THE GUITARIST WHO CO-WROTE McCARTNEY’S BIGGEST ’70S HIT
By Bill DeMain
ONE DAY IN 1977, Denny Laine arrived at Paul McCartney’s farm on Kintyre peninsula in Scotland. McCartney was singing the chorus to a song-in-progress called “Mull of Kintyre.” Laine grabbed a guitar, and within a few hours, the pair co-wrote what became one of the biggest-selling singles of all-time in the U.K.
For Laine, who died December 5, 2023, at age 79 from lung disease, it was just one stop along the way in a remarkable 60-year career that included fronting the original Moody Blues and riding creative shotgun to McCartney in Wings for a decade of massive success.
“I’m just a normal musician who doesn’t really think about the fame side of it,” Laine told Guitar World in late 2022. “It’s all about music for me, moving forward and creating new things.”
And his life attested to that. Born Brian Frederick Hines in 1944, he learned guitar, bass and piano, and by his teen years was fronting his first band (alongside Roy Wood and Bev Bevan, later of ELO). His stage surname was borrowed from singer Frankie Laine. Out of Birmingham’s early Sixties “Brumbeat” scene of R&B and blues, Laine formed the Moody Blues and sang their landmark 1964 hit, “Go Now.” They toured with the Beatles in 1965, and Laine became friendly with McCartney.
After leaving the Moody Blues, Laine played in a quick succession of groups, including
