Paul McCartney

Singer, songwriter, guitarist

For the Record…

Selected discography

Sources

No one could have predicted that an English youth raised in poverty-stricken Liverpool would become the world’s wealthiest musician. Paul McCartney has done just that, principally by virtue of his memorable songs for the Beatles and his subsequent group Wings. McCartney’s wholesome good looks and affable manner helped to attract fans to the Beatles, but it was his songwriting abilities that kept those fans enthralled year after year. He is the only former Beatle whose solo career has matched, dollar for dollar, the success of the legendary Fab Four.

The Guinness Book of World Records lists McCartney as history’s most commercially successful musician, with more than 100 million albums and 100 million singles sold since 1961. Estimates of the singer’s wealth vary greatly, but most sources place it in the $500 million range, with annual revenues of $48 to $60 million. Such a fantastic fortune could hardly be achieved without talent, and over the years McCartney has proven his—both with and without the other Beatles. As a Time magazine contributor puts it, McCartney’s “bounteous melodic gifts [seem] to be reflected in the brightness of his step, the openness of his smile. His impishness, and his considerable charm, always had an ironic undercurrent of worldliness and assurance. Even now,… he has the surprised sophistication of a gremlin who has just been caught under the drawbridge compromising the fairy princess.”

McCartney was born June 18, 1942 in Liverpool, England. He grew up in public housing projects, the son of a school nurse and a cotton salesman. From his father he learned to play the piano by ear, but as a teenager he gravitated to the guitar, influenced by the American music of Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Although McCartney is righthanded, he restrung his guitar and played it lefthanded, a quirk that has lasted throughout his career. By 1956 he was sufficiently versed in guitar and vocals to seek work with a local band.

McCartney joined the Quarrymen, a “skiffle” (jug) band founded by John Lennon. Before long Lennon and McCartney were bosom buddies who spent long hours in McCartney’s home writing songs and improvising on their guitars. McCartney made his debut with the Quarrymen in 1957 at the Broadway Conservative Club in Liverpool. Under the name Johnny and the Moondogs the group toured Scotland and the smaller working-class towns outside of London, then signed for several lengthy engagements in Hamburg, Germany. The Hamburg audiences were notoriously demanding, and it was there that the group—renamed the Beatles—developed a confident stage presence and a generally outrageous act. Upon their return to Liverpool, the Beatles attracted a gifted manager, Brian Epstein.

For the Record…

Full name James Paul McCartney; born June 18,1942, in Liverpool, England; son of James (a cotton salesman) and Mary (a nurse) McCartney; married Linda Eastman (a photographer), March 12,1969; children: James, Mary, Stella.

Joined group the Quarrymen, founded by John Lennon, in June, 1956; group included George Harrison (guitar) and Pete Best (drums) and performed under names Johnny and the Moondogs, the Moonshiners, and Long John and the Silver Beatles. Name changed to the Beatles in 1962; Ringo Starr replaced Best on drums.

Group performed in Liverpool area and in Hamburg, Germany, 1960-62; signed with Capitol/EMI Records, 1962; released first single, “Love Me Do,” 1962; had first Number 1 hit, “Please Please Me,” 1963. Group subsequently sold more than 100 million singles and 100 million albums and toured in the United States, Europe, and the Far East. Appeared in motion pictures, including A Hard Days Night, 1964, Help, 1965, Yellow Submarine, 1969, and Let It Be , 1970. Group disbanded, 1970, and legally dissolved, December 30, 1974.

Released first solo album, McCartney, 1970. With wife Linda and others (principally studio musicians), formed group Wings, 1971; had first Number 1 hit with group, “Band on the Run,” 1973; subsequently produced numerous platinum singles and albums, including Band on the Run, Live and Let Die, Wings at the Speed of Sound, and Pipes of Peace. Has made live concert appearances in United States, Europe, and the Far East. Owner of MPL Communications, Ltd., a music publishing firm.

Awards: Numerous Grammy Awards for albums and singles both as a member of the Beatles and as a solo performer. Named Member of the Order of the British Empire, 1965.

Addresses: Office —MPL Communications, Ltd., 1 Soho Sq., London W1V 6BQ, England.

