Paul McCartney

Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE ^{Order of the British Empire}

  McCartney was born in Walton Hospital in Liverpool England where his mother, Mary (née Mohan), had worked as a nurse in the maternity ward. He has one brother, Michael ^{Mike McCartney} , born 7 January 1944. McCartney was baptised Roman Catholic but was raised non-denominationally: his mother was Roman Catholic and his father James, or "Jim" McCartney, was a Protestant turned agnostic.

In 1947 he began attending Stockton Wood Road Primary school. He then attended the Joseph Williams Junior School and passed the 11-plus exam in 1953 with three others out of the 90 examinees, thus gaining admission to the Liverpool Institute. In 1954 while taking the bus from his home in the suburb of Speke to the Institute, he met George Harrison, who lived nearby. Passing the exam meant that McCartney and Harrison could go to a Grammar school rather than a secondary modern school, which the majority of pupils attended until they were eligible to work, but as Grammar school pupils they had to find new friends.

now attracts large numbers of tourists |alt=Exterior of a two-story brick building, with a hedge in front of it. Six windows are visible, three on each level, as are two doorways on the lower level.
In 1955, the McCartney family moved to 20 Forthlin Road in Allerton ^{Allerton, Merseyside} . Mary McCartney rode a bicycle to houses where she was needed as a midwife, and an early McCartney memory is of her leaving when it was snowing heavily. On 31 October 1956, Mary McCartney, a heavy smoker, died of an embolism after a mastectomy operation to stop the spread of her breast cancer. The early loss of his mother later connected McCartney with John Lennon, whose mother Julia ^{Julia Lennon} died after being struck by a car when Lennon was 17.

McCartney's father was a trumpet player and pianist who had led Jim Mac's Jazz Band in the 1920s and encouraged his two sons to be musical. Jim had an upright piano in the front room that he had bought from Brian Epstein's store. McCartney's grandfather, Joe McCartney, played an E-flat tuba. Jim McCartney used to point out the different instruments in songs on the radio, and often took McCartney to local brass band concerts. McCartney's father gave him a nickel-plated trumpet, but when skiffle music became popular, McCartney swapped the trumpet for a £15 Framus Zenith (model 17) acoustic guitar ^{Steel-string guitar} . As he was left-handed, McCartney found right-handed guitars difficult to play, but when he saw a poster advertising a Slim Whitman concert, he realised that Whitman played left-handed with his guitar strung the opposite way to a right-handed player. McCartney wrote his first song ("I Lost My Little Girl") on the Zenith, and also played his father's Framus Spanish guitar when writing early songs with Lennon. He later learned to play the piano and wrote his second song, "When I'm Sixty-Four". On his father's advice, he took music lessons, but since he preferred to learn 'by ear' he never paid much attention to them.

McCartney was heavily influenced by American Rhythm and Blues music. He has stated that Little Richard was his idol when he was in school and that the first song he ever sang in public was "Long Tall Sally", at a Butlins holiday camp talent competition.
1957 / 1960


At the age of 15, McCartney met John Lennon and The Quarrymen at the St. Peter's Church Hall fête in Woolton on 6 July 1957. He formed a close working relationship with Lennon and they collaborated on many songs. Harrison joined the group as lead guitarist, followed by Lennon's art school friend, Stuart Sutcliffe, on bass, and Pete Best on the drums. By May 1960, they had tried several new names, including "Johnny and The Moondogs", "The Nerk Twins", and "The Silver Beetles", playing a tour of Scotland under that name with Johnny Gentle ^{Larry Parnes} . They finally changed the name of the group to The Beatles.


