

"Motor of Love" was almost left off Flowers in the Dirt, which was largely produced by McCartney, Mitchell Froom and Elvis Costello. Ironically enough, the song was only saved by the thing that some criticize it most for today: Early Tears for Fears producers Chris Hughes and Ross Cullum took over and added every '80s bell and then every '80s whistle to this otherwise entirely expected ballad – plasticine synths, electronic snares, the works. It was all very much of its time – and very much not of any that followed.

No. 18. "However Absurd"
From: Press to Play (1986)

The epic finale to one of McCartney's most dismissed albums hints at the return-to-form ahead on 1989's Flowers in the Dirt. That starts with its Beatles-esque lyrical abstractions, which McCartney connected with surrealist films by the likes of Luis Bunuel and Ingmar Bergman. Art of Noise keyboardist Anne Dudley also returned to provide the similarly Beatles-esque orchestration, after playing synth on "No More Lonely Nights."

No. 17. "Baby's Request"
From: Back to the Egg (1979)

McCartney kicked off Back to the Egg with a bold move into the then-current sounds of punk and new wave before making a second-side retreat into more recognizable indulgences like song medleys, silly love songs and, on the sweet-but-slight last song, even mid-century parlor pop. "Baby's Request" would eventually make a far more appropriate reappearance on McCartney's standards-themed Kisses on the Bottom.

No. 16. "Nod Your Head"
From: Memory Almost Full (2007)

McCartney's most underrated modern-era album was set to end on a down note, as "The End of the End" explored the quite un-McCartney theme of death. So, he plugged in and added a silly rocker to leave things on a very McCartney-like high note. Members of his long-time backing band appear throughout the LP but "Nod Your Head" was constructed separately by McCartney with producer David Kahne. His shouting, off-the-cuff vocal was actually the result of mild frustration after one too many takes were needed.

No. 15. "Road"
From: New (2013)

Strikingly ominous for McCartney, and not really in character with this often poppy album. That's not a bad thing, so much as a surprising one. Paul Epworth was in the midst of a Grammy-winning era with Adele when he became one of four producers to work on New, including George Martin's son Giles. Epworth also co-wrote the very pop-focused single "Queenie Eye." "Road" was different, a dark and intriguing song that sometimes recalls McCartney's earlier work on the Fireman's Electric Arguments.

READ MORE: Ranking Every Beatles Solo Album

No. 14. "Warm and Beautiful"
From: Wings at the Speed of Sound (1976)

McCartney stripped Wings down to guitarist Jimmy McCulloch, only adding orchestral and brass-section flourishes that undoubtedly brought a twinkle to George Martin's eye. Simple melodies and sweetly conveyed themes of this sort would become a cornerstone of 1978's London Town, which saw McCulloch exit. The much-better "Warm and Beautiful" holds an element of sadness, however, that McCartney explored more deeply in a new string-quartet version played at his wife Linda McCartney's funeral.

No. 13. "Winter Bird/When Winter Comes"
From: McCartney III (2020)

There's a reason McCartney sings "Winter Bird/When Winter Comes" with a fullness that had been slowly eroded by touring and age. He was going through old tapes for an expanded reissue of 1997's Flaming Pie when he stumbled into this leftover solo material produced by George Martin. The seeds of McCartney III were sown. McCartney had originally been thinking of an era where he hid away on a remote Scottish farm as the Beatles imploded – and the isolating pandemic-era lockdowns certainly recalled that vibe.

No. 12. "Through Our Love"
From: Pipes of Peace (1983)

A soaring, utterly besotted ballad, "Through Our Love" would likely be much higher on anyone else's list. McCartney just has so many. So, the little details tend to stand out: Producer George Martin banging a socket wrench on a bike frame to achieve the metallic cadence for this song's surging finale. The monolithic accompanying orchestration, which surprisingly recalls last-minute Phil Spector additions to 1970's Let It Be that once so angered McCartney. "The difference this time," he told the BBC, "is that it's my choice!"

No. 11. "Medley: Hold Me Tight / Lazy Dynamite / "Hands of Love" / Power Cut"
From: Red Rose Speedway (1973)

As with the Side 2 of Abbey Road, the concluding medley for Red Rose Speedway was stitched together from several earlier sessions. The "Hold Me Tight" section dated to Sept. 15, 1972; Wings' "Lazy Dynamite" session was the next day. They initially recorded "Hands of Love" on Oct. 1, with countless overdubs added later as they took on "Power Cut." Pre-Project studio engineer Alan Parsons was left to edit it all together, presumably ignoring the fact that the Beatles already had a song titled "Hold Me Tight."