Epstein “cleaned up” the Beatles somewhat, dressing them in matching suits and suggesting new hairstyles. Within a year the group had a recording contract with EMI Records and its American counterpart, Capitol. By January of 1963 two Beatles songs, “Love Me Do” and “Please Please Me,” had made the British Top 20; both were written by Lennon and McCartney. The group—which had added Ringo Starr on drums and George Harrison on guitar—made its triumphant debut in America in the early months of 1964.

The Beatles phenomenon has never been equalled in the history of popular music. In one year—1964—the group had five hits in the Top 10 simultaneously, another seven in the Top 100, and four albums in the Top 10 as well. Most of these songs were McCartney-Lennon collaborations. The pair had decided early on to attach both names even to songs that just one of them had written, so it is difficult to sort out exactly who wrote what. “John and Paul went together like peanut butter and jelly,” writes John Milward in the Philadelphia Inquirer. “They brought out the best in each other. Even in the later years of the Beatles, when the majority of Lennon-McCartney songs were written solely by one or the other, each man acted as the other’s most trenchant critic.”

Certainly Lennon and McCartney were pop music’s most successful songwriters as a team, but McCartney also authored timeless songs of his own, including the engaging ballads “Yesterday,” “Eleanor Rigby,” and “Hey, Jude.” As the Beatles matured—discovering social consciousness, hallucinogenic drugs, and Eastern religion—McCartney managed to maintain a comic perspective with songs such as “When I’m Sixty-Four.” This tongue-in-cheek wit, in sharp contrast to Lennon’s pessimism, would follow McCartney into his solo career.

The Beatles disbanded in 1970 and for some years thereafter quarrelled bitterly in legal and personal disputes. The period was traumatic for McCartney, especially since the critics panned his first solo efforts, McCartney and Ram. Lennon also stung his former partner with a song “How Do You Sleep,” that spoke of McCartney’s “pretty face” and his “Muzak” in pejorative terms. Undaunted, McCartney formed a group called Wings and continued to record, using his wife Linda as a backup singer and keyboardist. Within three years of the Beatles’ demise he was back on the charts with a platinum album, Band on the Run, and two hit singles, “My Love” and “Band on the Run.” The theme song he wrote for the motion picture Live and Let Die was nominated for an Academy Award.

With Wings or on his own, McCartney has achieved a success that rivals his Beatles days. For one thing, he owns the royalty rights to the Wings songs (Michael Jackson owns the entire Beatles library, to McCartney’s chagrin). His business concerns are managed by personnel he considers trustworthy. Most important, however, is the fact that Linda McCartney accompanies him in the studio and on tour—the two have been inseparable since they married in 1969. A Time reporter writes: “Smarmy as all this may sound to any fan used to high-voltage tales about the profligate life of rock stars, McCartney draws… sustenance from his rigorously imposed family structure…. Unlike most rock superstars, the McCartneys try to stay in touch with reality.”

McCartney’s solo work has been described as “middle of the road” pop, a somewhat disparaging classification for his catchy tunes and singable lyrics. It is fair to say that McCartney’s music fits in the pop format, but it falls into the same “pop as art” category as do the works of Phil Collins, Elton John, and Billy Joel. “As a Beatle, McCartney ebulliently proved that he could mix with the best of them,” writes the Time critic, “but at the moment he is having fun being flippant about rock’s old insistence on relevance. His tunes are elaborately homespun, lined with shifting, driving rhythms and coy harmonics, their lyrics full of flights of gentle, sometimes treacly fantasy…. Even during his Beatle days, McCartney was something of a sentimentalist, and not embarrassed about it. At this point in his development, he seems pleased to be a first-rate performer and a composer of clever songs.”

McCartney’s fans of the 1990s include those of his own generation as well as youngsters who were not even born when the Beatles disbanded. “McCartney still draws many of the Beatles faithful, to be sure,” writes the Time critic. “He has also found a whole new audience, his audience. They have come to hear him, not history.” In a candid interview for the CBS-Television series “48 Hours,” McCartney said that he has no intentions of retiring from songwriting or performing. “I’m just in the middle of my career,” he said. “I’m only 47,1 don’t feel like I’m finished.” He concluded: “I’m still planning to write better songs.”