1960 / 1970: The Beatles


From May 1960, The Beatles were booked by Allan Williams, to perform at a club in Hamburg. For the next two years, The Beatles remained in Hamburg ^{The Beatles in Hamburg} for much of the time, performing as a resident group in a number of Hamburg clubs. During their two-year Hamburg residency they returned to Liverpool from time to time, performing at the Cavern club. Prior to the end of the residency, Sutcliffe left the band, so McCartney, reluctantly, became The Beatles' bass player. The Beatles recorded their first published musical material in Hamburg, performing as the backing group for Tony Sheridan on the single "My Bonnie". This recording later brought The Beatles to the attention of a key figure in their subsequent development and commercial success, Brian Epstein, who became their next manager. Epstein eventually negotiated a record contract for the group with Parlophone in May 1962. After replacing Best with Ringo Starr on drums, The Beatles became popular in the UK in 1963 ^{Beatlemania in the United Kingdom} and in the US in 1964 ^{The Beatles in the United States} . In 1965, they were each appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire ^{Order of the British Empire} (MBE). After performing concerts, plays, and tours almost non-stop for a period of nearly four years, and giving more than one thousand four hundred live performances internationally, The Beatles gave their last commercial concert at the end of their 1966 US tour. They continued to work in the recording studio from 1966 until their breakup in 1970. In the eight years from 1962 to 1970, the group had released twenty-four UK singles and twelve studio albums, along with further US releases (see discography ^#Discography ).


Since 1970



After the breakup of The Beatles ^{The Beatles' breakup} , McCartney continued his musical career, in solo work as well as in collaborations with other musicians. After releasing his solo album McCartney ^{McCartney (album)} in 1970, he worked with Linda McCartney to record the album Ram ^{Ram (album)} in 1971. Later the same year, the pair were joined by guitarist Denny Laine and drummer Denny Seiwell to form the group Wings ^{Wings (band)} , which was active between 1971 and 1981 and released numerous successful singles and albums (see discography ^#Discography ). McCartney also collaborated with a number of other popular artists including Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Eric Stewart, and Elvis Costello. In 1985, McCartney played "Let It Be" at the Live Aid concert in London, backed by Bob Geldof, Pete Townshend, David Bowie, and Alison Moyet. The 1990s saw McCartney venture into orchestral music, and in 1991 the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society commissioned a musical piece by McCartney to celebrate its sesquicentennial. He collaborated with Carl Davis to release Liverpool Oratorio; involving the opera singers Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Sally Burgess, Jerry Hadley and Willard White, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the choir of Liverpool Cathedral. The Prince of Wales later honoured McCartney as a Fellow of The Royal College of Music and Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music (2008). Other forays into classical music included Standing Stone ^{Standing Stone (McCartney)} (1997), Working Classical (1999), and Ecce Cor Meum (2006). It was announced in the 1997 New Year Honours that McCartney was to be knighted ^{Knight Bachelor} for services to music, becoming Sir Paul McCartney. In 1999, McCartney was inducted ^{List of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees#Performers} into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist and in May 2000, he was awarded a Fellowship by the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters. The 1990s also saw McCartney, Harrison and Starr working together on Apple's ^{Apple Corps} The Beatles Anthology documentary series.

Having witnessed the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks from the JFK airport tarmac, McCartney took a lead role in organising The Concert for New York City.

In November 2002, on the first anniversary of George Harrison's death, McCartney performed at the Concert for George. He has also participated in the National Football League's Super Bowl, performing in the pre-game show for Super Bowl ***VI and headlining the halftime show at Super Bowl ***IX.

in 2009.
McCartney has continued to work in the realms of popular and classical music, touring the world and performing at a large number of concerts and events; on more than one occasion he has performed again with Ringo Starr. In 2008, he received a BRIT award ^{The BRIT Awards} for Outstanding Contribution to Music and an honorary degree, Doctor of Music, from Yale University. The same year, he performed at a concert in Liverpool to celebrate the city's year as European Capital of Culture. In 2009, he received two nominations for the 51st annual Grammy awards, while in October of the same year he was named songwriter of the year at The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Awards.

On 15 July 2009, more than 45 years after The Beatles first appeared on American television on The Ed Sullivan Show, McCartney returned to the Ed Sullivan Theater and performed atop the marquee of Late Show with David Letterman.

On 13 December 2009, McCartney performed the final songs of the UK's X Factor ^{The X Factor (UK)} talent show. Following his rendition of "Live and Let Die", Simon Cowell quipped, "on behalf of all of us, you're through to the next round."

