James Paul McCartney (TV special) cars", while "The Washington Post" criticised the amount of screen time allocated to Linda McCartney, saying that "her previous careers ... certainly don't qualify her to perform in public." Writing for "Rolling Stone", Lenny Kaye found McCartney "remote and distant from the camera" and added: "if the consequent production did nothing to heal McCartney's ongoing image problem, it certainly didn't help his musical offerings, which came off as forgettably ordinary and certainly disappointing." Referring to the former Beatle's return to television, Alan Coren of "The Times" wrote: "["James Paul McCartney"] was not the sort of programme you make a come-back
Paul McCartney and Wings Linda. He had insisted from the beginning of their marriage that Linda should be involved in his musical projects, notwithstanding her lack of previous experience as a musician, so that they did not have to be apart when he was on tour. "Ram" was recorded in New York City, where McCartney auditioned a number of drummers and guitarists, selecting Seiwell and guitarist David Spinozza. When Spinozza became unavailable due to other session commitments, Hugh McCracken was enlisted to take his place. After the release of "Ram", McCartney decided to form a new group and asked Seiwell and McCracken to join.