1973 Rock Ballad, With an Iconic Improvised Guitar Solo, Hit No. 1 53 Years Ago Today
The '70s rock ballad, "My Love" by Paul McCartney and Wings-which features an iconic improvised guitar solo-hit No. 1 53 years ago today.
On June 2, 1973, "My Love" officially hit the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100, where it spent four weeks. The track marked McCartney's first No. 1 hit with Wings and was the lead single for their album Red Rose Speedway.
"My Love" was among several songs McCartney wrote for his wife, Linda McCartney, who is also credited as a co-writer. (She died at 56 in 1998 from breast cancer; they were married for 29 years.)
However, the track could have turned out very differently if it weren't for a last-minute change to the guitar solo initially written by McCartney.
"In the studio, we did 'My Love,' a ballad that we're doing. And we'd worked it out, we'd rehearsed it. And we had a full orchestra. It was live, that was recorded live, played and sang live, with a whole orchestra waiting for the down beat," McCartney explained in a 1986 interview. "And Henry McCullough, the Irish guitar player, he comes over to me...and he says, 'Do you mind if I change the solo?'"
McCullough added, "And I just said to him, in all honesty, I said, 'Just listen, that's crap, you know, and I want to change the solo.' And they're all waiting to go. And he says, 'What are you going to play?' I said, 'I don't know.'"
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McCartney conceded, "It was one of the best solos he ever played."
Of the improvised guitar riff, McCullough confessed, "I remember playing two notes on the solo. But I don't remember any of it. And it's very unusual to get a solo of length as a one-off."
Thankfully for McCullough and the rest of the band, the guitar solo was a success and lives on today as a beloved part of "My Love."
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This story was originally published June 2, 2026 at 9:39 AM.