Tug of War is the fourth solo studio album by Paul McCartney, released in 1982. It is the follow-up to the 1980 album McCartney II, and his first official solo album after the dissolution of Wings in April 1981. The recording sessions for the album reunited McCartney with producer George Martin.Tug of War was also McCartney's first album after the death of his former Beatles bandmate John Lennon.

Following McCartney II's release, Wings regrouped in October 1980 to begin what would be their final recording sessions, whereby several songs later to appear on Tug of War and Pipes of Peace were rehearsed and recorded. Feeling the need for direction, McCartney called upon his old producer,George Martin, to begin recording a song written for the animated Rupert Bear character (to which McCartney owned the rights), entitled "We All Stand Together," among others. The productive sessions continued until 9 December, the morning McCartney woke up to discover his old songwriting partner and fellow ex-Beatle, John Lennon, had been shot and killed the night before in New York City. Abandoning that day's session part-way through (where he and Denny Laine were recording future B-Side "Rainclouds"), both Martin and McCartney felt it was best to leave the project for the time being and start anew once they were ready.

In February 1981, two months after Lennon's death, Paul McCartney resumed his sessions, recording that month with Stevie Wonder, Stanley Clarke,Carl Perkins and Ringo Starr and laying down several songs in the process. Ex-10cc guitarist Eric Stewart also became a frequent collaborator of McCartney's during this era. Further sessions that summer were also undertaken at George Martin's AIR studios at Oxford Street, London — with the producer manning the controls and giving McCartney's music the benefit of 1980s technology. The sessions were so productive that several of its tracks would be held over for the next album, Pipes of Peace, which followed in 1983. The rest of 1981 would be spent in a quiet fashion, with McCartney and Martin touching up the album and perfecting it.

In March 1982, McCartney's duet with Stevie Wonder, "Ebony and Ivory", was released to broad acclaim. It reached #1 in many countries and did much to restore McCartney's critical reputation after what was viewed as a lean period for him. Consequently, when Tug of War appeared in April, it was an immediate worldwide #1, selling several million copies and was received strongly by the public, even being nominated for the "Album of the Year" Grammy in 1983. The follow-up single "Take It Away" was a US Top 10 entry as well.

In 1993, Tug of War was remastered and reissued on CD as part of "The Paul McCartney Collection" series. There were no bonus tracks: "Rainclouds" and "I'll Give You a Ring", B-sides of "Ebony and Ivory" and "Take It Away", respectively, were omitted.

In 2007, Tug of War was remastered and re-released on the iTunes Store adding a solo version of "Ebony and Ivory".