No. 10. "Great Day"
From: Flaming Pie (1997)

McCartney solo albums had more than their fair share of Really Big Finishes. But contemporary work on Anthology and the presence of George Martin had him in a different fame of mind. McCartney reached back a couple of decades for a melody that leaned into the sunny lightness of "Her Majesty" from Abbey Road instead of the outsized grandeur of "Through Our Love" or "However Absurd." McCartney then paired his guitar with lyrics that owe a small, but very appropriate debt to the Beatles song "It Won't Be Long."

No. 9. "Treat Her Gently – Lonely Old People / Crossroads"
From: Venus and Mars (1975)

Going back to the Beatles era, McCartney had a penchant for grafting disparate song ideas together to form new material. They tended to have the same episodic nature as "Treat Her Gently – Lonely Old People / Crossroads," but this album-closing medley was an exception. McCartney actually worked sequentially on "Treat Her Gently" and "Lonely Old People." Then, as talk of abandoned retirees began to feel over-serious, Wings placed tongue firmly in cheek and tacked on the theme song from a British soap opera.

No. 8. "One of These Days"
From: McCartney II (1980)

Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the strongest tracks on this goofball experimental dud of an album finds McCartney at work with an acoustic guitar. Sure, he double tracks, and weirdly synthesizes, his voice but that's the extent of the adornments to be found on the quietly effective "One of These Days." "Quietly effective" may sound like a back-handed compliment. But in the '80s, and on an LP that found McCartney focused so completely on at-home doodles with a new-fangled keyboard, that counts as high praise.

No. 7. "Hunt You Down/Naked/C-Link"
From: Egypt Station (2018)

Listening, it's no surprise that McCartney said the propulsive band-recorded "Hunt You Down" was "definitely" inspired by Prince. This first section then dissolves into a middle third that McCartney recorded solo before he dives into a bluesier electric guitar-focused instrumental that at one point was 11 minutes long all by itself. Orchestrations for some his phrasing were added later, as this section was trimmed to about 2:30. McCartney was clearly into it: He yelps "Whoo!" as things draw to a close.

No. 6. "C'Mon People"
From: Off the Ground (1993)

It seemed McCartney needed a snarky John Lennon-type figure like Elvis Costello is spark anew his interest in his old Beatles sound. The second consecutive McCartney album featuring material with Costello concluded with his most throwback song to date. "C'Mon People" offered shimmering hope after a few decidedly political asides, complete with a billowing score from George Martin recorded at Abbey Road. Sufficiently inspired, McCartney would soon dive headlong into the Beatles' mammoth Anthology project.

READ MORE: Top 10 Paul McCartney Songs

No. 5. "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five"
From: Band on the Run (1973)

McCartney sometimes was inspired to complete a song after coming up with its very first line. Other times, as with "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five," that first line became a stumbling block. He ruminated for months on the final track from Band on the Run, never getting past its opening statement. The long-awaited completed version is driven toward a stratospheric vocal bridge by McCartney's insistent piano, then somehow builds to an almost impossible crescendo before crash landing into the title song's theme.

No. 4. "Anyway"
From: Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (2005)

There's a consistency in tone – of quietness, really – about this decidedly serious, mostly solo LP that might lead to distraction for those enamored with McCartney's more obvious quirks. The album-closing ballad "Anyway" solves the issue, ending things on a more expected wide-screen, orchestra-laden note. Everything feels familiar again, from a refrain that seems to recall the earlier "Little Willow" to a piano signature straight out of "People Get Ready." That puts a bow on one of the very best McCartney LPs of any era.

No. 3. "Momma Gets By"
From: The Boys of Dudgeon Lane (2026)

While Lennon told stories of deep personal import and George Harrison wrestled with eternity, McCartney often explored the small moments that make up nameless people's lives. "Momma Gets By" is his best late-career example. It also reinforces a tandem idea: McCartney approaches it all with an open-hearted curiosity. As with the long-suffering wife of this song's shiftless male protagonist, he loves them.

No. 2. "Back Seat of My Car"
From: Ram (1971)

"Back Seat of My Car" is simply overstuffed with ideas, too reliant on multi-tracked McCartneys, not as rustic as his solo debut and somehow tossed-off sounding anyway, and simply too long. Yet this song still underscores what makes Ram such a wildly inventive gem. It's gutsy and un-precious but also a testament to McCartney's enduring pop sensibilities. As he bolts from '50s-era rock to cocktail-lounge crooning to swooning violins, and back again – all inside of this one final track – there is a sense of limitless possibility.

No. 1. "Here Today"
From: Tug of War (1982)

The touching "Here Today" was written about a year after former bandmate John Lennon's awful murder. For most of that time, McCartney had questioned how – and even whether – to create this kind of tribute. The track finally came together as an imagined conversation about their shared past and enduring love. George Martin then added a delicate string arrangement in the style of "Yesterday" that imparts a still deeper sense fragility. The naked emotion of an artist who often worked in character sketches is finally revealed.