McCartney, Paul

McCartney, Paul, often regarded as the Beatle who stabilized the group’s appeal with audiences of all ages; b. Allerton, Liverpool, England, June 18, 1942. Paul McCartney was responsible for writing most of the group’s original material, in conjunction with John Lennon. The primary author of Beatles hits such as “Michelle” and “Hey Jude,” McCartney composed the classic “Yesterday,” which has been recorded by more than 2,500 artists and played more than six million times, making it the most frequently performed pop song in history. Moreover, McCartney was the most proficient musician and technically accomplished vocalist in the Beatles.

Paul McCartney’s first solo project outside of the Beatles was the soundtrack to the movie Family Way, released in 1967. He later met American photographer Linda Eastman and married her on March 12, 1969, by which time the Beatles were already suffering from internal tensions. The film of the Beatles’ final album release, Let It Be, aptly revealed McCartney’s attempt to dominate the group. The four were soon embroiled in personal and business disputes, as McCartney objected to the near-simultaneous release of Let It Be and his first solo album, McCartney, and the others sought to employ Allen Klein as financial advisor while McCartney sought the appointment of his father-in-law, Lee Eastman. In April 1970 the breakup of the Beatles was announced, and on Dec. 31, 1970, McCartney sued Klein and Apple Records for legal dissolution of the group’s corporate empire.

McCartney, recorded with Linda providing harmonies and Paul playing all instruments, contained ditties by Paul such as “Every Night,” “That Would Be Something,” “Man, We Was Lonely,” and, the one substantial song, “Maybe I’m Amazed.” McCartney topped the album charts and remained there for nearly a year. Following the smash-hit single “Another Day,” Paul and Linda McCartney recorded Ram with N.Y. session players. The album included “Heart of the Country” and yielded the top hit “UncleAlbert/Admiral Halsey”.

In August 1971 Paul McCartney formed his recording and touring band, Wings, with wife Linda, guitarist Denny Laine, and drummer Danny Seiwell. Session musician Seiwell had played on the Ram album, whereas Laine had been an original member of the Moody Blues and lead vocalist on the Moodys’ first blues-inflected hit, “Go Now.” Wild Life was generally considered to be McCartney’s weakest effort, failing to yield even a minor hit. Joined in January 1972 by guitarist Henry McCullough, the band scored major hits with the singles-only releases “Give Ireland Back to the Irish/’ McCartney’s feeble attempt at political consciousness; the inane “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and “Hi, Hi, Hi.” Red Rose Speedway did little to establish his artistic credibility, although it did yield the top pop and easy-listening hit” My Love.”

In 1973 Paul McCartney and Wings recorded the title song to the James Bond movie Live and Let Die, and the single became a top hit. It served as a prototype to the clever pop-style songs—replete with reprises, codas, changing time signatures, and multiple musical themes—that McCartney crafted so successfully on the subsequent album, Band on the Run. During 1973 Wings appeared in a British and American television special, successfully toured Europe, and scored a major hit with “Helen Wheels.” However, by July Henry McCullough and Danny Seiwell had dropped out of the group.

The McCartneys and Denny Laine traveled to Lagos, Nigeria, to record their next album, Band on the Run, at Ginger Baker’s new ARC Studio. Often regarded as McCartney’s finest post-Beatles work and certainly his most consistent, the album brought the group their first critical praise and yielded the smash hits “Jet” and the title track; it also contains “Let Me Roll It,” “Helen Wheels,” and the ditty “Mamunia.” Remaining on the album charts for more than two years and selling more than six million copies, the album effectively established McCartney as a pop-style songwriter-arranger.

Wings added Scottish guitarist Jimmy McCulloch, formerly with Thunderclap Newman and Stone the Crows, in May 1974 for the Nashville-recorded pop hits “Junior’s Farm” (a smash) and “Sally G.,” also a minor country hit. Drummer Joe English joined in February 1975 for the group’s next album, Venus and Mars Are Alright Tonight, recorded primarily at Allen Toussaint’s Sea Saint Studio in New Orleans. The album produced the top hit “Listen to What the Man Said,” the moderate hit “Letting Go” and the major hit “Venus and Mars Rock Show.” Between fall 1975 and summer 1976 Wings successfully completed their first worldwide tour, and Wings at the Speed of Sound was issued in spring. Considered the band’s first team effort, the album included McCulloch’s “Wino Junko,” Laine’s “Time to Hide,” and Linda’s first effort as a lead vocalist, “Cook of the House,” as well as Paul’s smash pop and easy-listening hits “Let ’Em In” and “Silly Love Songs,” the latter a gentle swipe at critics who had regularly attacked him for his inconsequential ditties.

The United States segment of the Wings tour, called Wings Over America, produced a live multirecord set that yielded the major hit “Maybe I’m Amazed.” Otherwise largely inactive during 1977, Wings scored a smash British hit with the singles release “Mull Of Kintyre” (ostensibly the biggest-selling single in British history), whereas the flip side, “Girls School,” became a moderate American hit. London Town, Wings’s final album of new material for Capitol Records, was recorded primarily on a chartered yacht in the Virgin Islands and produced during 1978 the hits “With a Little Luck,” “I’ve Had Enough,” and the title song. Following the album’s completion, Jimmy McCulloch and Joe English left Wings, to be replaced by session musicians.

