 = Memory Almost Full = 
 
 Memory Almost Full is the fourteenth solo studio album by Paul McCartney , discounting his Wings @-@ era discography , his orchestral works and his output as the Fireman . It was released in the United Kingdom on 4 June 2007 and in the United States a day later . The album was the first release on Starbucks ' Hear Music label . It was produced by David Kahne and recorded at Abbey Road Studios , Henson Recording Studios , AIR Studios , Hog Hill Mill Studios and RAK Studios between October 2003 , and from 2006 to February 2007 . In between the 2003 and 2006 sessions , McCartney was working on another studio album , Chaos and Creation in the Backyard ( 2005 ) , with producer Nigel Godrich . 
 Memory Almost Full reached the Top 5 in both the UK and US , as well as Denmark , Sweden , Greece , and Norway . The Grammy @-@ nominated album has sold over 2 million copies worldwide and has been certified gold by the RIAA for shipments of over 500 @,@ 000 copies just in the United States . The album was released in three versions : a single disc , a 2 @-@ CD set , and a CD / DVD deluxe edition , the latter of which was released on 6 November 2007 . 
 
 = = Background = = 
 
 Nine demos were recorded at The Mill studio in September 2003 by Paul McCartney and his touring band . A month later , in October , album sessions for Memory Almost Full began , and were produced by David Kahne and recorded at Abbey Road Studios . McCartney and the band recorded the songs " You Tell Me " , " Only Mama Knows " , " Vintage Clothes " , " That Was Me " , " Feet in the Clouds " , " House of Wax " , " The End of the End " , and " Whole Life " . However , the sessions were cut short and put on hiatus when McCartney started another album , Chaos and Creation in the Backyard , with producer Nigel Godrich . In the website constructed for the album , McCartney stated : " I actually started this album , Memory Almost Full , before my last album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard , released September 2005 . ( ... ) When I was just finishing up everything concerned with Chaos and had just got the Grammy nominations ( 2006 ) I realised I had this album to go back to and finish off . So I got it out to listen to it again , wondering if I would enjoy it , but actually I really loved it . All I did at first was just listen to a couple of things and then I began to think , ' OK , I like that track – now , what is wrong with it ? ' And it might be something like a drum sound , so then I would re @-@ drum and see where we would get to . ( ... ) In places it 's a very personal record and a lot of it is retrospective , drawing from memory , like memories from being a kid , from Liverpool and from summers gone . The album is evocative , emotional , rocking , but I can 't really sum it up in one sentence " . 
 
 = = Recording = = 
 
 Many songs from Memory Almost Full were from a group of songs , which also included songs from Chaos and Creation in the Backyard , and some intended for the former nearly ended up on the latter . Any songs that were started , but not finished , for Chaos and Creation in the Backyard , McCartney didn 't want to re @-@ do for Memory Almost Full . As sessions for the album progressed McCartney wrote some more songs , something that McCartney used to do when he was in the Beatles . A song called " Perfect Lover " was recorded at either one of the three following studios : RAK Studios , AIR Studios or Ocean Way Studios ; sometime between November 2003 and April 2005 . " Perfect Lover " , in its original form was more folk @-@ like , similar to Chaos and Creation in the Backyard 's " Friends to Go " . " Perfect Lover " went through a minor lyrical change , the bridge was changed , and an overhaul of its musical arrangement , before it finally became " Ever Present Past " . Two years after the 2003 session , sessions for the album started again . The book Paul McCartney : Recording Sessions ( 1969 @-@ 2013 ) . A Journey Through Paul McCartney 's Songs After The Beatles reports that the recordings of the album were started in September – October 2003 and resumed in February 2004 at Abbey Road , with other sessions taking place between March 2006 and February 2007 . 
 New tracks were recorded at the following studios : McCartney 's home studio in Sussex , The Mill , Los Angeles ' Henson Studios , London 's RAK Studios and AIR Studios , and New York 's SeeSquared Studios . The songs recorded at those studios were " Nod Your Head " , " In Private " , " 222 " , " Gratitude " , " Mr. Bellamy " , " See Your Sunshine " , and " Ever Present Past " . Of those songs , " Mr. Bellamy " , " Ever Present Past " , " Gratitude " , " Nod Your Head " , and " In Private " were all recorded on the same day , in March 2006 . As well as working on songs from the first Memory Almost Full album session in 2003 , " Why So Blue " was re @-@ recorded . In total , between 20 and 25 songs were recorded for the album . " Dance Tonight " was recorded , along with " Feet in the Clouds " and " 222 " being reworked , between January and February 2007 at RAK Studios , as the last song recorded for the album . The album was mixed by Kahne and Andy Wallace . 
 
