150 Facts About Paul McCartney

Sir James Paul McCartney was born on 18 June 1942 and is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon.

Paul McCartney began his career when he joined Lennon's skiffle group, the Quarrymen, in 1957, which evolved into the Beatles in 1960.

Sometimes called "the cute Beatle", Paul McCartney later involved himself with the London avant-garde and spearheaded the incorporation of experimental aesthetics into the Beatles' studio productions.

Paul McCartney resumed his solo career in 1980 and has toured as a solo artist since 1989.

Paul McCartney has written or co-written a record 32 songs that have topped the Billboard Hot 100 and, as of 2009, had sales of 25.5 million RIAA-certified units in the US.

Paul McCartney's honours include two inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, 18 Grammy Awards, an appointment as a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1965 and a knighthood in 1997 for services to music.

Paul McCartney was born on 18 June 1942 at Walton Hospital in the Walton area of Liverpool, where his mother, Mary Patricia, had qualified to practise as a nurse.

Paul McCartney has a younger brother, Peter Michael, and a younger stepsister, Ruth, born to his father's second wife, Angie, during her first marriage.

Paul McCartney and Michael were baptised in their mother's Catholic faith, even though their father was a former Protestant who had turned agnostic.

Paul McCartney attended Stockton Wood Road Primary School in Speke from 1947 until 1949, when he transferred to Joseph Williams Junior School in Belle Vale because of overcrowding at Stockton.

On 31 October 1956, when Paul McCartney was 14, his mother died of an embolism as a complication of surgery for breast cancer.

Paul McCartney's father was a trumpet player and pianist who led Jim Mac's Jazz Band in the 1920s.

Paul McCartney kept an upright piano in the front room, encouraged his sons to be musical and advised McCartney to take piano lessons.

When Paul McCartney was 11, his father encouraged him to audition for the Liverpool Cathedral choir, but he was not accepted.

Paul McCartney then joined the choir at St Barnabas' Church, Mossley Hill.

Paul McCartney found it difficult to play guitar right-handed, but after noticing a poster advertising a Slim Whitman concert and realising that Whitman played left-handed, he reversed the order of the strings.

Paul McCartney wrote his first song, "I Lost My Little Girl", on the Zenith, and composed another early tune that would become "When I'm Sixty-Four" on the piano.

American rhythm and blues influenced him, and Little Richard was his schoolboy idol; "Long Tall Sally" was the first song Paul McCartney performed in public, at a Butlin's Filey holiday camp talent competition.

At the age of fifteen on 6 July 1957, Paul McCartney met John Lennon and his band, the Quarrymen, at the St Peter's Church Hall fete in Woolton.

In 1961, Sutcliffe left the band, and Paul McCartney became their bass player.

Later that year, during recording sessions for the album Rubber Soul, Paul McCartney began to supplant Lennon as the dominant musical force in the band.

Paul McCartney pressed them to start a new project, which became Sgt.

Paul McCartney was inspired to create a new persona for the group, to serve as a vehicle for experimentation and to demonstrate to their fans that they had musically matured.

Paul McCartney invented the fictional band of the album's title track.

Paul McCartney stepped in to fill that void and gradually became the de facto leader and business manager of the group that Lennon had once led.

Paul McCartney largely directed the film, which brought the group their first unfavourable critical response.

In March 1969, Paul McCartney married his first wife, Linda Eastman, and in August, the couple had their first child, Mary, named after his late mother.

In October 1969, a rumour surfaced that McCartney had died in a car crash in 1966 and was replaced by a lookalike, but this was quickly refuted when a November Life magazine cover featured him and his family, accompanied by the caption "Paul is still with us".

Paul McCartney was in the midst of business disagreements with his bandmates, largely concerning Allen Klein's management of the group, when he announced his own departure from the group on 10 April 1970.

Paul McCartney filed a suit for the band's formal dissolution on 31 December 1970, and in March 1971 the court appointed a receiver to oversee the finances of the Beatles' company Apple Corps.

Paul McCartney's wife helped him pull out of that condition by praising his work as a songwriter and convincing him to continue writing and recording.

In 1970, Paul McCartney continued his musical career with his first solo release, Paul McCartney, a US number-one album.

Apart from some vocal contributions from Linda, Paul McCartney is a one-man album, with Paul McCartney providing compositions, instrumentation and vocals.

Paul McCartney wanted the tour to avoid large venues; most of the small halls they played had capacities of fewer than 3,000 people.

In 1974, Paul McCartney hired guitarist Jimmy McCulloch and drummer Geoff Britton to replace McCullough and Seiwell.

Critical reception was unfavourable, and Paul McCartney expressed disappointment with the album.