McCartney was portrayed in the 2009 film Nowhere Boy, about Lennon's teenage years, by Thomas Sangster.During the 1960s, McCartney was often seen at major cultural events, such as the launch party for The International Times and at The Roundhouse (28 January and 4 February 1967 respectively). He also delved into the visual arts, becoming a close friend of leading art dealers and gallery owners, explored experimental film, and regularly attended movie, theatrical and classical music performances.
His first contact with the London avant-garde scene was through John Dunbar, who introduced him to the art dealer Robert Fraser, who in turn introduced McCartney to an array of writers and artists. McCartney later became involved in the renovation and publicising of the Indica Gallery in Mason's Yard, London—John Lennon first met Yoko Ono at the Indica. The Indica Gallery brought McCartney into contact with Barry Miles, whose underground newspaper, The International Times, McCartney helped to start. Miles would become de facto manager of the Apple's short-lived Zapple Records label, and wrote McCartney's official biography, Many Years From Now (1997).

While living at the Asher house, McCartney took piano lessons at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, which The Beatles' producer Martin had previously attended. McCartney studied composers like Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Luciano Berio. McCartney later wrote and released several pieces of modern classical music and ambient electronica, besides writing poetry and painting. McCartney is lead patron of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, an arts school in the building formerly occupied by the Liverpool Institute for Boys. The 1837 building, which McCartney attended during his schooldays, had become derelict by the mid-1980s. for the American network Westwood One, which he described as being "wide-screen radio". During the 1990s, McCartney collaborated with Youth ^{Martin Glover} of Killing Joke under the name of the Fireman ^{The Fireman (music)} , and released two ambient electronic ^{ambient music} albums: Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest (1993) and Rushes ^{Rushes (album)} (1998). In 2000, he released an album titled Liverpool Sound Collage with Super Furry Animals and Youth, utilising the sound collage and musique concrete techniques that fascinated him in the mid-1960s. In 2005, he worked on a project with bootleg ^{Bastard pop} producer and remixer Freelance Hellraiser, consisting of remixed versions of songs from throughout his solo career which were released under the title Twin Freaks. The Fireman's third album Electric Arguments was released on 25 November 2008.

In January 2009 interview with L.A. Weekly newspaper, McCartney explained what he saw as the most significant difference between the music he creates as The Fireman and the rest of his catalogue. "Fireman is improvisational theatre", McCartney said. "When I sit down to write a song, it's a kind of improvisation, but I formalise it a bit to get it into the studio, and when I step up to a microphone, I have a vague idea of what I’m about to do. I usually have a song, and I know the melody and lyrics, and my performance is the only unknown. In this case, I had neither lyrics nor melody to go on—and it felt great."


Film


McCartney was interested in animated films as a child, and later had the financial resources to ask Geoff Dunbar to direct a short animated ^animation film called Rupert and the Frog Song, in 1981. McCartney was the producer, he wrote the music and the script, and also added some of the characters voices. McCartney wrote and starred in the 1984 film Give My Regards to Broad Street. The film and soundtrack featured the popular hit "No More Lonely Nights", and the album reached #1 in the UK, but the film did not do well commercially or critically. Roger Ebert awarded the film a single star and wrote, "You can safely skip the movie and proceed directly to the sound track". Dunbar worked again with McCartney on an animated film about the work of French artist Honoré Daumier, in 1992, which won both of them a Bafta award. They also worked on Tropic Island Hum, in 1997. In 1995, McCartney directed a short documentary about The Grateful Dead.

In May 2000, McCartney released Wingspan: An Intimate Portrait ^{Wingspan: Hits and History} , a retrospective documentary that features behind-the-scenes films and photographs that Paul and Linda McCartney (who had died in 1998) took of their family and bands. Interspersed throughout the 88 minute film is an interview by Mary McCartney with her father. Mary was the baby photographed inside McCartney's jacket on the back cover of his first solo album, McCartney ^{McCartney (album)} , and was one of the producers of the documentary.


