Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey

"Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" is composed of several unfinished song fragments that Norwegian engineer stitched together in a similar manner to the medleys from the Beatles' 1969 album Abbey Road. The orchestral arrangements by George Martin were recorded in New York at A & R Recording, along with other instruments by McCartney and his new band. The project was moved to Los Angeles where vocals were added by Paul and Linda McCartney – her first experience of recording in a professional studio. and he copied the thunder from a monaural film soundtrack, then fashioned an artificial stereo version of it for the song. McCartney also told an American journalist, "As for Admiral Halsey, he's one of yours, an American admiral", referring to Fleet Admiral William "Bull" Halsey (1882–1959). McCartney has described the "Uncle Albert" section of the song as an apology from his generation to the older generation, and Admiral Halsey as an authoritarian figure who ought to be ignored. McCartney talks to Uncle Albert on the telephone using "a posh British accent", apologizing but not overly concerned that he does not have time to talk. McCartney said that the lyric, "'Hands across the water/Heads across the sky' refers to Linda and me being American and British." ==Reception==

Paul McCartney won the Grammy Award for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists in 1971 for the song. The single was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of over one million copies. According to AllMusic critic Stewart Mason, fans of Paul McCartney's music are divided in their opinions of this song. Although some fans praise it as "one of his most playful and inventive songs", others criticize it for being "exactly the kind of cute self-indulgence that they find so annoying about his post-Beatles career". In a contemporary review of Ram, Jon Landau of Rolling Stone gave "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" a negative review, saying the song is "a piece with so many changes it never seems to come down anywhere, and in the places that it does, sounds like the worst piece of light music Paul has ever done." Cash Box said that the song "is bursting with fine melodies and interesting musical changes certain to please both AM and underground programmers". Record World called it a "sound collage of Paul's best song ideas". A retrospective 2012 Pitchfork review by Jayson Greene states: "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey is not only Ram centerpiece, it is clearly one of McCartney’s five greatest solo songs. As the slash in the title hints, it's a multi-part song, starring two characters. To put its accomplishments in an egg-headed way: It fuses the conversational joy listeners associated with McCartney's melodic gift to the compositional ambition everyone assumed was Lennon's. To put it a simpler way: Every single second of this song is joyously, deliriously catchy, and no two seconds are the same." ==Later release==

"Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" appears on the Wings Greatest compilation album released in 1978, even though Ram was not a Wings album. The song appears on several solo Paul McCartney compilations: the US version of All the Best! (1987), and on both the standard and deluxe versions of Pure McCartney (2016). It was also included on The 7" Singles Box in 2022. ==Personnel==

• Paul McCartney – vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, bass, celesta, organ • Linda McCartney – backing vocals • Hugh McCracken – acoustic and electric guitar • Denny Seiwell – drums • Paul Beaver – synthesizer • David Nadien, Aaron Rosand – violin • Marvin Stamm, Mel Davis, Ray Crisara, Snooky Young – brass • New York Philharmonic Orchestra – orchestral backing • George Martin – orchestral arrangement • – mix engineer, thunder sound effect ==Chart performance==

Weekly charts Year-end charts Certifications ==Notes==