By early 1979 Paul McCartney had signed a longterm contract with Columbia Records rumored to be the most lucrative ever in the history of popular music. Wings scored a smash hit on Columbia with the disco-style “Goodnight Tonight” and their debut Columbia album, Back to the Egg, yielded major hits with “Getting Closer” and “Arrow Through Me.” Scheduled to make his first appearance in Japan since playing there with the Beatles in 1966, McCartney was busted upon arrival on Jan. 16, 1980, for possession of nearly a half-pound of marijuana. Perhaps the most highly publicized drug bust in pop-music history, McCartney was deported after spending several days in jail. He subsequently wrote, engineered, produced, played, and sang all parts of his second “solo” album, McCartney II, with its hit, “Comin’ Up.” In April 1981 Wings officially disbanded.

For his next two albums McCartney utilized the services of George Martin, the Beatles’ former producer. Tug of War included “Here Today” (a tribute to slain Beatle John Lennon) and yielded the top pop and easy-listening hit “Ebony and Ivory,” sung in duet with Stevie Wonder, and the major hit “Take It Away.” McCartney and Michael Jackson scored a smash pop, R&B, and easy-listening hit with “The Girl Is Mine” in late 1982, and McCartney’s next album, Pipes of Peace, yielded another top pop hit for the duo with “Say Say Say” and a major hit for McCartney alone with “So Bad.” McCartney’s next project, his first solo feature film, Give My Regards to Broad Street, was a barely watchable flop, despite the inclusion of musicians Ringo Starr, Dave Edmunds, and John Paul Jones and actor Sir Ralph Richardson. The soundtrack album featured 13 rerecordings of Beatles and McCartney hits and included the smash hit “No More Lonely Nights.”

In 1985 Paul McCartney returned to Capitol Records, quickly hitting with the title song to the Chevy Chase-Dan Aykroyd movie Spies Like Us. Eric Stewart, formerly with lOcc, collaborated on many of the songs from McCartney’s debut Capitol album, as he had on Tug of War. Press to Play, however, produced only one hit, “Press.” In September 1987 McCartney recorded his most spirited album in years for the Russian label Melodiya. Released exclusively in the Soviet Union in 1988, the album contained remade oldies and was eventually released outside that country in 1991.

In 1989 Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello collaborated on two songs for Costello’s album Spike, the major hit “Veronica” and “Pads, Paws and Claws.” McCartney’s next effort, Flowers in the Dirt, included four songs coauthored by Costello: “Don’t Be Careless Love,” “That Day Is Done,” “You Want Her Too,” and the major hit “My Brave Face.” McCartney subsequently conducted his first tour in 13 years with the recording band, comprised of the McCartneys, lead guitarist Robbie Mclntosh (of the Pretenders), guitarist-bassist Hamish Stuart (of the Average White Band), keyboardist Paul “Wix”Wickens, and drummer Chris Whitten. Mixing Beatles, Wings, and McCartney favorites with more recent songs, the tour helped reestablish McCartney as a pop artist and produced the live 1990 set Tripping the Live Fantastic, released in both double (30 songs) and single (17 songs) CD versions.

In early 1991, with Blair Cunningham replacing Chris Whitten, McCartney and band performed on MTV’s Unplugged program. The album from the performance was the first album released from the popular, ongoing series. Later that year McCartney debuted his Liverpool Oratorio at Liverpool Cathedral, with mezzo-soprano Kiri Te Kanawa and a cast of more than three hundred. Written over a three-year period with American film and theater composer Carl Davis, it was politely received and later performed at Carnegie Hall. Paul McCartney toured with his band again in 1993 in support of Off the Ground. In 1995 another classical piece composed by McCartney, “A Leaf,” for solo piano, was debuted in London at a benefit concert for the Royal Coll. of Music. McCartney reunited with ex-Beatles Ringo Starr and George Harrison in late 1995 for a video/TV program/record package on the group’s history, recording two singles using demo tapes made by John Lennon in the late 1970s, ’Tree as a Bird” and “Real Love,” both with new lyrics by McCartney and over-dubbed vocals and instruments by the trio. His 1997 album Flaming Pie was well-received and up for a Grammy in 1998, the year his wife, Linda, died of breast cancer.

Discography

paulmccartney:Family Way (soundtrack; 1967); McCartney (1979); McCartney II (1980); Tug of War (1982) Pipes of Peace (1983); Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984); Press to Play (1986); All the Best (1970–1986) (1987); Choba B CCCP(re-leased in U.S.S.R. in 1988) (1991); Flowers in the Dirt (1989); Tripping the Live Fantastic (1990); Tripping the Live Fantastic—”Highlights” (1990); Unplugged (1991); Off the Ground (1993); Paul Is Live (1993); Standing Stone (1997); Flaming Pie (1997); Run Devil Run (1999); Working Classical (1999). paul and linda mccartney:Ram (1971). Paul MccArtney And Wings:Wild Life (1971); Red Rose Speedway (1973); Band on the Run (1973); Venus and Mars Are Alright Tonight! (1975); Wings at the Speed of Sound (1976); Wings Over America (1976); London Town (1978); Greatest Hits (1978); Back to the Egg (1979). paul mccartney andcarl davis:Liverpool Oratorio (1991).

Bibliography

George Tremlett, The P. M. Story (N.Y., 1975); John Mendelsohn, P. M.: A Biography in Words and Pictures (N.Y., 1977); Chris Welch, P. M.: The Definitive Biography (London, 1984); Chris Salewicz, McCartney (London, 1987); Chet Flippo, Yesterday: The Unauthorized Biography of P. M. (Garden City, N.Y., 1988).

—Brock Helander