Painting


In 1966, McCartney met art gallery-owner Robert Fraser, whose flat was visited by many well-known artists. McCartney met Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Peter Blake ^{Peter Blake (artist)} , and Richard Hamilton ^{Richard Hamilton (artist)} there, and learned about art appreciation. McCartney later started buying paintings by Magritte, and used Magritte's painting of an apple for the Apple Records logo. He now owns Magritte's easel and spectacles.

McCartney's love of painting surfaced after watching artist Willem de Kooning paint, in Kooning's Long Island studio. McCartney took up painting in 1983. In 1999, he exhibited his paintings (featuring McCartney's portraits of John Lennon, Andy Warhol, and David Bowie) for the first time in Siegen, Germany, and included photographs by Linda ^{Linda McCartney} . He chose the gallery because Wolfgang Suttner (local events organiser) was genuinely interested in his art, and the positive reaction led to McCartney showing his work in UK galleries. The first UK exhibition of McCartney's work was opened in Bristol, England with more than 500 paintings on display. McCartney had previously believed that "only people that had been to art school were allowed to paint"—as Lennon had.

As an artist, Paul McCartney designed a series of six postage stamps issued by the Isle of Man Post on 1 July 2002. According to BBC News, McCartney seems to be the first major rock star in the world who is also known as a stamp designer.


Writing and poetry


, in 1946 |alt=Black-and-white profile picture of a man in his early twenties, wearing a suit and tie.
When McCartney was young, his mother read him poems and encouraged him to read books. McCartney's father was interested in crosswords and invited the two young McCartneys (Paul and his brother Michael) to solve them with him, so as to increase their "word power". McCartney was later inspired—in his school years—by Alan Durband, who was McCartney's English literature teacher at the Liverpool Institute. Durband was a co-founder and fund-raiser at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, where Willy Russell also worked, and introduced McCartney to Geoffrey Chaucer's ^Chaucer works. McCartney later took his A-level ^{Advanced Level (UK)} exams, but passed only one subject—Art.

In 2001 McCartney published 'Blackbird Singing', a volume of poems, some of which were lyrics to his songs, and gave readings in Liverpool and New York City. Some of them were serious: "Here Today" (about Lennon) and some humorous ("Maxwell's Silver Hammer"). In the foreword of the book, McCartney explained that when he was a teenager, he had "an overwhelming desire" to have a poem of his published in the school magazine. He wrote something "deep and meaningful", but it was rejected, and he feels that he has been trying to get some kind of revenge ever since. His first "real poem" was about the death of his childhood friend, Ivan Vaughan. McCartney collaborated with author Philip Ardagh and animator Geoff Dunbar to write the book.
John Lennon


Although McCartney's relationship with John Lennon was troubled, they became close again briefly in 1974 and even played together for the only time since the Beatles split (see A Toot and a Snore in '74). In later years, the two grew apart again. McCartney would often call Lennon, but was never sure of what sort of reception he would get, such as when McCartney once called Lennon and was told, "You're all pizza and fairytales!" McCartney understood that he could not just phone Lennon and only talk about business, so they often talked about cats, baking bread, or babies. According to May Pang, during Lennon's "Lost Weekend" with her they planned to visit McCartney in New Orleans, where McCartney was recording the Venus and Mars album, but Lennon went back to Ono the day before the planned visit after Ono said she had a new cure for Lennon's smoking habit.

In a Playboy interview in 1984, McCartney said that he went home that night and watched the news on television—while sitting with all his children—and cried all evening.

McCartney carried on recording after the death of Lennon but did not play any live concerts for some time. He explained that this was because he was nervous that he would be "the next" to be murdered. This led to a disagreement with Denny Laine, who wanted to continue touring and subsequently left Wings, which McCartney disbanded in 1981. Also in June 1981, six months after Lennon's death, McCartney sang backup on George Harrison's tribute to Lennon, "All Those Years Ago", which also featured Ringo Starr on drums. McCartney would go on to record "Here Today", a tribute song to Lennon.


George Harrison



In 1977, Harrison had this to say about working with McCartney:


While being interviewed circa 1988, Harrison said McCartney had recently mentioned the possibility of he and Harrison writing together, to which Harrison laughed, "I've only been there about 30 years in Paul's life and it's like now he wants to write with me."

