Wings released the single “Mull of Kintyre / Girls' School” in the United States through Capitol Records on November 14, 1977. The pairing put two very different versions of the band on one record: an acoustic song with the Campbeltown Pipe Band on one side and a guitar-driven rocker on the other.
“Mull of Kintyre” grew out of Paul McCartney's attachment to the Scottish countryside, where he and Linda McCartney spent time with their family at High Park Farm. He wrote the song with Denny Laine, taking its name from the headland at the southern end of the Kintyre peninsula. The landscape supplied more than a title. The song turned the desire to return to that place into its central idea.
McCartney also wanted to try writing something that could sit alongside traditional Scottish songs. The recording brought Paul, Linda and Laine together with the local pipe band, whose instruments helped determine the arrangement. In a November 1977 interview with Record Mirror, McCartney explained that he and Laine had worked within the notes and keys the pipers could play. Those bagpipes were part of the musical planning, with the song shaped to accommodate the players who gave it its most recognizable instrumental sound.
“Girls' School” came from the earlier Abbey Road sessions for London Town, with electric guitars and drums giving the single a much harder edge. Its subject came from a different kind of observation. McCartney told Record Mirror that he'd noticed adult-film advertisements in American newspapers while holidaying in Hawaii and woven their titles into a song. The pastoral feeling of “Mull of Kintyre” had a deliberately rowdy companion.
Giving both songs A-side status was a practical decision as well as a musical one. “B-sides get swallowed,” McCartney told Trouser Press in its February 1978 issue. He wanted listeners who preferred Wings' rock material to have a reason to turn the record over, and he wanted radio stations to consider both tracks. He acknowledged the industry's concern that a double A-side could divide airplay between two songs, but accepted that tradeoff.
Radio also received shortened versions of both recordings, while buyers got the full tracks. McCartney explained that the edits were intended to make the songs easier for programmers to fit into their schedules. The double A-side billing and the edits gave broadcasters choices about both the music and its length.
The “Mull of Kintyre” video kept the Scottish setting central. Directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, it brought Paul, Linda, Laine and the pipe band to Saddell Bay, ending with a gathering around a beach bonfire. Some of those pipers were teenagers when they took part. In The Big Issue's 2017 retrospective, band members recalled how the recording led to television appearances in London.
The two songs found different audiences. In Britain, “Mull of Kintyre / Girls' School” spent nine weeks at No. 1, including Christmas 1977, and became the first single to sell more than two million copies in the UK. American radio favored “Girls' School,” which reached No. 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1978.
