the album. Music and lyrics "Dear Friend", recorded during the Ram sessions, was apparently an attempt at reconciliation with John Lennon. It followed Lennon's attack on McCartney in the song "How Do You Sleep?", from the album Imagine, which had been in retaliation for McCartney's perceived digs at Lennon in "Too Many People" on Ram. Music critic Ian MacDonald cited "Dear Friend" as a counter-argument to the caricature of McCartney as an emotional lightweight. Wild Life also included a reggae remake of Mickey & Sylvia's 1957 top 40 hit "Love Is Strange". A promotional single was distributed in the UK by Apple in December 1971 with catalogue No. R5932, but the commercial release was cancelled due to poor album sales. Release and reception After announcing to the media the band's formation on 2 August 1971, the group were named "Wings" on 9 October. On 8 November, the group held a press party in London to announce both the group and Wild Life, which was released on 7 December, in both the UK and US, to lukewarm critical and commercial reaction. The album reached number 11 in the UK and number 10 in the US, where it went gold. At the same press party, in an interview with Melody Maker, McCartney said that the group should soon be performing live. John Mendelsohn wrote in Rolling Stone that he wondered whether the album may have been "deliberately second-rate." In The Beatles: An Illustrated Record, Roy Carr and Tony Tyler called the album "rushed, defensive, badly timed, and over-publicized" and wrote that it showed McCartney's songwriting "at an absolute nadir just when he needed a little respect". The liner notes for Wild Life (and on the Thrillington album) were credited to Clint Harrigan, but in 1990 McCartney admitted to journalist Peter Palmiere that he was Harrigan. Lennon claimed to know the identity of Harrigan during their Melody Maker feud in 1972. In December 1971, a Ram outtake "Breakfast Blues" was mixed by Paul and Linda at A&R Studios. "Breakfast Blues" was played on WCBS-FM, where McCartney promoted Wings and Wild Life, on 15 December. The track was later released as "Great Cock and Seagull Race" on the 2012 special edition of Ram. The album was first released on CD by EMI's budget Fame label, on 5 October 1987. In addition to naming the previously hidden tracks ("Bip Bop Link" and "Mumbo Link"), this