In September 1980, John Lennon had this to say about Harrison and McCartney's working relationship:


In late 2001, McCartney learned that his former classmate, neighbour and bandmate, and friend of over 45 years, George Harrison, was losing his battle with cancer. Upon Harrison's death on 29 November, McCartney told Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, Extra ^{Extra (TV series)} , Good Morning America, The Early Show, MTV, VH1 and Today ^{Today (NBC program)} that George was like his "baby brother". Harrison spent his last days in a Hollywood Hills mansion that was once leased by McCartney.

On 29 November 2001, the day Harrison died, McCartney said "George was a fantastic guy...still laughing and joking...a very brave man...and I love him like...he's my brother."

While guesting on Larry King Live alongside Ringo Starr, McCartney had this to say about the last time he saw Harrison; "We just sat there stroking hands. And this is a guy, and, you know, you don't stroke hands with guys, like that, you know it was just beautiful. We just spent a couple of hours and it was really lovely it's was like...a favourite memory of mine."

On the first anniversary of George Harrison's death, McCartney played Harrison's "Something" on a ukulele at the Concert for George.
Dot Rhone

One of McCartney's first girlfriends, in 1959, was called Layla, a name he remembers being unusual in Liverpool at the time. Layla was slightly older than McCartney and used to ask him to baby-sit ^Babysitting with her. Julie Arthur, another girlfriend, was Ted Ray ^{Ted Ray (comedian)} 's niece. McCartney's first serious girlfriend in Liverpool was Dot Rhone, whom he met at the Casbah club ^{The Casbah Coffee Club} in 1959. McCartney chose clothes and make-up for Rhone, and he paid for her to have her hair styled like Brigitte Bardot's. When McCartney first went to Hamburg with The Beatles, he wrote regularly, and she accompanied Cynthia Lennon to Hamburg when The Beatles played there again in 1962. The couple had a three-year relationship, and were due to marry until Rhone lost the baby she was expecting.


Jane Asher

McCartney first met the British actress Jane Asher on 18 April 1963, when a photographer asked them to pose together at a Beatles' performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The two began a relationship and McCartney took up residence with Asher at her parents' house at 57 Wimpole Street London, where he lived for nearly three years before the couple moved to McCartney's own house in St. John's Wood. McCartney wrote several songs while at the Ashers', including "Yesterday ^{Yesterday (song)} " and several inspired by Asher, among them "And I Love Her", "You Won't See Me", and "I'm Looking Through You". McCartney and Asher had a five-year relationship, and they planned to marry, but Asher broke off the engagement when she discovered McCartney had become involved with another woman, Francie Schwartz.


Linda McCartney

In 1969, McCartney married American photographer Linda Eastman ^{Linda McCartney} , whom he described as the woman who gave him "the strength and courage to work again" after the breakup of The Beatles. The pair had met previously at a 1967 Georgie Fame concert at The Bag O'Nails club, during her UK assignment to take photographs of "Swinging Sixties" musicians in London. Paul and Linda were both vegetarian and supported the animal rights organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. They had four children; Linda's daughter Heather ^{Heather McCartney} (who was adopted by Paul), Mary ^{Mary McCartney} , Stella ^{Stella McCartney} and James ^{James McCartney} ) and remained married until Linda's death from breast cancer in 1998.


Heather Mills

In 2002, McCartney married Heather Mills, a former model and anti-landmines ^{land mine} campaigner. The couple had a child, Beatrice, in 2003. They separated in May 2006 and were divorced in May 2008.


Nancy Shevell

McCartney has been dating Nancy Shevell since November, 2007. She is a member of the board of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority ^{Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York)} as well as vice president of a family-owned transportation conglomerate which includes New England Motor Freight.
Recreational drug use


McCartney's introduction to drugs started in Hamburg, Germany.