Selected discography

With the Beatles

Introducing the Beatles, Vee Jay, 1963.

Meet the Beatles, Capitol, 1964.

The Beatles Second Album, Capitol, 1964.

A Hard Day’s Night, United Artists, 1964.

Something New, Capitol, 1964.

The Beatles Story, Capitol, 1964.

Beatles ’65, Capitol, 1964.

The Early Beatles, Capitol, 1965.

Beatles VI, Capitol, 1965.

Help, Capitol, 1965.

Rubber Soul, Capitol, 1965.

Yesterday… and Today, Capitol, 1966.

Revolver, Capitol, 1966.

This Is Where It Started, Metro, 1966.

Amazing Beatles and Other Great English Group Sounds, Clarion, 1966.

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Capitol, 1967.

Magical Mystery Tour, Capitol, 1967.

The Beatles (White Album), Apple, 1968.

Yellow Submarine, Apple, 1969.

Abbey Road, Apple, 1969.

Hey Jude, Apple, 1970.

Tony Sheridan and the Beatles, Polydor, 1970.

Let It Be, Apple, 1970.

In the Beginning (Circa 1960), Polydor, 1970.

The Beatles 1962-1966, Apple, 1973.

The Beatles 1967-1970, Apple, 1973.

Rock ’N ’ Roll Music, Capitol, 1976.

The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, Capitol, 1976.

The Beatles Live! At the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany: 1962, Lingasong, 1977.

Love Songs, Capitol, 1977.

Rarities, Capitol, 1979.

The Decca Tapes, Circuit, 1979.

Rock ’N ’ Roll Music, Volume II, Capitol, 1980.

Reel Music, Capitol, 1982.

Twenty Greatest Hits, Capitol, 1982.

With Wings

McCartney, Capitol, 1970.

Ram, Capitol, 1971.

Wild Life, Capitol, 1973.

Red Rose Speedway, Apple, 1973.

Band on the Run, Apple, 1973.

Venus and Mars, Capitol, 1973.

Wings at the Speed of Sound, Capitol, 1976.

Wings over America, Capitol, 1977.

London Town, Capitol, 1978.

Wings Greatest Hits, Capitol, 1978.

Back to the Egg, Columbia, 1979.

McCartney II, Columbia, 1980.

Tug of War, Columbia, 1982.

Pipes of Peace, Columbia, 1983.

Give My Regards to Broad Street, Columbia, 1984.

Press To Play, Capitol, 1986.

All the Best, Capitol, 1987.

Flowers in the Dirt, Capitol, 1989.

On Video

The Beatles: Alone and Together, Fox Hills.

The Beatles Live: Ready, Steady, Go, SVS.

Beatles Scrapbook, Discvid.

Fun with the Fab Four, Goodtimes.

A Hard Day’s Night, MPI.

Help! MPI.

Magical Mystery Tour, MPI.

Yellow Submarine, MGM/UA.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Warner.

The Compleat Beatles, MGM/UA.

Give My Regards to Broad Street, CBS/Fox.

The Paul McCartney Special, SVS.

Sources

Books

Carr, Roy and Tony Tyler, The Beatles: An Illustrated Record, Harmony Books, 1978.

Flippo, Chet, Yesterday: The Unauthorized Biography of Paul McCartney, Doubleday, 1988.

Norman, Philip, Shout! The Beatles in Their Generation, Simon & Schuster, 1981.

Schaffner, Nicholas, The Beatles Forever, McGraw, 1978.

Schaumburg, Ron, Growing Up with the Beatles, Harcourt, 1976.

Periodicals

New Republic, December 2, 1981; October 31, 1988.

Newsweek, February 24,1964; October 29,1973; May 17,1976; May 3, 1982.

New York Times Magazine, February 16, 1975.

Oakland Press Sunday Magazine, February 4, 1979.

People, November 14, 1983.

Philadelphia Inquirer, December 28, 1989.

Playboy, December, 1984.

Rolling Stone, June 17, 1976; July 12, 1979; June 26, 1980.

Time, May 31, 1976; December 22, 1980.

Washington Post, October 29, 1984.

—Anne Janette Johnson