Tug of War (Paul McCartney album)
1982 studio album by Paul McCartney
Tug of War is the fourth solo studio album by the English musician Paul McCartney, released on 26 April 1982. It is his 11th album overall following the breakup of the Beatles in 1970, his first album released after the dissolution of his band Wings the previous year, and his first album following the murder of his former songwriting partner John Lennon. The cover features an abstract oil painting by the artist Brian Clarke, a frequent McCartney collaborator, incorporating an overpainted transparency of a portrait of Paul taken by Linda McCartney.
Tug of War was produced by former Beatles producer George Martin and was a number-one hit in many countries, selling over one million copies in the United States in the year of its release. The 2015 re-release, in a remastered deluxe edition, received a nomination for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards.
Recording
Following the release of the solo album McCartney II, McCartney's band Wings regrouped in July and October 1980 to rehearse several songs which later appeared on Tug of War and Pipes of Peace. Feeling the need for direction, McCartney called upon his former producer, George Martin, to begin recording a song written for the animated Rupert Bear character (to which McCartney acquired the film rights in 1970), titled "We All Stand Together", among others. The productive sessions continued until 9 December, the morning McCartney woke up to learn that his former songwriting partner and fellow ex-Beatle, John Lennon, had been murdered in New York City the previous night. Abandoning that day's session (in which he and Denny Laine were recording future B-side "Rainclouds") part-way through, both Martin and McCartney felt it was best to leave the project for the time being and start anew once they were ready.
In February 1981, two months after Lennon's death, McCartney resumed the sessions, recording that month with Stevie Wonder, Stanley Clarke, Carl Perkins and Ringo Starr, and laying down several songs in the process.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q525160. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1982, 1970, 2015 and 1980.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tug of War (Paul McCartney album)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.