Back in the U.S.
Live album by Paul McCartney
Released	11 November 2002[1]
Recorded	1 April – 18 May 2002
Genre	Rock
Length	115:21
Label	Capitol
Producer	David Kahne
Paul McCartney chronology
Driving Rain (2001) Back in the U.S. (2002) Back in the World (2003)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Robert Christgau	D[3]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[4]
Entertainment Weekly	B−[5]
The Essential Rock Discography	5/10[6]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[7]
Uncut	[8]

Back in the U.S. (subtitled Live 2002) is a double live album by Paul McCartney, recorded during the North American concerts of the Driving World Tour, embarked on in support of his 2001 album Driving Rain. . It was released in November 2002 only in the United States and Japan with an accompanying DVD to commemorate his first set of concerts in almost ten years. Four months later, an international edition with a slight track listing change, named Back in the World, came out.

Background

Controversy

Although McCartney was promoting Driving Rain, the majority of the tour setlist celebrated his past,^[2] by featuring a sampling of his solo work with and without Wings, and a substantial number of the hits he had written while a member of the Beatles.^[10] On Back in the U.S., McCartney reversed the songwriting credits for 19 Lennon–McCartney compositions to read "Paul McCartney and John Lennon"^[11] – a move that author Howard Sounes describes as the live album's "chief point of interest".^[12] This gesture was a further attempt by McCartney to establish his legacy following Lennon's death in 1980,^[13] having been vetoed from adopting the McCartney–Lennon credit during the Beatles Anthology project in 1995 by his former bandmates George Harrison and Ringo Starr.^[14]

The revised credits on Back in the U.S. incensed Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, who threatened to take legal action,^[11] while Starr said he found McCartney's actions "underhanded".^[12][15] Some commentators observed that McCartney had similarly credited his Beatles songs to "McCartney–Lennon" on the 1976 live album Wings over America^[16] and that Lennon had never publicly objected to the reversal;^[13][17] in addition, the compositions in question were written with little or no input from Lennon.^[12][18] When compiling Back in the U.S., McCartney had decided to act in response to Ono's dropping of his co-writer's credit for "Give Peace a Chance", on the 1997 compilation Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon.^{[citation needed]} Despite their differences on this issue, McCartney and Starr united on stage for the Harrison tribute concert shortly after the release of the live album.^[19]

Release

Back in the U.S. was issued in November 2002 as an exclusive North American and Japanese^[1] release. Back in the U.S. sold well on export and gained sales of over 2 million globally. The album debuted at number 8 on the US charts with sales of 224,000 copies, marking his highest sales during a single week since the introduction of Nielsen SoundScan in 1991.^[20] The album was certified double platinum in America, for shipments of over 2 million units. It entered the top five on the Japanese chart, making McCartney one of the Western artists with the most top-ten albums in that country.^[21] Its tie-in DVD proved to be a strong seller as well. Back in the U.S. was the first Paul McCartney album not released on vinyl. It was also the last Paul McCartney album to be released on cassette in the United States until 2018’s limited release of Egypt Station^[22] and a wide release of McCartney III in 2020. Eastern countries such as Indonesia, however got releases on the format for his next two studio albums, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard and Memory Almost Full.^[23]

Track listing

All songs written by Paul McCartney–John Lennon, except where noted.

Personnel

According to the album's liner notes:^[24]

• Paul McCartney - vocals, bass, guitars, piano
• Brian Ray - guitars, bass, backing vocals
• Rusty Anderson – guitars, backing vocals
• Paul "Wix" Wickens - keyboards, piano, organ, synthesizers, backing vocals
• Abe Laboriel Jr. – drums, percussion, backing vocals

Charts and certifications

Back in the World

Back in the World
Live album by Paul McCartney
Released	17 March 2003
Recorded	1 April – 18 May and 17 November 2002
Genre	Rock
Length	121:25
Label	Parlophone
Producer	David Kahne
Paul McCartney chronology
Back in the U.S. (2002) Back in the World (2003) Twin Freaks (2005)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[4]

Back in the World (subtitled Live), very similar to the North American album in content, was released internationally in 2003, save for North America – where Back in the U.S. saw issue four months earlier.

The main difference between Back in the U.S. and Back in the World is that "Vanilla Sky" has been dropped from the latter's first disc, while two of the tracks from the second disc ("C Moon" and the post-9/11 "Freedom") have been replaced with four exclusive songs not found on Back in the U.S.: "Calico Skies", "Michelle", "Let 'Em In" and "She's Leaving Home". Another difference is that the version of "Hey Jude" on Back in the World comes from a different show than the version on Back in the U.S..

Upon its release, Back in the World far outperformed Driving Rain in the UK, reaching No. 5 and becoming a major hit for McCartney.

References

Sources