Paul McCartney & Wings Celebrate 'Venus And Mars' 50th Anniversary With Half Speed Master Edition

Following their 1973 opus Band on the Run, Paul McCartney & Wings positioned Venus and Mars as another peak of the group's creative and commercial heyday. It was released on May 27, 1975, ahead of the legendary Wings Over the World tour. Preceded by the US Number One single “Listen To What The Man Said” and featuring “Letting Go,” a fan favorite in McCartney's live set to this day, Venus and Mars hit Number One in the album charts on both sides of the Atlantic and went on to sell over 4 million copies worldwide.

This special 50th-anniversary vinyl edition was cut at half speed using a high-resolution transfer of the original master tapes from 1975 by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios. The album is presented as a meticulous reproduction of the original UK pressing, with recreations of the original “Venus and Mars are alright tonight” circular sticker and “comparative sizes of sun and planets” bookmark sticker and comes with two posters with photography by Aubrey Powell and Sylvia de Swaan. The album artwork by Hipgnosis has been meticulously recreated and presented in a gatefold sleeve.

Venus and Mars will also be available in Dolby Atmos for the first time, newly mixed by Giles Martin and Steve Orchard.

Less than one year after Band on the Run’s release, the first recording sessions for Venus and Mars took place in November 1974 and featured a revamped Wings line-up. Following the departure of Denny Seiwell and Henry McCullough on the eve of the Band on the Run sessions in Lagos, Paul and Linda McCartney, along with Denny Laine, were now joined by guitarist Jimmy McCulloch and drummer Geoff Britton. After recording “Letting Go,” “Medicine Jar,” and “Love In Song” at Abbey Road Studios, Wings left London for New Orleans’ Sea Saint Studios, facing another unexpected line-up shift with Geoff Britton’s exit, recruiting Joe English to complete the album.

In tandem with Venus and Mars topping the charts worldwide, the album’s predecessor, Band on the Run, continued building its global multi-platinum popularity. With a powerful new line-up solidified, Wings’ response to the overwhelming demand surrounding them was to launch the Wings Over the World tour, a 65-date run of shows starting in 1975 and stretching into October 1976.

The first Wings reissue for 2025, Venus and Mars follows 2024’s theatrical release of the rare Wings live-in-studio performance film One Hand Clapping and its accompanying album landing in the Best of 2024 lists of Billboard, Uproxx and the Los Angeles Times, as well as last year’s 50th-anniversary edition of Band on the Run. More exciting celebratory Wings’ activities and announcements are soon set to follow.