Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey is a track from the Paul and Linda McCartney album Ram. It was a number 1 single in the USA.
The song is in two parts: Uncle Albert is a slow, bluesy song in which the protagonist (and his entourage — the word "we" is used several times) is apologising to the title character for various minor wrongs; Admiral Halsey is a fast and upbeat song interleaving its "Hands across the water/Heads across the sky" refrain with lyrics about the Admiral.
Behind the scenes
- This song is said to have its unusual sound and structure because it's a joining of two (or more, some sources claim as many as five) different song fragments, in much the way that "A Day in the Life" was written.
- "Uncle Albert" was a real-life uncle of Paul McCartney's.
- "Admiral Halsey" was a U.S. Naval hero in both World Wars.
- The "Uncle Albert" half of this song was used in the Only Fools and Horses episode "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Uncle" to refer to the character of the same name.
- It can be presumed that the second verse was supposed to be "we're so sorry, but we haven't heard a thing" so as to rhyme with the "ring" at the end of that verse. For some unknown reason, it is actually sung as "...we haven't heard a thing all day", the same as the third verse.