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Denny Laine helped form the Moody Blues and was the lead singer on their first hit, "Go Now," in 1964. Then, in 1971, he helped put together Wings, Paul McCartney’s first band after the Beatles broke up, and was with the group until it disbanded 10 years later.

This tribute to Laine is one of 44 short biographies of significant figures in the music industry who passed away in 2023.

Laine co-wrote “Mull of Kintyre” with McCartney in the early 1970s, but they didn’t record it until 1977. The single became Wings’ biggest hit in England. It sold more than 2 million copies and is the fourth best-selling single of all time in Great Britain.

You can watch Laine and McCartney singing the song with Linda McCartney in this video. Enjoy the beautiful scenery, the marching bagpipers, and the townspeople joining in on the fun.

The song was released around Christmas and remains a popular song to play around the holidays. Laine talks about it in this video.

And in this video, he sings "Go Now."

In this episode's chapters, you'll see an image of the cover of the Audible Audiobook "In Conversation with Denny Laine" by Geoffrey Giuliano. He and Laine wrote a book together on Paul McCartney in the 1990s.

Also in the chapters, you can go right to the tribute by skipping my intro; feel free to skip my closing remarks too. Both are there to provide context for those who haven't listened to the other tributes.

Sheldon Zoldan, a longtime writer and editor, wrote and recorded this tribute and the others in the series. Sheldon also writes Song of the Day, a music-related story sent daily to an email list of subscribers. To get on his subscriber list, email shzoldan@comcast.net with the subject line ADD ME TO SOTD.

Audio engineer/musician Mike Villegas edited all the audio for this series. Hope you enjoy these intriguing glimpses into the lives of the people who made some of the music we love.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to my show, available on YouTube and in various podcast directories including Apple, Spotify and Audible.