In 1982, Paul McCartney collaborated with Stevie Wonder on the Martin-produced number-one hit "Ebony and Ivory", included on Paul McCartney's Tug of War LP, and with Michael Jackson on "The Girl Is Mine" from Thriller.

Paul McCartney earned his latest UK number one as of 2014 with the title track of his LP release that year, "Pipes of Peace".

In 1984, Paul McCartney starred in the musical Give My Regards to Broad Street, a feature film he wrote and produced which included Starr in an acting role.

In 1985, Warner Brothers commissioned Paul McCartney to write a song for the comedic feature film Spies Like Us.

Paul McCartney composed and recorded the track in four days, with Phil Ramone co-producing.

Paul McCartney participated in Live Aid, performing "Let it Be", but technical difficulties rendered his vocals and piano barely audible for the first two verses, punctuated by squeals of feedback.

Paul McCartney collaborated with Eric Stewart on Press to Play, with Stewart co-writing more than half the songs on the LP.

Paul McCartney ventured into orchestral music in 1991 when the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society commissioned a musical piece by him to celebrate its sesquicentennial.

Paul McCartney collaborated with composer Carl Davis, producing Liverpool Oratorio.

In 1991, Paul McCartney performed a selection of acoustic-only songs on MTV Unplugged and released a live album of the performance titled Unplugged.

Paul McCartney released the rock album Off the Ground in 1993.

The subsequent New World Tour followed, which led to the release of the Paul McCartney Is Live album later that year.

Paul McCartney recorded a radio series called Oobu Joobu in 1995 for the American network Westwood One, which he described as "widescreen radio".

Paul McCartney had been planning such an album for years, having been previously encouraged to do so by Linda, who had died of cancer in April 1998.

Paul McCartney did an unannounced performance at the benefit tribute, "Concert for Linda", his wife of 29 years who died a year earlier.

Paul McCartney contributed the song "Nova" to a tribute album of classical, choral music called A Garland for Linda, dedicated to his late wife.

The group continues to play together; Paul McCartney has played live with Ray, Anderson, Laboriel, and Wickens longer than he played live with the Beatles or Wings.

Paul McCartney's crest, featuring a Liver bird holding an acoustic guitar in its claw, reflects his background in Liverpool and his musical career.

In 2006, Paul McCartney released the classical work Ecce Cor Meum.

Paul McCartney's enduring fame has made him a popular choice to open new venues.

In 2010, Paul McCartney opened the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; it was his first concert in Pittsburgh since 1990 due to the old Civic Arena being deemed unsuitable for Paul McCartney's logistical needs.

In July 2011, Paul McCartney performed at two sold-out concerts at the new Yankee Stadium.

Paul McCartney was commissioned by the New York City Ballet, and in September 2011, he released his first score for dance, a collaboration with Peter Martins called Ocean's Kingdom.

Paul McCartney released Kisses on the Bottom, a collection of standards, in February 2012, the same month that the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences honoured him as the MusiCares Person of the Year, two days prior to his performance at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards.

In June 2012, Paul McCartney closed Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee Concert held outside Buckingham Palace, performing a set that included "Let It Be" and "Live and Let Die".

Paul McCartney closed the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London on 27 July, singing "The End" and "Hey Jude" and inviting the audience to join in on the coda.

On 28 August 2013, Paul McCartney released the title track of his upcoming studio album New, which came out in October 2013.

In May 2014, Paul McCartney cancelled a sold-out tour of Japan and postponed a US tour to October due to begin that month after he contracted a virus.

Paul McCartney resumed the tour with a high-energy three-hour appearance in Albany, New York on 5 July 2014.

On 14 August 2014, Paul McCartney performed in the final concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California before its demolition; this was the same venue at which the Beatles played their final concert in 1966.

In 2014, Paul McCartney wrote and performed "Hope for the Future", the ending song for the video game Destiny.

In November 2014, a 42-song tribute album titled The Art of Paul McCartney was released, which features a wide range of artists covering Paul McCartney's solo and Beatles work.

In January 2015, Paul McCartney collaborated with West and Barbadian singer Rihanna on the single "FourFiveSeconds".

Paul McCartney featured on West's 2015 single "All Day", which features Theophilus London and Allan Kingdom.

Paul McCartney shared lead vocals on the Alice Cooper-led Hollywood Vampires supergroup's cover of his song "Come and Get It", which appears on their debut album, released on 11 September 2015.

On 10 June 2016, Paul McCartney released the career-spanning collection Pure Paul McCartney.

Paul McCartney appeared in the 2017 adventure film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, in a cameo role as Uncle Jack.

