Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney, in full Sir James Paul McCartney, (born

June 18, 1942, Liverpool, England), British vocalist, songwriter,
composer, bass player, poet, and painter whose work with
the Beatles in the 1960s helped lift popular music from its origins
in the entertainment business and transform it into a creative,
highly commercial art form. He is also one of the most popular
solo performers of all time in terms of both sales of his recordings
and attendance at his concerts.

Early Life
McCartney’s father, James, worked in the Liverpool Cotton
Exchange, and his mother, Mary, was a midwife, out at all hours
on her bicycle to deliver babies. Her death from breast cancer in
October 1956, when McCartney was age 14, had a profound effect
on his life and was the inspiration for his ballad “Let It Be” (1970).
His younger brother, Michael, later changed his name to Mike
McGear and had a number of hits in the satirical rock group
Scaffold. Like fellow Beatles George Harrison and Ringo
Starr (Richard Starkey), McCartney grew up in a traditional north
of England working-class society, with an extended
family frequently visiting the house at 20 Forthlin Road in the
Allerton area of Liverpool (the house is now owned by the National
Trust). His father had been the leader of Jim Mac’s Jazz Band, and
in the evenings the family often gathered around the piano, an
experience McCartney drew upon for such sing-along songs as
“When I’m 64” (1967).
The Beatles
On July 6, 1957, he met John Lennon at Woolton Village Fete and
joined his skiffle group, the Quarrymen, which, after several name
changes, became the Beatles. When Lennon’s mother was killed by
a speeding police car in 1958, McCartney, with his own mother’s
death still fresh in his memory, was able to empathize with
the distraught 17-year-old, creating a bond that became the basis
of their close friendship. McCartney and Lennon quickly
established themselves as songwriters for the group, and, by the
time the Beatles signed with EMI-Parlophone in 1962, they were
writing most of their own material. By their third album the group
stopped recording covers. Lennon and McCartney’s songwriting
partnership was very important to them, both financially and
creatively; even in 1969, when they were estranged over business
matters and supposedly not on speaking terms, Lennon brought
McCartney his song “The Ballad of John and Yoko” and they
worked together on the “middle eight” (the stand-alone section
that often comes midway in a song).
Their music transcended personal differences.
 the Beatles
The Beatles (clockwise from top left): Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr,
John Lennon, and George Harrison, 1965.
PRNewsFoto/Apple Corps Ltd./EMI Music/AP Images
Though usually associated with ballads and love songs, McCartney
also was responsible for many of the Beatles’ harder rock songs,
such as “Lady Madonna,” “Back in the USSR,” and “Helter Skelter”
(all 1968), but above all he has an extraordinary gift for melodies
and sometimes tags an entirely new one on to the end of a song, as
he did with “Hey Jude” (1968). This facility extends to his bass
playing, which is famously melodic though often overlooked. A
multi-instrumentalist, McCartney also played drums on some
Beatles tracks and played all the instruments on some of his solo
albums, as well as lead guitar at concerts.

 

McCartney, Paul
Publicity still of Paul McCartney from the film Help! (1965),
directed by Richard Lester.
Walter Shenson Films/Subafilms
the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show
The Beatles performing on The Ed Sullivan Show, February 9,
1964: (clockwise from top) Ringo Starr, John Lennon, George
Harrison, and Paul McCartney.
AP Images
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Wings And Solo Career

The Beatles ceased playing live shows in 1966. After their breakup
in 1970, McCartney recorded two solo albums, McCartney (1970)
and Ram (1971), before forming the band Wings with his
wife Linda (formerly Linda Eastman), an American photographer
and musician whom he had married in 1969. He wanted her with
him at all times, and having her on stage solved many of the
problems that befall marriages in the world of popular music.
Wings toured the world and became the best-selling pop act of the
1970s, with an astonishing 27 U.S. Top 40 hits (beating Elton
John’s 25) and five consecutive number one albums, including the
highly acclaimed Band on the Run (1973) and Wings at the Speed
of Sound (1976).

Security problems caused by Lennon’s murder in 1980 prevented

McCartney from touring for a decade, and he concentrated instead
on studio recording and on writing and starring in the
1984 film Give My Regards to Broad Street, which was poorly
received. Nevertheless, critics loved his 1989 album, Flowers in
the Dirt, which coincided with his return to live performance,
and Flaming Pie (1997) was even more highly praised. In 1997
McCartney was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II “for services to
music.” The next year Linda died of cancer. (In the 2000s
McCartney married and divorced actress and activist Heather
Mills. In 2011 he married Nancy Shevell.)

In 1999 McCartney released a well-received collection of mostly

early rock-and-roll songs, Run Devil Run, which he recorded
with Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, to more positive reviews. His
pop albums in the early 21st century included Driving
Rain (2001), Chaos and Creation in the
Backyard (2005), Memory Almost Full (2007), New (2013),
and Egypt Station, which debuted at number one on
the Billboard 200 chart in September 2018.