 = = Content = = 
 
 The Rock Radio website leaked a track listing for the album on 12 April 2007 . A day later , producer David Kahne stated on the same site that the leaked listing was bogus . In an interview with Billboard magazine in May 2007 , McCartney said that the album 's material was " in some ways a little bit retrospective . Some of them are of now , some of them hark back to the past , but all of them are songs I 'm very proud of . " McCartney played mandolin on the song " Dance Tonight " . He comments that " In searching the instrument to try and find chords , which I did with the guitar when I was 14 , probably , that freshness was brought back . " " Ever Present Past " , which McCartney called " personal " , originally started out as a song called " Perfect Lover " . " Ever Present Past " also includes references to the Beatles . In June 2007 , McCartney revealed that " See Your Sunshine " " is pretty much an out @-@ and @-@ out love song for Heather . A lot of the album was done before , during and after our separation . I didn 't go back and take out any songs to do with her . " " You Tell Me " is about McCartney 's memories of his previous wife , Linda . 
 " Mr. Bellamy " , the sixth song on the album , was thought by online fans to be about McCartney 's then @-@ recent divorce . McCartney invited Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke to play piano on the song , but he declined . The press ran articles claiming that Yorke had " snubbed " McCartney , but Yorke later revealed that he " really liked the song " but felt he would be unable to perform to the required standard . " Gratitude " is reportedly about the divorce between Heather Mills and McCartney . 
 The album features a five song @-@ medley , which in an interview with Billboard magazine , McCartney said that it was previously " something I wanted to revisit " as " nobody had been doing that for a while . " The medley was a group of intentionally written material , whereas McCartney had worked on the Beatles ' Abbey Road which , however , was actually made up of " bits we had knocking around . " The medley starts off with " Vintage Clothes " , which McCartney " sat down one day " to write , that was " looking back , [ and ] looking back . " , about life . It was followed by the bass @-@ led " That Was Me " , which is about his " school days and teachers " , the medley , as McCartney stated , then " progressed from there . " The next songs are " Feet in the Clouds " , about the inactivity while one is growing up , and " House of Wax " , about the life of being a celebrity . The final song in medley , " The End of the End " , was written at McCartney 's Cavendish Avenue home while playing on his father , Jim 's , piano . 
 
 = = Album title , and CD casing = = 
 
 Some people mentioned that the album 's title , Memory Almost Full , is an anagram of " for my soulmate LLM " ( the initials of Linda Louise McCartney ) . When asked if this was intentional , McCartney replied ; " Some things are best left a mystery " . In an interview with Pitchfork Media , McCartney clarified , " I must say , someone told me [ there is an anagram ] , and I think it 's a complete mystery , because it 's so complete . There does appear to be an anagram in the title . And it 's a mystery . It was not intentional . " The album 's title was actually inspired by a message that came up on his mobile phone . He thought the phrase summed up modern life . 
 A significant proportion of the CD release of Memory Almost Full incorporated a cover insert whose top @-@ right corner was intentionally folded down to the center of the insert , leaving the CD tray visible . The folded @-@ down white corner covers up the corner of the armchair image , but has the artist and album names printed so that the text is complete despite the fold . Upon opening and flattening out the cover insert , the armchair is complete , but the portion of the text which is printed on the folded @-@ down corner is not printed on the front of the cover , leaving the text incomplete . This was the first time such an artistic intervention occurred within a standard jewel @-@ case , and at first glance had the possibility of being viewed as a mis @-@ manufactured copy . McCartney on the CD case / album artwork : " I really wanted to make the CD a desirable object . Something that I know I 'd want to pick up from the shelf , something that would make people curious . " 
 
 = = Reception = = 
 
 Memory Almost Full received positive reaction . At Metacritic , the album earned an average score of 69 based on 23 reviews from critics , which indicates " Generally favorable reviews " . Evan Serpick of Rolling Stone magazine also compared the medley of five songs in the second part of the album to the famous song suite in The Beatles ' Abbey Road . This album was ranked number 22 on Rolling Stone 's list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007 . 
 
