Paul McCartney

From Freepedia

Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE (born 18 June 1942) is a British singer, musician and songwriter, who first came to prominence as a member of The Beatles.

Recognised as a top musical icon of the twentieth century, McCartney is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most successful composer in popular music history. He has a record twenty-nine US number one singles, twenty of them from the Beatles, the rest taken from Wings and his output as a solo artist. Combining his work with and without The Beatles, McCartney has written or co-written over 50 top ten hits, more than any other songwriter. McCartney is an accomplished singer, guitarist, bassist, pianist, and drummer.

McCartney and John Lennon were the main songwriters in The Beatles, and many of McCartney’s compositions of this period, including "Hey Jude", "Eleanor Rigby," "Yesterday" and "Let It Be", are frequently ranked among the best songs in popular music history. Another Beatles song written by McCartney was "Helter Skelter", often called the first heavy metal song.

McCartney’s post-Beatles career has also been successful. As a solo artist and with his 1970s-era band Wings, McCartney has scored 30 top ten singles in the United Kingdom and United States, including such songs as "Maybe I'm Amazed", "Live and Let Die", "Band on the Run", "Silly Love Songs", "Pipes of Peace" and a duet with Stevie Wonder, "Ebony and Ivory".

In the British press especially, McCartney sometimes faces the perception that he is outdated. Still, he has maintained significant popular appeal and chart presence during the last thirty-five years and has also been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist.

Aside from his musical work, McCartney is a painter, although until recently he kept his artwork private, and a strong advocate for animal rights and vegetarianism.

1 Biography
2 Pseudonyms
3 Discography
4 Achievements and world records
5 See also
6 External links

Biography

Early years

James Paul McCartney was born at Walton Hospital, located in northern Liverpool, where his mother had worked as a nurse, and where his brother, Michael McCartney (also a musician, Michael's stage name is Mike McGear), was born a year later. He (and presumably his brother) were baptized Roman Catholic, but otherwise raised non-denominationally: his parents were a mixed-religion couple. His father, Jim McCartney, was a self-taught pianist, and dance-band leader who encouraged Paul to be musical. His father gave him a trumpet which he exchanged for a guitar.

The early death of his mother Mary Mohin McCartney from breast cancer when he was 14 was a formative influence on his life and created an additional bond between him and John Lennon, whose mother died when John was 18.

Paul McCartney claims Irish heritage on both sides of his family. Paul's great-grandfather, James McCartney, was born in Ireland (some sources suggest his grandfather, James McCartney II, was as well). His mother's father, Owen Mohin, was born in 1880 in Tullynamalrow, County Monaghan in Ulster, and his mother's mother, Mary Theresa Danher, was a Glaswegian of Irish descent. Accordingly, Paul McCartney is five-eighths of Irish heritage.

Early solo career

As the Beatles broke up in 1970, Paul launched a solo career with his album McCartney, which featured him playing all the instruments and singing all vocals except for some backing vocals from his wife Linda. While some found this record underwhelming, it did contain "Junk", which has remained a centerpiece of McCartney's concerts ever since. Another successful track was "Hot As Sun", which was later a hit for singer Meatloaf.

McCartney followed this in 1971 with the stand-alone single "Another Day/Oh Woman, Oh Why", the former of which to some recalled the observational style of his mid-period Beatles work. The album Ram, later in 1971, was credited to both Paul and Linda, and featured back-up from, for the most part, studio musicians. While both single and album were commercially popular, detractors viewed them as largely insubstantial. The album's artwork included a picture of two beetles copulating - a possible hint at McCartney's feelings toward his previous group. The album also contained some apparent references towards Lennon, notably in the song "Too Many People" ("Too many people preaching practices, don't let 'em tell you what you wanna be"); later that year, Lennon responded with the famously scathing "How Do You Sleep?"; then followed the McCartneys' song "Dear Friend", on Wild Life, the first album released by Wings.

McCartney famously insisted that his wife should be involved with his music — and later tour in his bands so they did not have to be apart while he travelled — in spite of her protests that she was not talented enough. After hearing Linda sing, many seconded her opinion, but Paul's move was clearly a deliberate act, intended to help dispel some of the lingering Beatles mystique and prove his assertion that "anyone can do it". Despite persistent attacks on her ability (including one notorious 1990s bootleg concert tape in which her out-of-tune vocals were deliberately mixed to the fore), Linda became a valuable member of McCartney's bands and an inspiring musician throughout the remainder of her life. (In many ways this paralleled the role that Yoko Ono played in Lennon's post-Beatles musical life, just as there would be organisational similarities between Wings and Lennon's Plastic Ono Band).