Other Work And Assessment

McCartney had interests beyond popular music. Inspired by a
meeting with Willem de Kooning in the late 1970s, he began
painting, and by the late 1980s he was devoting much of his time
to it. His work was first shown publicly in May 1999 at a
retrospective held in Siegen, Germany. McCartney branched out in
other areas too: his semiautobiographical
classical composition Liverpool Oratorio, written in collaboration
with American composer Carl Davis, was first performed in 1991
by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra at Liverpool’s
Anglican cathedral, where McCartney once failed his audition as a
choirboy. He subsequently oversaw the recording of his other
classical compositions, including Standing Stone (1997), Working
Classical (1999), and Ecce Cor Meum (2006). In 2001 a volume of
his poetry, Blackbird Singing, which also included some song
lyrics, was published. In addition, he composed the score for Peter
Martins’s ballet Ocean’s Kingdom (2011). McCartney authored
several children’s books, including Hey Grandude! (2019).
 Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney.
© Mary A Lupo/Shutterstock.com
With some 60 gold records and sales of more than 100 million
singles in the course of his career, McCartney is arguably the most
commercially successful performer and composer in popular
music. The 1965 Beatles track “Yesterday” (wholly written by
McCartney and performed alone with a string quartet) has been
played some six million times on U.S. radio and television, far
outstripping its nearest competitor. Moreover, with over 3,000
cover versions, it is also the most-recorded song ever. In 2010
McCartney received the U.S. Library of Congress Gershwin Prize
for Popular Song, and later that year he was named a Kennedy
Center honoree. He was made a Companion of Honour in 2018.

McCartney is a strong advocate of vegetarianism and animal

rights and is engaged in active campaigns to relieve the
indebtedness of less-developed countries, to eliminate land mines,
and to prevent seal culling. More than a rock musician, McCartney
is now regarded as a British institution; an icon like warm beer
and cricket, he has become part of British identity.

Barry MilesThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

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HISTORY AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

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Paul McCartney
QUICK FACTS

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BORN
June 18, 1942 (age 78)
Liverpool, England
TITLE / OFFICE
 Knight (1997)
NOTABLE WORKS
 “Yesterday”
 “Flowers in the Dirt”
AWARDS AND HONORS
 Grammy Award (2010)
 Kennedy Center Honors (2010)
 Gershwin Prize For Popular Song (2010)
 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame And Museum (1999)
 Polar Music Prize (1992)
 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame And Museum (1988)
 Grammy Award (1979)
 Grammy Award (1974)
 Grammy Award (1971)
 Grammy Award (1970)
NOTABLE FAMILY MEMBERS
 Spouse Linda McCartney
 Daughter Stella McCartney
RELATED FACTS AND DATA
 Jennifer Lopez - Facts
 Harold John Russell - Facts
 Kevin Bacon - Facts
 Lenny Kravitz - Facts
DID YOU KNOW?
 Paul McCartney has won the Grammy Award for lifetime achievement both
as a solo artist and as part of the Beatles.
 Before becoming a musician, McCartney was an electrician.
 Some conspiracy theorists claim that McCartney was killed in an accident in
1966 and that a look-alike has been pretending to be him ever since.
STELLA MCCARTNEY
ArticleMediaAdditional Info
HomeVisual ArtsFashion Design
Stella McCartney
British fashion designer
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WRITTEN BY
Bronwyn Cosgrave
Bronwyn Cosgrave is a multidisciplinary fashion professional.
She is the author of such best-selling books as Vogue On: Coco
Chanel (2012) and a curator of the exhibit "Designing 007: Fifty
Years...
See Article History
Stella McCartney, (born September 13, 1972, London,
England), British fashion designer known primarily for her fur-
free and leather-free apparel as well as for her celebrity-
studded clientele.

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Stella McCartney was the daughter of Sir Paul McCartney (a

former Beatle) and Linda McCartney, a noted photographer
and animal-rights activist. She worked for a time at the French
couture house Christian Lacroix and as an intern at
British Vogue before enrolling in Central Saint Martin’s College
of Art and Design, London. For her graduation in 1995, she
produced a blockbuster show that featured supermodel Naomi
Campbell. McCartney subsequently rose quickly to the forefront
of the international fashion world, and in 1997 she was hired by
the Vendôme Luxury Group to revitalize its 45-year-old design
label, Chloé.

McCartney succeeded in reestablishing Chloé as a desirable

brand; its sales increased markedly. Her first collection,
featuring lacy petticoat skirts and dainty camisoles, silenced
critics, and her 2001 Paris romantic offerings—silk pants set off
by midriff-baring tops, body-hugging jeans paired with tunic
tops or jackets, and faux-fur coats and jeweled vests—cemented
her professional reputation. McCartney also brought to the
brand a celebrity cult following. This in part was due to her
high-profile customers and friends, notably Madonna (for
whom she designed a wedding dress), actresses Kate Hudson
(whom she outfitted for the 2001 Academy
Award ceremonies), Liv Tyler, and Gwyneth Paltrow, and
model Kate Moss.

In 2001, after protracted negotiations with McCartney, the

Italian luxury goods conglomerate Gucci (owned by PPR [later
renamed Kering]) announced that it would participate in a joint
venture to launch a new design label produced under
McCartney’s name. In accordance with demands made by
McCartney, a lifelong vegetarian, no leather or fur—both central
design elements for Gucci—were to be used in the products.
McCartney released her first perfume, Stella, in 2003. She
launched a line of organic skin-care products in 2007 and her
first collection of children’s wear (for retailer Gap Inc.) in 2009.
McCartney later designed the uniforms worn by athletes
representing Great Britain at the 2012 London
Olympic and Paralympic Games. In 2018 she created the
reception dress Meghan Markle wore after her wedding
to Prince Harry.

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Also in 2018 McCartney become the sole owner of her line after
acquiring Kering’s 50 percent stake in the business. However,
in 2019 she entered a partnership with LVMH Moët Hennessy–
Louis Vuitton, the largest luxury products company in the
world. As part of the deal, she retained a majority stake in her
brand.

McCartney was included in the New Year Honours List for 2013
as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).