 = = Release = = 
 
 
 = = = Album = = = 
 
 The album was his first for Starbucks ' Hear Music record label , after previously having a 45 @-@ year @-@ old relationship with Capitol / EMI . The recording contract with Capitol / EMI ended a few months prior to the release of the album , after McCartney had found out that EMI were planning to take six months to set up a promotional plan for the album . McCartney was the first artist to sign to Hear Music . The album was released on 4 June 2007 in the UK , and a day later on the 5th in the US , and with a vinyl edition later in the month on 25 June . In the US , Memory Almost Full debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200 with about 161 @,@ 000 copies sold within the first week , making it McCartney 's highest @-@ charting album there since 1997 's Flaming Pie . 47 % of the album sales from the opening week were from Starbucks coffee shops , which were the best sales for any album in the history of Starbucks . While it was announced that copies of the album sold in the Starbucks coffee shops in the UK would not be counted by the Official UK Charts , because they are not registered in the copies counting system , Memory Almost Full , however , still managed to hit number 5 on the UK Album Charts . The album was also peaked at number 1 on Billboard Internet Sales Chart , and number 3 on Billboard Top Internet Albums Downloads . 
 It was also McCartney 's first album to be available as a digital download . Promotion for the album came in several forms , such as a worldwide listening party at over 10 @,@ 000 Starbucks stores on the day of the album 's US release , with an approximation of 6 million people hearing the album . At ten of the Starbucks stores , fans contributed in a video tribute , that aired on the internet on 18 June 2007 . Other promotions included a limited edition Paul McCartney Starbucks card , similar to what they had done for Ray Charles 's Genius Loves Company , the Starbucks @-@ owned satellite radio station XM Channel made a program about McCartney and the album , released one song prior to the album on iTunes , performed at iTunes Festival : London , and playing free shows . It was ranked at number 90 on the top @-@ 100 of the Billboard Year @-@ end chart , and number 177 on the UK year @-@ end chart . The album won awards for the Best PR Campaign award at the Music Week Awards ceremony , and the Online / Digital Campaign award by New Media Age . The album reportedly sold 105 @,@ 000 copies in his homeland until it was given away the standard version of the CD in a unique slip @-@ case as part of a promotion with British newspaper The Mail on Sunday for free , with the 18 May 2008 edition . 
 On 6 November 2007 , the album was re @-@ released as Memory Almost Full – Deluxe Edition . The set included one CD and one DVD . The CD included the standard album plus the three extra songs from the 2 @-@ CD edition . The DVD contained five tracks recorded live at The Electric Ballroom in London , and two music videos . 
 
 = = = Singles = = = 
 
 The first US single , " Ever Present Past " , made its radio debut on 20 April 2007 . Peaking at number 10 in the Bubbling Under Hot 100 , and also charting at number 16 on Billboard Adult Contemporary . The lead single for the rest of the world is " Dance Tonight " , released on McCartney 's 65th birthday in the UK , 18 June 2007 as a digital download , with a physical release a month later , on 23 July of a CD single and a 10 " shaped picture disc . The single peaked at number 46 on Billboard Hot Digital Songs , number 58 Billboard Pop 100 , and finally at number 69 on Billboard Hot 100 . The music video features Natalie Portman and Mackenzie Crook , and was directed by Michel Gondry . The music video had its premier exclusively on 23 May 2007 YouTube . " Dance Tonight " has appeared in an iTunes advert with McCartney playing the mandolin . " Ever Present Past " was released as a single in the UK , on 5 November , as a CD single and 7 " single . It peaked at number 85 . The third single , " Nod Your Head " , was released as a digital download single on 28 August 2007 via the iTunes Store . 
 
 = = Track listing = = 
 
 All songs written by Paul McCartney . 
 " Dance Tonight " – 2 : 54 
 " Ever Present Past " – 2 : 57 
 " See Your Sunshine " – 3 : 20 
 " Only Mama Knows " – 4 : 17 
 " You Tell Me " – 3 : 15 
 " Mr. Bellamy " – 3 : 39 
 " Gratitude " – 3 : 19 
 " Vintage Clothes " – 2 : 22 
 This track marks the start of a five @-@ song medley on the album . 
 " That Was Me " – 2 : 38 
 " Feet in the Clouds " – 3 : 24 
 " House of Wax " – 4 : 59 
 " The End of the End " – 2 : 57 
 " Nod Your Head " – 1 : 58 
 
 = = Personnel = = 
 
 Personnel per booklet . 
 
 = = Grammy = = 
 
 Memory Almost Full has been nominated in the following categories : 
 Best Pop Vocal Album for Memory Almost Full ( 2008 ) 
 Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for " Dance Tonight " ( 2008 ) 
 Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance for " Only Mama Knows " ( 2008 ) 
 Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for " That Was Me " ( 2009 ) 
 
 = = Charts = = 
 
 Notes : 
 On the article that Concord Music Group posted on their official site in February 2007 ( a month before Memory Almost Full was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America ) , Hear Music announced that shipments of the album reached a platinum status in the US . The label also claimed that the album gained a gold in other countries like Norway , though International Federation of the Phonographic Industry has not certified the album at any label there as of 2014 . 
 
 