IV. Collaborations

A Decade of Wings

After the Ram sessions Paul said “I didn’t really want to keep on going as a solo artist, just me and my guitar, so it became obvious that I had to get a band together. Johnny Cash had just come back, and he had a band and was touring. Linda and I talked it through and it was like, ‘Yeah, but let’s not put together a super group, let’s go back to square one.’ And that’s what they did.

Paul and Linda got Danny Seiwell and Hugh McCracken from the Ram sessions. They also hired ex-Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine. Since the group was starting from the ground up Hugh bowed out. The band started and finished their first album in Bob Dylan fashion, completing it in two weeks. At the time, Linda was deep into her pregnancy. While Linda was giving birth the doctor said that there were complications, so Paul started praying and the image that came into his head was a pair of angel’s wings. The band was still unnamed so Paul suggested that they call themselves Wings and the band agreed. They called their first album Wings Wild Life. Still needing a solid lead guitar, they hired Henry McCullough from Joe Cocker’s Grease Band, at their roadies’ suggestion. Now the group consisted of Paul (Bass, Lead Vocals), Linda (Piano, Vocals), Denny Laine (Guitar), Denny Seiwell (Drums), and Henry McCullough (Lead guitar).

With Paul’s money still tied up in Apple Corporation, the band needed to be frugal and found a free place to practice at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts. The band started to work on some new songs, including “Give Ireland Back to the Irish.” On Sunday January 30, 1972, 14 unarmed Irish men and boys had been shot dead and 13 others were wounded by British soldiers after a protest march in Derry, Northern Ireland. Paul was so outraged he had to write about it. After they recorded it Paul was promptly phoned by EMI’s Chairmen, Sir Joseph Lockwood who said that he thought that the song was too inflammatory. Paul told him he felt very strongly about the song and they released it but the BBC banned it. The song went to Number One in Ireland and Spain. Unexpectedly, their politically-driven song created a personal backlash when Henry McCullough’s brother, who lived in Northern Ireland, was beaten up by some pro-British thugs when they found out that Henry was in Wings.

The band’s first “tour” was a university tour. When they got to a college campus, a roadie would ask at the Student Union if they would like to hear Paul McCartney and his new band Wings, and the answer obviously would be yes. Wings only had eleven songs, so they would usually repeat the songs they had already played. They never sang Beatles songs although they got many requests everywhere they performed. Paul remembered, “The Student Union in Newcastle booked City Hall, which was quite a big gig, a few thousand people. We went to play Wild Life and I said ‘Ah one-two-three.’ Nothing. Just silence. I looked around at Linda and she mouthed to me ‘I’ve forgotten the chords.’ By this time the audience was starting to giggle, thinking we were doing a comedy routine. So I walked over to the keyboard and when I got there I also couldn’t remember the bloody chords.” Wings considered that tour to be more of a practice than a performance. Later that year they went on their first official European Tour. They bought an old double decker bus as their tour bus, so they could enjoy the nice weather. Paul said, “Venice was a memorable concert. We bounced laser beams off the famous Venetian architecture. Zagreb was also great for me because the audience took over and sang “Yesterday” on their own and I let them do it. It was a very warm moment.” In all, they gave 25 concerts in Western Europe on the tour.

Several songs from that time stand out. One was “Hi Hi Hi” Paul remembers “Drugs were fairly widespread. Looking back on it now I have a completely difference perspective, (but at the time) to me it was a perfectly harmless little rock and roll song...but it was equated with pot and so the BBC banned it.” One of Paul’s ambitions had always been to write a James Bond theme and in 1973 he got his opportunity. He wrote “Live or Let Die” for the film of the same name and it shot to Number Two. Their new single “My Love” from their new album “Red Rose Speedway” went to Number One at the same time. Red Rose Speedway was at the top of the charts in the U.S. and the U.K.

For Wings’ next album Paul and Linda wanted to record at a exotic location. They looked into where EMI had studios and found one in Lagos, Nigeria. The night before they left, Denny Seiwell and Henry phoned Paul to tell him they were quitting. The rest of the band went anyway, even though they had no drummer or lead guitarist.