On 20 June 2018, Paul McCartney released "I Don't Know" and "Come On to Me" from his album Egypt Station, which was released on 7 September through Capitol Records.

On 26 July 2018, Paul McCartney played at The Cavern Club, with his regular band of Anderson, Ray, Wickens and Abe Laboriel Jr.

An album of "reinterpretations, remixes, and covers" titled Paul McCartney III Imagined was released on 16 April 2021.

Paul McCartney's "Got Back" tour ran from 28 April 2022 to 16 June 2022 in the United States, his first in the country since 2019.

The tour concluded on 25 June 2022 when Paul McCartney headlined Glastonbury Festival, a week after his 80th birthday.

Paul McCartney called Little Richard an idol, whose falsetto vocalisations inspired Paul McCartney's own vocal technique.

Paul McCartney said he wrote "I'm Down" as a vehicle for his Little Richard impersonation.

In 1971, Paul McCartney bought the publishing rights to Holly's catalogue, and in 1976, on the fortieth anniversary of Holly's birth, Paul McCartney inaugurated the annual "Buddy Holly Week" in England.

Best known for primarily using a plectrum or pick, Paul McCartney occasionally plays fingerstyle.

Paul McCartney was strongly influenced by Motown artists, in particular James Jamerson, whom McCartney called a hero for his melodic style.

Paul McCartney was influenced by Brian Wilson, as he commented: "because he went to very unusual places".

Paul McCartney changed back to the Hofner around 1990 for that reason.

Paul McCartney uses Mesa Boogie bass amplifiers while performing live.

MacDonald identified "She's a Woman" as the turning point when Paul McCartney's bass playing began to evolve dramatically, and Beatles biographer Chris Ingham singled out Rubber Soul as the moment when Paul McCartney's playing exhibited significant progress, particularly on "The Word".

Paul McCartney played an Epiphone Texan on many of his acoustic recordings, but used a Martin D-28.

Paul McCartney played lead guitar on several Beatles recordings, including what MacDonald described as a "fiercely angular slide guitar solo" on "Drive My Car", which Paul McCartney played on an Epiphone Casino.

Paul McCartney has retained that original guitar to the present day.

Paul McCartney has primarily used a Gibson Les Paul for electric work, particularly during live performances.

Paul McCartney owns a rare Ampeg Dan Armstrong Plexi guitar, the only left handed one known to be in existence, which appeared in the Wings video for "Helen Wheels".

Paul McCartney is known for his belting power, versatility and wide tenor vocal range, spanning over four octaves.

Paul McCartney was ranked the 11th greatest singer of all time by Rolling Stone, voted the 8th greatest singer ever by NME readers and number 10 by Music Radar readers in the list of "the 30 greatest lead singers of all time".

Paul McCartney's vocals have crossed several music genres throughout his career.

Paul McCartney teasingly tried out classical singing, namely singing various renditions of "Besame Mucho" with the Beatles.

Paul McCartney continued experimenting with various musical and vocal styles throughout his post-Beatles career.

Paul McCartney played a Moog synthesiser on the Beatles song "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and the Wings track "Loup ".

Paul McCartney played all the drum parts on his albums McCartney, McCartney II and McCartney III, as well as on Wings' Band on the Run, and most of the drums on his solo LP Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.

Heavily influenced by American avant-garde musician John Cage, Paul McCartney made tape loops by recording voices, guitars and bongos on a Brenell tape recorder and splicing the various loops.

Paul McCartney referred to the finished product as "electronic symphonies".

Paul McCartney reversed the tapes, sped them up, and slowed them down to create the desired effects, some of which the Beatles later used on the songs "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "The Fool on the Hill".

Paul McCartney later purchased works by Magritte, whose painting of an apple had inspired the Apple Records logo.

Paul McCartney became involved in the renovation and publicising of the Indica Gallery in Mason's Yard, London, which Barry Miles had co-founded and where Lennon first met Yoko Ono.

Miles co-founded International Times, an underground paper that Paul McCartney helped to start with direct financial support and by providing interviews to attract advertiser income.

Paul McCartney became interested in painting after watching artist Willem de Kooning work in de Kooning's Long Island studio.

Paul McCartney took up painting in 1983, and he first exhibited his work in Siegen, Germany, in 1999.

In September 2000, the first UK exhibition of Paul McCartney's paintings opened, featuring 500 canvases at the Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol, England.

In October 2000, Paul McCartney's art debuted in his hometown of Liverpool.

Paul McCartney is lead patron of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, a school in the building formerly occupied by the Liverpool Institute for Boys.

When Paul McCartney was a child, his mother read him poems and encouraged him to read books.