Football

The Beatles were advised by Epstein to make no comments about the football clubs they supported because it could alienate some fans, though it was well known that McCartney was a supporter of Everton Football Club ^{Everton F.C.} , and that his father and relatives used to take him to matches. His allegiance later shifted to Liverpool F.C., as on 28 July 1968, The Beatles were photographed in a photographer's studio at 192-212 Gray's Inn Road, with McCartney wearing a Liverpool F.C. rosette ^{Rosette (decoration)} . Linda McCartney later said: "We spent last night listening to Liverpool football team on the radio, wanting them to win so badly. Paul supports Liverpool. He was Everton for a while because of his family - but it's all Liverpool now."

Lennon and McCartney were present to watch the 1966 FA Cup Final at Wembley ^{Wembley Stadium (1923)} , between Everton and Sheffield Wednesday, and McCartney attended the 1968 FA Cup Final (18 May 1968) which was played by West Bromwich Albion against Everton. After the end of the match, McCartney shared cigarettes and whisky with other football fans.

At the end of the live version of Coming Up ^{Coming Up (song)} recorded in Glasgow in 1979 (later to become a US number one single) the crowd begins to sing "Paul McCartney!" until McCartney takes over and changes the chant to "Kenny Dalglish!", referring to the current Liverpool and Scotland striker. At the same concert, Gordon Smith ^{Gordon Smith (footballer born 1954)} , former football ^{football (soccer)} player who played for Rangers ^{Rangers F.C.} and Brighton & Hove Albion ^{Brighton & Hove Albion F.C.} , met the McCartneys, and later accepted an invitation to visit their home in East Sus***, in 1980. Smith later said that McCartney was "thrilled I knew Kenny Dalglish", to which Linda added: "I like Gordon McQueen of Man United", and Smith replied, "I know him too."

McCartney attended the 1986 FA Cup Final between Liverpool and Everton, McCartney performed at the Liverpool F.C. Anfield stadium on 1 June 2008, as a part of Liverpool's European Capital of Culture year. Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters sang with McCartney on Band on the Run, and played drums on Back in the USSR. Ono and Olivia Harrison attended the concert, along with Ken Dodd, and the Liverpool F.C. football manager Rafael Benítez.

In an interview in interview in 2008, McCartney ended speculation about his allegiance when he said:

"Here's the deal: my father was born in Everton, my family are officially Evertonians, so if it comes down to a derby match or an FA Cup final between the two, I would have to support Everton. But after a concert at Wembley Arena I got a bit of a friendship with Kenny Dalglish, who had been to the gig and I thought 'You know what? I am just going to support them both because it's all Liverpool and I don't have that Catholic-Protestant thing.' So I did have to get special dispensation from the Pope to do this but that's it, too bad. I support them both. They are both great teams, but if it comes to the crunch, I'm Evertonian."McCartney is today one of Britain's wealthiest musicians, with an estimated fortune of £750 million ($1.2 billion) in 2009, although Justice Bennett, in his judgement on McCartney's divorce case found no evidence that McCartney was worth more than £400 million. In addition to his interest in Apple Corps, McCartney's MPL Communications owns a significant music publishing ^{Music publisher (popular music)} catalogue, with access to over 25,000 copyrights. McCartney earned £40 million in 2003, making him Britain's highest media earner. This rose to £48.5 million by 2005. In the same year he joined the top American talent agency Grabow Associates, who arrange private performances for their richest clients.
Northern Songs was established in 1963, by Dick James, to publish the songs of Lennon/McCartney.

The Beatles' partnership was replaced in 1968 by a jointly held company, Apple Corps, which continues to control Apple's commercial interests. Northern Songs was purchased by Associated TeleVision (ATV) in 1969, and was sold in 1985 to Michael Jackson. For many years McCartney was unhappy about Jackson's purchase and handling of Northern Songs.

MPL Communications is an umbrella company for McCartney's business interests, which owns a wide range of copyrights, as well as the publishing rights to musicals. In 2006, the Trademarks Registry ^Trademark reported that MPL ^{MPL Communications} had started a process to secure the protections associated with registering the name "Paul McCartney" as a trademark. The 2005 films, Brokeback Mountain and Good Night and Good Luck, feature MPL ^{MPL Communications} copyrights.