Paul underestimated the poor conditions in Lagos. The studio had many leaks and it was the middle of monsoon season. Everybody told Paul, Linda, and Denny that under no circumstances should they walk around; they were to drive everywhere. They ignored the advice and one night after eating at a friends house, while walking home, Paul and Linda were robbed of all their possessions except their clothes. The most important thing they lost were Wings demo cuts of some new songs. Still anxious from the intense experience, Paul fainted after smoking too many cigarettes the next day. To add to the pressure, the top local musician, Fela Ransome Kuti thought they had come to steal his and Africa’s music. Kuti was very angry, but when Paul played a track of Wings for him he calmed down. They finished the album glad the ordeal was over. Band on the Run was the name of that album and it went to Number One in both the U.K and the U.S. It also won a Grammy for Best Album in 1973.

Back in New York once again, they went back to auditioning for a drummer and lead guitar. They picked Geoff Britton for drums. Paul remembered hearing a record in the late 60s by a group called Thunderclap Newman. One of the guitarist was a whiz kid named Jimmy McCulloch. They invited him to be part of the band and he said yes. In the summer of ‘74 the band went to Nashville to do some recording and get the band “together’. Now Wings consisted of Paul, Linda, Denny, Geoff (Drums), and Jimmy (Lead guitar). They rented a house there and rehearsed in the garage. While they were there Johnny Cash gave them a tour of the Grand Ole Opry. “I was amazed at seeing rows and rows of old, dead chewing gum under the wooden pews. That’s the kind of thing that sticks to my mind,” Paul said. Geoff Brittom didn’t stay long with Wings and was replaced by Joe English, a more rhythmic- centered drum player. They went off to New Orleans to record their latest album “Venus and Mars.” Paul loved R&B, and said, “even though we didn’t use the style of New Orleans on the album, it influenced the way we felt about the music and added to the spirit. Joe was sure to drum funkier in New Orleans than if he as in Lancashire.” Paul really thought the band was jelling and decided they were ready for their first tour.

It would be called Wings Over America and was the one US tour they did. But before America they went on tour in England. A journalist wrote that The Beatles would reunite on that tour, which made more people buy tickets but of course none of that was true. On the American tour they broke the record for most attendees in a indoor concert, 67,000 people at the Seattle Kingdome. On tour, Paul remembers, “Jimmy was a great player but he had a big attitude. I think it was in Boston-he refused to do the encore. Our thing was to run off, the crowd would ask for an encore, hopefully, and then we’d go back and do two more songs. So I was just running back for the encore when one of the roadies said, ‘Jimmy’s not coming on.’ I ran down to the dressing room and gave him a rollicking.’

The band thought about doing another album called London Town and recording it in the Virgin Islands. They rented a boat and put the recording studio in it. They did a little recording in the day, but mostly relaxed and played around. Paul remembers just trying have fun while recording it, like rehearsing on the deck while the engine was running. Paul’s philosophy had become that if they were having a good time the music would be good. It was true, London Town went to Number Two in the US, and Number Four in the U.K.

One of Paul’s financial advisors told him that he should make a real estate investment. So Paul bought a farm in Scotland. It was run down but Paul had the money to fix it up and put in a second “Rude Studio.” Paul was inspired by the Scottish bagpipe music and made the folk/love song called Mull of Kintyre. They had a entire bagpipe section. At that time Britain was dominated by Punk music so Paul didn’t think it would be a big hit since was a big change of pace. He was wrong, it went to Number One in the U.K and was selling thirty thousand copies a day. It wasn’t noticed in America since the advertiser promoted the “B” side “Girl’s School”. Jimmy McCulloch left the band to play in a band called Small Faces. Two years later he died from overdosing on heroine. A couple months later Joe English left, and once again they found themselves without a lead guitar and a drummer.

The band took on a new drummer named Steve Holly and lead guitar named Laurence Juber. Looking back, Paul said things were getting quite boring with yet another new set of musicians. They recorded Back to the Egg, which would be their last album. It did well on the U.S. and U.K. charts.

A few weeks after the release of Back to the Egg they planned to tour Japan. Everybody told Paul not to bring any pot because that was a capitol offense punishable by seven years of prison. When customs officers in Tokyo searched Paul’s bag the pot was right on the top. In full public view Paul was handcuffed and hauled off to jail. He described the experience: “I was in a little cell, on my own. It took me a few days to get used to it...I was like Steve McQueen in The Great Escape-except I didn’t have the baseball to bounce.” Paul spent nine days in jail. Soon after, Wings broke up. Paul said he had no regrets about Wings - “they were all good line-ups in their own way.” But unlike the family he found with the Beatles, he never found a stable group of players willing to stay together.

Later solo career

In 1980, as Wings came to an end, McCartney made international headlines when he was arrested for possession of marijuana in Japan and he spent nine days in prison there before being deported. Since that time, he has reportedly stopped using all drugs, although it is generally believed that he used marijuana consistently throughout the late 1960s and 1970s. He was quoted in the 2000s as saying that he had recently given up marijuana at the behest of his second wife.

Despite the devastating blow of the murder of Lennon later in 1980, McCartney enjoyed continued success in the early 1980s. His 1982 album Tug of War was a major success and in the same year he scored two huge hits with duet singles: "Ebony and Ivory", recorded with soul legend Stevie Wonder; and "The Girl Is Mine", recorded with emerging pop megastar Michael Jackson. Another successful McCartney-Jackson duet, "Say Say Say" was released in 1983. He also wrote and starred in the 1984 film Give My Regards To Broad Street. The film and soundtrack featured the US and UK top ten hit "No More Lonely Nights".

McCartney's friendship with Jackson was short-lived. Not long afterward, Jackson paid a huge sum to acquire the Northern Songs catalogue, which included the publishing rights to most of the Beatles' songs. McCartney has made it clear that he does not wish to have the catalogue back. According to Contact Music [1], McCartney said "I do get some cash from the publishing already. And in a few years more of the rights will be automatically be reverting to me. The only annoying thing is when I tour America I have to pay to play some of my own songs."

In the mid-1980s, while making a home movie reminiscing about his days as a schoolboy, McCartney discovered the 1837 building which had once been his old school was derelict. He purchased it, and pursued a dream he had always had of helping his home town of Liverpool in some way. January 1996 saw the dedication of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, of which Paul is the lead patron. On June 7 1996, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the building.

In the late 1980s McCartney began a songwriting partnership with Elvis Costello, with the resulting songs appearing on several albums by both artists. The best known of these are the 1989 hit "Veronica", from Costello's album Spike, and "My Brave Face", a modest hit from McCartney's album Flowers in the Dirt.

During 1989-1990 McCartney staged a major, year-long world tour, in which for the first time he included a substantial number of Beatles songs in the set list. The tour was a big success, filling arenas and stadiums at each stop. A similarly-scaled tour took place in 1993. The accompanying album to this tour, Paul Is Live parodied the famous Paul Is Dead conspiracy of the late '60s - in both the title, and in the cover art which showed McCartney walking across the famous Abbey Road zebra crossing on his own - once again showing his willingness to acknowledge his Beatles past.

McCartney and his wife became outspoken vegetarians and animal-rights activists. McCartney tells the story of how their vegetarian instincts were realised when they happened to see lambs frolicking in a field as they ate a meal of lamb. In 1991, Linda introduced her own line of vegetarian meals to the general market. After Linda's death in 1998, Paul pledged to continue her line of food and keep it free from genetically modified organisms.

In 1991 McCartney made his first complete foray into classical music, collaborating with Carl Davis to compose the quasi-autobiographical Liverpool Oratorio. This was received well in general, although many commented that the music lacked the complexity normally associated with the genre. Liverpool Oratorio had its North American premiere in Carnegie Hall in New York on 18 November 1991 with Davis conducting and both McCartneys in attendance.

In 1994, McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr reunited to release the first of the Beatles' Anthology albums, consisting of alternative takes and live recordings of Beatles songs; volumes two and three were released the next year. They also created two new Beatles songs by layering new music on unfinished tracks Lennon had made before his death fourteen years earlier.

In the late 1990s McCartney was involved in a feud with John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono. Their dispute centered on the writing credits for a number of Beatles songs. He had wanted to change the credits from the traditional 'Lennon-McCartney' to 'Paul McCartney and John Lennon' for songs McCartney had primarily composed. Ono was offended by this move, which she felt broke an agreement that the two had made while Lennon was still alive to credit songs as a team. However, McCartney has stated, to the contrary, that he and Lennon agreed the credits could be inverted, if so desired, in future endeavours. The two other Beatles agreed that the credits should remain as they always had been and McCartney withdrew his request.

On March 11, 1997, McCartney was knighted (Knight Bachelor) by Queen Elizabeth II.

In 1998, McCartney's wife Linda died after a prolonged bout with breast cancer, the same illness that, decades before, had claimed McCartney's mother.

Run Devil Run was released in 1999 to positive reviews. In the same year, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist (he was inducted with the rest of the Beatles in 1988).

In 1997 he had made his second venture into classical music with Standing Stone, a work that received a mixed response. In 1999 he released Working Classical, a collection of shorter pieces and pop songs redone for string quartet or orchestra.

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McCartney is also a visual artist. For more than 17 years he has been a committed painter, finding in his work on canvas both a respite from the world and another outlet for his drive to create. His painting has generally been a private endeavour. In April 1999, however, he exhibited his work for the first time in Siegen, Germany, where it met with acclaim. That led to his decision to share the work in galleries across the UK. He is also a fan of animation, having released Tropic Island Hum, a CD compilation of various animation music that he has done over the years.

McCartney decided to give another genre a try and in 2001 published Blackbird Singing, a volume of poetry. Some "poems" were lyrics to past songs, while others were strictly poems. He gave readings of these works in Liverpool and New York; the selections were both serious (Here Today, about John Lennon) and humorous (Maxwell's Silver Hammer). That same year he contributed to an album titled "Good Rockin' Tonight: The Legacy Of Sun Records" that included a version of the Elvis Presley hit That's All Right Mama recorded with Presley musicians Scotty Moore and D.J. Fontana.

On 20 October 2001 McCartney took a lead role in organising the Concert for New York City, a celebration of the resilience, and pride of New York and America in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks. The concert was held at Madison Square Garden and featured performances by The Who, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, David Bowie, Billy Joel, Destiny's Child, Eric Clapton, Adam Sandler, Bon Jovi, Elton John, James Taylor and many more. McCartney was the final performer and debuted his song "Freedom."

In June 2002 McCartney married Heather Mills, a former model and anti-landmines campaigner, in a highly elaborate ceremony at Castle Leslie in Glaslough, County Monaghan, Ireland. He has joined with her to campaign against landmines, and he has donated substantial sums to the cause. In early 2003, for example, he held a personal concert for the wife of banker Ralph Whitworth and donated one million dollars to Adopt-a-Landmine. Paul and Heather's first child, Beatrice Milly, was born on October 28, 2003.

McCartney continues to release pop albums (Run Devil Run, Wingspan: Hits and History, Flaming Pie, Driving Rain), as well as campaign for the groups Greenpeace and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, among others. Paul and Linda had three children: Mary (named after Paul's late mother), Stella, and James (after Paul's late father, who died in 1976). He also adopted Heather, Linda's daughter from her previous marriage. James (born 1977) can be heard playing guitar in McCartney's latest albums. Mary is the baby inside McCartney's jacket in the back cover photograph of his first solo album. Heather is a designer, and can be seen as a young girl in the Let It Be film. Stella is an award-winning fashion designer and animal rights activist.

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In 2002 McCartney launched another major American tour, garnering strong notices for an energetic and tight supporting band and an evocative and varied show that appealed to fans of all generations. This leg became the top-grossing U.S. tour of the year, taking in over $126 million. The tour has subsequently continued around the rest of the world in 2003 and 2004.

McCartney performed during the pre-game ceremonies at the NFL's Super Bowl XXXVI on 3 February 2002 and was the halftime performer at Super Bowl XXXIX on 6 February 2005. Unlike in many previous years, he was the only performer in the entire halftime show. His set consisted of "Drive My Car", "Get Back", "Live and Let Die" and "Hey Jude." It featured an interesting stage design, fireworks, and fan-held placards.

McCartney performed at the main Live 8 concert on 2 July 2005, playing "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with U2 to open the Hyde Park event (the song choice reflecting the 20 years after Live Aid), then returning almost ten hours later to close the show with "Get Back", "Drive My Car" (sharing the vocals with George Michael), "Helter Skelter", "The Long and Winding Road", and an ensemble rendition of the refrain from "Hey Jude".

McCartney's new album, titled Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, was released in September 2005, coinciding with an anticipated U.S. tour. Longtime Radiohead collaborator Nigel Godrich, suggested to McCartney by producer George Martin, produced the album, recorded in London and Los Angeles over the past two years. McCartney was to use a backing band in the studio but later decided to play almost all the instruments himself, including drums, guitar, bass, keyboards, block flute, harmonium and flugelhorn. According to McCartney's official Web site, the 13-track album is "a mix of up-tempo piano driven McCartney instant classics such as "Fine Line" and "Promise To You Girl," and more introspective, darker tracks such as "At The Mercy", "Too Much Rain" and "Riding To Vanity Fair"." There's also "Jenny Wren", which Paul describes as "daughter of Blackbird", as well as "Follow Me", which McCartney debuted at The Glastonbury Festival, while on his '04 Summer European Tour. The album ends with a hidden instrumental track reminiscent of his work on McCartney I and II, "I've Only Got Two Hands." "Fine Line" was released as the first single on August 29 2005. "Jenny Wren" has been selected as the follow-up single. The album reached #10 and #6 at UK and US charts, respectively, and also had excellent results in countries pop charts such as France (#2) and Italy (#3).

