Paul McCartney's hit 1997 Flaming Pie album will be the next box set released as part of his ongoing "archive collection." Although no official announcement has been made, according to the extremely reliable website The Daily Beatle — which lifted the info from an internal Universal Music catalogue of upcoming releases — Flaming Pie is listed for a July 24th release and features a whopping five CD's and two DVD's.
Although no details were provided, it's safe to assume that the DVD's will presumably include the album's videos and EPK, the "making of" documentary, In The World Tonight, McCartney's Town Hall Meeting VH1 special — along with, possibly, TV appearances promoting the album on The Oprah Winfrey, Sky News, T.F.I .Friday, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien, among others.
Musically, Flaming Pie only included two non-LP B-sides — "Broomstick," a collaboration with Steve Miller, and "Looking For You" with Ringo Starr and co-producer Jeff Lynne. The singles also had material sourced from McCartney's then-recent syndicated radio show, Oobu-Joobu, but seeing as how the tunes included would be housed in future box sets — namely Press To Play — it's doubtful they would appear in the new collection. There are a number of tracks known to be left on the cutting room from McCartney's sessions with Steve Miller in England as well as at Miller's studio in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Flaming Pie, which was released on May 5th, 1997, peaked at Number Two on the Billboard 200 albums chart, marking his first solo Top 10 album since 1982's Tug Of War. Flaming Pie was McCartney's first new album following The Beatles Anthology multimedia project, which featured three back-to-back chart-topping double albums.
Flaming Pie was co-produced by Jeff Lynne and featured contributions from Ringo Starr, Steve Miller, James McCartney, Beatles recording engineer Geoff Emerick, and "Fab Four" producer George Martin. The album also featured Linda McCartney's final appearance on a McCartney album.
Flaming Pie album received raves from critics, most of whom — still high on The Beatles Anthology fever — heard distinct Beatle-esque qualities in the album. Flaming Pie also seemed a particularly timely sounding collection, which was also released at the height of the mid-'90s Brit pop resurgence.
While promoting Flaming Pie back in '97, McCartney shed light on allowing himself to record with a more relaxed and organic vibe than in recent years: ["The atmosphere in the studio, kinda communicates itself to the listener. I've sometimes just been doin' a vocal for, y'know, like, ever and ever — just trying to get every little note right, but I've been so uptight about doing that, that when you hear the finished thing, you think, 'Oh, it's good — it's technically good; but it doesn't grab me. There someth. . . He's not having a good time, or something.' And I really do believe now, that that communicates itself — that special little thing."] SOUNDCUE (:22 OC: . . . special little thing)