In April 2009, it was revealed that McCartney, in common with other wealthy musicians, had seen a significant decline in his net worth over the preceding year. It was estimated that his fortune had fallen by some £60m, from £238m to £175m. The losses were attributed to the ongoing global recession ^{Global financial crisis of 2008-2009} , and the resultant decline in value of property and stock market holdings., 6 June 2004

McCartney is listed in The Guinness Book Of Records ^{Guinness World Book of Records} as the most successful musician and composer in popular music history with sales of 100 million singles and 60 gold discs , "Sir Paul McCartney became the Most Successful Songwriter who has written/co written 188 charted records, of which 91 reached the Top 10 and 33 made it to No.1 totalling 1,662 weeks on the chart (up to the beginning of 2008)."

In the US, McCartney has achieved thirty two number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including twenty one with The Beatles, McCartney is the only artist to reach the UK number one as a soloist ^{Solo (music)} ("Pipes of Peace"), duo ("Ebony and Ivory" with Stevie Wonder), trio ^{Trio (music)} ("Mull of Kintyre", Wings), quartet ("She Loves You", The Beatles), quintet ("Get Back", The Beatles with Billy Preston) and as part of a musical ensemble for charity (Ferry Aid ^{Let It Be (Ferry Aid song)} ).

McCartney was voted the "greatest composer of the millennium" by BBC News Online readers and McCartney's song "Yesterday ^{Yesterday (song)} " is thought to be the most covered song in history with more than 2,200 recorded versions After its 1977 release, the Wings single "Mull of Kintyre" became the highest-selling record in British chart history, and remained so until 1984. (Three charity singles have since surpassed it in sales; the first to do so, in 1984, was Band Aid ^{Band Aid (band)} 's "Do They Know It's Christmas?", whose participants included McCartney.)

On 2 July 2005, he was involved with the fastest-released single in history. His performance of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band ^{Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (song)} " with U2 at Live 8 was released only 45 minutes after it was performed, before the end of the concert. The single reached number six on the Billboard charts, just hours after the single's release, and hit number one on numerous online download charts across the world. McCartney played for the largest stadium audience in history when 184,000 people paid to see him perform at Maracanã Stadium ^{Estádio do Maracanã} in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 21 April 1990.

McCartney's scheduled concert in St Petersburg, Russia was his 3,000th concert and took place in front of 60,000 fans in Russia, on 20 June 2004. Over his career, McCartney has played 2,523 gigs with The Beatles, 140 with Wings, and 325 as a solo artist. however, the outlook on the upcoming concert looked dim, after several days of rain. Only his second concert in Russia, with the first just the year before on Moscow's Red Square as the former Communist ^Communism U.S.S.R. had previously banned music from the Beatles as a "corrupting influence", McCartney hired 3 jet ^{Jet aircraft} s, at a reported cost of $36,000 (€29,800) (£28,000), to spray dry ice in the clouds above Saint Petersburg's Winter Palace Square ^{Winter Palace} in a successful attempt to prevent rain.

The day McCartney flew into the former Soviet country, he celebrated his 62nd birthday, and after the concert, according to RIA Novosti news agency, he received a phone call from a fan; then-President Vladimir Putin, who telephoned him after the concert to wish him a happy birthday.

In the concert programme for his 1989 world tour, McCartney wrote that Lennon received all the credit for being the avant-garde Beatle, and McCartney was known as "baby-faced", which he disagreed with. People also assumed that Lennon was the "hard-edged one", and McCartney was the "soft-edged" Beatle, although McCartney admitted to "bossing Lennon around." Linda McCartney said that McCartney had a "hard-edge" — and not just on the surface — which she knew about after all the years she had spent living with him. McCartney seemed to confirm this edge when he commented that he sometimes meditates, which he said is better than "sleeping, eating, or shouting at someone".

The minor planet 4148 ^{4148 McCartney} , discovered in 1983, was named "McCartney" in his honour.

On 18 June 2006, McCartney celebrated his 64th birthday, a milestone that was the subject of one of the first songs he ever wrote, at the age of sixteen, the Beatles song "When I'm Sixty-Four". Paul Vallely noted in The Independent: