Every Moment Has A Song

Percy Thrillington: “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” (1977)

What is it with Paul McCartney and hoaxes?

Between the release of Wings at the Speed of Sound in 1976 and 1978’s London Town, the strangest of all McCartney’s solo work was released under the pseudonym of Percy “Thrills” Thrillington.

The Thrillington album, as the cover slyly suggests, was an orchestral instrumental version of Paul and Linda’s Ram LP, recorded in 1971 and shelved for six years as attention shifted to Wings band projects.

There are more recent analogues: James Mercer’s “flipped” version of the Shins’ 2017 Heartworms LP (titled The Worm’s Heart) reinterpreted the album and reversed its running order. Pretty cool.

But Thrillington, which has never officially been credited to Paul McCartney, is truly outside the box.

With arrangements scored by Richard Anthony Hewson and recorded over three days of sessions in June of ’71, the record is truly a fresh, fun spin on a legendary album.

On its release it had some critics mystified as to whether McCartney himself was involved or not, making for some interesting album reviews.

As for the hoax, McCartney publicized the album’s release by taking out enigmatic ads in UK music papers–mentioning the character of Percy Thrillington but never associating himself in any way.

He and Linda even found an obscure Irish farmer–a guy they knew couldn’t be traced for verification–to model as Percy for photo ads perpetuating the deception.

Because Thrillington was believed by most to be a McCartney work, it became a collector’s item, but remains the least-heard of his albums.

Paul finally officially came clean in a 1989 interview, saying, “It was me and Linda–and we kept it secret for a long time”.