Paul McCartney's father invited Paul and his brother Michael to solve crosswords with him, to increase their "word power", as McCartney said.

In 2001, Paul McCartney published Blackbird Singing, a volume of poems and lyrics to his songs for which he gave readings in Liverpool and New York City.

In 1981, Paul McCartney asked Geoff Dunbar to direct a short animated film called Rupert and the Frog Song; Paul McCartney was the writer and producer, and he added some of the character voices.

Paul McCartney produced and hosted The Real Buddy Holly Story, a 1985 documentary featuring interviews with Keith Richards, Phil and Don Everly, the Holly family, and others.

Paul McCartney signed his first recording contract, as a member of the Beatles, with Parlophone Records, an EMI subsidiary, in June 1962.

Paul McCartney returned to Capitol in the US in 1985, remaining with EMI until 2006.

In 2007, Paul McCartney signed with Hear Music, becoming the label's first artist.

In 1972, Paul McCartney re-signed with ATV for seven years in a joint publishing agreement between ATV and Paul McCartney Music.

Paul McCartney has criticised Jackson's purchase and handling of Northern Songs over the years.

Paul McCartney acquired their publishing rights from Ardmore in 1978, and they are the only two Beatles songs owned by MPL Communications.

Paul McCartney first used drugs in the Beatles' Hamburg days when they often used Preludin to maintain their energy while performing for long periods.

Bob Dylan introduced them to marijuana in a New York hotel room in 1964; Paul McCartney recalls getting "very high" and "giggling uncontrollably".

In 1984, while Paul McCartney was on holiday in Barbados, authorities arrested him for possession of marijuana and fined him $200.

Paul McCartney is a supporter of the animal-rights organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Paul McCartney has appeared in the group's campaigns, and in 2009, McCartney narrated a video for them titled "Glass Walls", which was harshly critical of slaughterhouses, the meat industry, and their effect on animal welfare.

Paul McCartney has supported campaigns headed by the Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society International, World Animal Protection, and the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation.

Paul McCartney has participated in several charity recordings and performances, including the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea, Ferry Aid, Band Aid, Live Aid, Live 8, and the recording of "Ferry Cross the Mersey".

In 2009, Paul McCartney wrote to Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, asking him why he was not a vegetarian.

In 2012, Paul McCartney joined the anti-fracking campaign Artists Against Fracking.

Paul McCartney expressed concern over both the health impacts of the practice as well as its cruelty to animals.

Paul McCartney is one of the 100 contributors to the book Dear NHS: 100 Stories to Say Thank You, of which all proceeds go to NHS Charities Together and The Lullaby Trust.

Paul McCartney often chose clothes and makeup for her, encouraging her to grow her blonde hair to simulate Brigitte Bardot's hairstyle, and at least once insisting she have her hair restyled, to disappointing effect.

When Paul McCartney first went to Hamburg with the Beatles, he wrote to Rhone regularly, and she accompanied Cynthia Lennon to Hamburg when they played there again in 1962.

Paul McCartney first met British actress Jane Asher on 18 April 1963 when a photographer asked them to pose at a Beatles performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Paul McCartney became a popular photographer with several rock groups, including the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Grateful Dead, the Doors and the Beatles, whom she first met at Shea Stadium in 1966.

Paul McCartney looked so beautiful that I made up my mind I would have to pick him up.

In 2002, Paul McCartney married Heather Mills, a former model and anti-landmine campaigner.

Paul McCartney married New Yorker Nancy Shevell in a civil ceremony at Marylebone Town Hall, London, on 9 October 2011.

Paul McCartney is a former member of the board of the New York area's Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Paul McCartney often phoned Lennon, but was apprehensive about the reception he would receive.

On 9 December 1980, Paul McCartney followed the news that Lennon had been murdered the previous night; Lennon's death created a media frenzy around the surviving members of the band.

Paul McCartney was leaving an Oxford Street recording studio that evening when he was surrounded by reporters who asked him for his reaction; he responded: "It's a drag".

Paul McCartney told Mojo magazine in 2002 that Lennon was his greatest hero.

In 1981, Paul McCartney sang backup on Harrison's tribute to Lennon, "All Those Years Ago", which featured Starr on drums.

Paul McCartney released "Here Today" in 1982, a song Everett described as "a haunting tribute" to Paul McCartney's friendship with Lennon.

Paul McCartney played a kazoo solo on "You're Sixteen" from the same album.

Paul McCartney played bass on "Peace Dream", and sang a duet with Starr on "Walk with You".

Paul McCartney inducted Starr into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2015, and played bass on his 2017 album Give More Love.

Paul McCartney was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 as a member of the Beatles and again as a solo artist in 1999.