Paul McCartney's tour with Wings came to an end in July of 1984. The tour proceeded even after the release of Wings' debut album Amiens Mons, and it succeeded more because of it. All parties were happy with the end result of the tour, and following its conclusion, Wings once again went on hiatus as they had many times in the past. This left McCartney by himself once again, a circumstance he took advantage of. For having no studio release that year, 1985 was an oddly busy year for him. He was commissioned to write a song for the comedy film Spies Like Us and it became the titular track and he was asked by David Bowie to play on a track for his album that would be due out sometime the following year. A film revolving around Wings' world tour was also in talks, but this never came to be. The real success for him McCartney this year was his appearance at Live Aid, a huge benefit concert done to raise funds for a famine in Ethiopia. While some predicted a full Beatles reunion, minus John Lennon of course, only McCartney and Bowie showed up. But they did a set where they played together, making this the closest thing to a reunion since their dissolution in 1981. Other than some minor technical issues, the set was praised highly, and people's wish for a Beatles reunion of sorts were only boosted.
McCartney reentered the recording studio in October 1985 with renewed interest in making a solo album, without Wings. This would change shortly after when he realized that the sound he was going for required their services. While Linda McCartney, Denny Laine and Laurence Juber would all return, drummer Steve Holley would not, citing a lack of interest. Luckily, it didn't take long to find a replacement. McCartney decided to hire fellow Beatle Ringo Starr to be their new drummer. Since Lennon's death in 1980, Starr was in a terrible mental state and was a functioning alcoholic. McCartney hired him to give him something to do. The album, initially called Press to Play started its sessions by finding Starr something to sing on the album. Luckily for them, he had written 3 songs in the past year that he brought with him, all in the Memphis country style. McCartney didn't find these recordings endearing and, in the end, Starr was left with nothing to sing on the album. Other than that, recording went smooth enough, and the album would be renamed to Blue Nights after the Denny Laine song of the same name. This album would have the most former Beatles collaborations of any McCartney album, with Starr drumming on every song, George Harrison doing occasional guitar work throughout, and David Bowie singing lead vocals on "Press".
Despite the album being finished in December 1985, it wasn't released until August 25, 1986 to lukewarm reviews. "Press", the big single off the album, was praised for sounding like a return to the Beatles days, but everything else would be outright rejected by critics. They said that the best of Blue Nights sounded like the worst of Amiens Mons, and that it felt like McCartney was jumping on the contemporary bandwagon. Wings would once again disband following recording sessions, with McCartney eyeing a project much bigger.
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