Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney
McCartney in Landover, Maryland, 1 August 2009
Background information
Birth name	James Paul McCartney
Born	18 June 1942 (1942-06-18) Liverpool, England, United Kingdom
Genres	Rock, psychedelic rock, experimental rock, rock and roll, pop, hard rock, classical music
Occupations	Composer, musician, artist, activist, record producer, film producer, businessman
Instruments	Vocals, bass, guitar, keyboards, drums, ukulele, mandolin
Years active	1957–present
Labels	Hear Music, Apple, Parlophone, Capitol, Columbia, Concord Music Group, EMI, One Little Indian
Associated acts	The Beatles, The Fireman, The Quarrymen, Wings, Linda McCartney, Denny Laine
Website	www.paulmccartney.com
Notable instruments
Höfner 500/1 Rickenbacker 4001S Gibson Les Paul Epiphone Texan Epiphone Casino Fender Esquire Fender Jazz Bass Yamaha BB1200 Bass Wal 5-String Bass Martin D-28

Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942 in Liverpool, England) is Britain's most successful musician and composer, and one of the most successful musicians in the world. He was a member of the rock band The Beatles, and with John Lennon wrote most of the group's songs.

The Beatles (1962-1970)

McCartney began writing songs before he was sixteen, and has written well over two hundred. His most famous song is "Yesterday", recorded by the Beatles in 1965. Since then around 2000 artists have recorded the song. Other songs written by McCartney for The Beatles include "Can't Buy Me Love", "Hey Jude", "Penny Lane", "Eleanor Rigby" and "Let It Be".

Often, Beatles songs would have "Lennon/McCartney" written on the record, and it would look like that they had written it together. In fact, most Lennon/McCartney songs were written by only one of them, or with one adding only small parts to the other's work. Each counted on the other to help make their songs better, so they agreed to share the credit equally.

Solo music

Since the Beatles had stopped working together in 1971, McCartney started a new band called Wings with his wife Linda. Wings also had many hit records, including "Band On The Run" and "Mull Of Kintyre". McCartney wrote "Live and Let Die", which became the theme song to a James Bond film with the same title. Wings disbanded in 1981.

Later McCartney recorded "Ebony and Ivory" with Stevie Wonder, then "The Girl is Mine" and "Say, Say, Say" with Michael Jackson. He and Jackson became friends, but this ended after Jackson outbid McCartney for ownership of the publishing company which owned most of the Beatles's music.

McCartney had other hit songs, and also wrote and starred in the movie, Give My Regards to Broad Street, with Linda. The theme song from the movie, "No More Lonely Nights", was also a hit, but the movie did poorly, and McCartney's popularity suffered. He had to work hard to prove his talent was still strong. He co-wrote new songs with Elvis Costello, and began touring more often than he had in years.

Along with popular music, McCartney also began composing classical music, including an oratorio about Liverpool. McCartney was knighted for his contributions to music and to British culture, and for his charity work. He bought John Lennon's former school, Quarry Bank, which he then turned into a performing arts school.

Personal life

McCartney married Linda Eastman, a photographer, in 1969. She had a daughter, Heather, whom he adopted. McCartney and Linda had three more children together, named Mary, Stella and James. Stella became a popular fashion designer after she grew up.

Linda died in 1998 of breast cancer (McCartney's mother also died from the same disease in 1956). He married model Heather Mills in 2002; the couple's daughter Beatrice was born in 2003. McCartney and Mills separated in 2006, and, after a long battle over a settlement, McCartney and Mills divorced in March 2008.