To fully appreciate Paul McCartney's 1970's output with Wings, you have to put yourself back into the era: The Beatles had broken up in 1970, and hadn't toured the US since 1966. John Lennon had done a couple benefits, and George Harrison performed a poorly received tour in 1974, but this was the first chance for fans in the US to see Paul McCartney live in a decade. And while a bunch of Wings' Top 40 hits were dismissed as slight by critics, the truth is that of all the solo Beatles, McCartney had had the longest and most success after the Beatles breakup, with Wings dropping 14 Top 10 hit singles in the US and 5 consecutive #1 albums.

I was a little kid at the time, but my older brother got a ticket to one of the Chicago shows. He almost didn't go to the show because the tickets were $10 - at the time an "outrageous" amount to pay for a concert! Then he rationalized that it was a Beatle. Maybe you were at the show in St. Paul on June 4, 1976. The Wings Over America tour would be the first time in 10 years to see the ex-Beatle live in the states, and Macca brought it. With a long show that included 5 of Paul's Beatles songs, the tour was a massive success. And Paul actually believed in Wings as a band, sharing the spotlight and vox with bandmates Denny Laine and Jimmy McCulloch during the shows, which often ran over 2 hours, setting the standard that Macca continues to provide on his now never-ending live tours, and a far cry from the 20-30 minute sets the Beatles played before screaming teens in the '60s.

McCartney had many of the US shows recorded, and initially a two-record set was slated for release. But after a triple-record bootleg appeared, McCartney re-thought the release, and expanded it to a triple. It was the era of the big live albums (1976 was also the year of Frampton Comes Alive after all), and Wings Over America rose to #1 on the US charts, selling over 4 million copies.

Lovingly remastered and packed with extra visual and video goodies, sign up below to win your copy of this Arena Rock classic from The Current.

The grand prize box set includes:

- The original 28-track album on 2 CDs, remastered at Abbey Road Studios
- 8 unreleased bonus audio tracks
- DVD featuring the 75 minute TV special Wings Over The World
- 112-page book written by David Fricke including new interviews and tour photos
- 60-page photo journal of Linda's shots on tour
- 136-page replica tour book with itineraries, tour program, memorabilia, and lyrics
- 80-page book of drawings by artist Humphrey Ocean
- 24bit 96kHz high resolution audio versions of all 36 songs
- mp3 download card

Five runner-ups will win one double CD copy of Wings Over America.

Enter below for your chance to win!