He will release a children's book in October 2005. The book is called High in the Clouds: An Urban Furry Tail and tells the story of a frog and a squirrel who save the lives of other animals. McCartney teamed up with veteran children's book author Philip Ardagh and animator Geoff Dunbar. The picture book is to be released with a first print of 500,000 copies.

McCartney, currently 63, says he hopes to keep playing even after he is 64, a reference to the Beatles song, "When I'm Sixty-Four".

His voice remains fresh live and on record, compared with other, still-active artists from the '60s. On "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard" we hear vocals similar to those found on the Beatles albums.

Pseudonyms

Over the years McCartney has released work under a number of alter egos. This has generally been for more experimental and less commercial material. In 1967 he produced the song "I'm the Urban Spaceman" by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, but McCartney was credited as "Apollo C. Vermouth".

In 1977 he released an orchestral version of the Ram album under the name Percy 'Thrills' Thrillington. In the 1990s he collaborated with Youth of Killing Joke under the name The Fireman and released two ambient albums, Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest in 1994 and Rushes in 1998. In 2000 he released an album, Liverpool Sound Collage, with Super Furry Animals and Youth utilising the collage and musique concrete techniques which fascinated him in the mid 1960s. Most recently in 2005 he has worked on a project with bootleg producer and remixer Freelance Hellraiser, under the name Twin Freaks.

Prior to the success of the Beatles, McCartney would sometimes use the stage name Paul Ramon(e), a name that inspired the Ramones to name their band. "Paul Ramone" was his credited name as guest performer (bass and vocals) on the Steve Miller Band song "My Dark Hour".

Discography

For a detailed discography, see: Paul McCartney discography

Achievements and world records

Appears in the Guinness Book of Records several times.
- "Yesterday" listed as the most covered song in history with over 3000 existing versions
- The most successful popular-music composer and recording artist ever with sales of 100 million singles and 60 gold discs
  - Honoured by Guinness in 1979 with a unique rhodium disc, recognising this achievement
- The largest stadium audience in history when 184,000 paid to see him perform at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro in April 1990
- The fastest ticket sales in history, which took place in 1993 when 20,000 tickets for 2 shows in Sydney, Australia sold out in eight minutes
- Was involved with the fastest-released single in history; on July 2, 2005 his performance of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with U2 at Live 8 was released 45 minutes after the performance took place. (The single reached #6 on the Billboard charts just hours after the single release, and hit #1 on numerous online download charts across the world.)
The only artist to have UK number one singles as a soloist ("Pipes of Peace"), and part of a duo ("Ebony and Ivory" with Stevie Wonder), trio ("Mull of Kintyre" with Wings), quartet ("She Loves You", among many others, with The Beatles), quintet ("Get Back" The Beatles with Billy Preston) and sextet ("Let It Be" with Ferry Aid). He was also a member of charity ensemble Band Aid which had a UK number one with Do They Know It's Christmas?
"Yesterday" was confirmed as world's most popular song with over 6,000,000 airplays in the USA alone.
Received an honorary Doctorate of Music from the University of Sussex.
The first rock musician ever to receive Chile's Order of Merit for "services to music, peace, and human understanding".
First recipient of the Swedish Polar Music Prize ("Nobel Prize for music").
1998 Winner of Lifetime Achievement Award. From People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), according to another website.
Between his work with the Beatles and as a solo artist and leader of Wings, McCartney has written or co-written more than 50 Top Ten singles. When combined with the Beatles' 49 Top 40 U.S. singles, Paul McCartney is the most successful pop-music composer ever and the second greatest hitmaker, behind Elvis Presley.
Is the richest rock star in the world, with an estimated personal fortune of £762 million in 2004.
Was the only Beatle to achieve any qualifications at secondary school, doing particularly well in Art.
Made an honorary detective by the NYPD.
The only Beatle to ever have been nominated for an Academy Award in his own right.
In 1997 he was knighted (Knight Bachelor) for his services to music. He dedicated his knighthood to fellow Beatles John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr and the people of Liverpool. Aides commented that he won't be calling himself "Sir Paul"; "He's always been a modest chap and he won't be getting us all bowing and scraping," one aide said. (Harrison joked at the time that he and Starr were "already calling him 'His Lordship'".)
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 (as a solo artist).