Paul McCartney - On the Boards

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Paul McCartney

Sir James Paul McCartney. ( June 18, 1942 -) , was the second half of the most successful songwriting team in music history; "John Lennon-Paul McCartney". McCartney, alone is listed in the Guinness book of World Records as the most successful musician and composer in popular music history, with the song "Yesterday" listed as the most covered song. The team was an interesting combination of talent and personality, John leaning to the wild side with Paul leaning to the tame side, that were the driving force of The Beatles, and the ensuing revolution in the genre of mainstream rock n' roll. After the disbanding of the Beatles Paul went on to form the band "Wings", which also featured his wife Linda (Eastman) McCartney.

Paul McCartney

When Paul joined The Quarry Men, he and John would spend a great deal of time together practicing their instruments, which undoubtedly helped form their friendship and musical compatibility. While John was the foundation of the group, it was Paul who was the motivational force in the band, the one who suggested they dress alike onstage to give a more professional, unified appearance to a band, the one who insisted on long rehearsals to perfect the sound and boost camaraderie, the one, who at the end tried to get The Beatles back on the tour bus to recapture that earlier sense of camaraderie. Obviously this attempt at returning the band to it's former tight knit group failed as the members parted ways in 1970.

One of the more interesting controversies concerning Paul, was the long drawn out hoax over his "non-death". This hoax was spread by radio stations and newspapers in the Midwest United States claiming he had died in a car crash in 1966. The hoax was believed in reality to have been perpetrated by Epstein upon hearing for the first time the Seargent Pepper studio recordings. Epstein supposedly was so concerned over the radical change in their music, and fearing a major loss of sales, came up with the idea, giving birth to, arguably, one of the most unique hoaxes in history. The magnitude of this hoax is fully realized in the fact that it was interspersed within the lyrics and artwork of several albums, and even made an appearance in some of their solo works.

The story like any good hoax was left manily to the imagination of the fans and the media hype. McCartney was supposedly replaced with the winner of a Paul McCartney look-alike contest by the name of William Shears Campbell, Billy Shears was the name of the fictitious leader of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Some of the hidden clues to the Beatles hoax are on the cover of the Sgt. Pepper album, and while some were indeed put there, some are just as likely the product of over active imaginations. The albums and list of hidden clues can be found here.

Linda McCartney

McCartney married American photographer Linda Eastman in 1969 with whom he had three children, four altogether counting Linda's daughter Heather who was adopted by Paul, and remained married until Linda's death from breast cancer in 1998. Linda eventually became part of Paul's band, "Wings".

Paul McCartney, earlier had intentions to marry Dot Rhone, whom he met at the Casbah club in 1959. He had obtained a marriage licence shortly after she informed him that she was pregnant, and set the wedding date for November; shortly before the baby was due. Dot Rhone had a miscarriage in July 1962, and after a few weeks, the relationship cooled off and ended. The next serious engagement came when Paul met British actress Jane Asher. Paul actually moved into Jane Asher's parents home, where he stayed for three years, Jane's mother was a music teacher and Paul made good use of the Asher's basement music studio. During his stay he wrote several songs including,"Yesterday", "A World Without Love". and Nobody I Know", the latter two were given to Jane's brother, Peter Asher, of Peter and Gordon fame, and both became hits for the duo. This relationship also ended.

On June 11, 2002, McCartney married Heather Mills, a former model and anti-landmines campaigner, in an elaborate ceremony at Castle Leslie in Glaslough, County Monaghan, Ireland. In 28 October 2003, Mills gave birth to a daughter, Beatrice Milly McCartney. The baby was named after both Heather Mill's late mother Beatrice, and Paul's Aunt Milly. Lasting a little over three years the relationship ended in divorce on March 17, 2008 with a settlement of over 35 million being awarded to Heather.

Jane Asher Wings Heather Mills

Discography
1970 McCartney	1971 Ram
1971 Wild Life	1973 Red Rose Speedway
1973 Band on the Run	1975 Venus and Mars
1976 Wings at the Speed of Sound	1978 London Town
1979 Back to the Egg	1980 McCartney
1982 Tug of War	1983 Pipes of Peace
1984 Give My Regards to Broad Street	1986 Press to Play
1989 Flowers in the Dirt	1993 Off the Ground
1997 Flaming Pie	1999 Run Devil Run
2001 Driving Rain	2005 Chaos and Creation in the Backyard
2007 Memory Almost Full

Live
1976 Wings Over America	1990 Tripping the Live Fantastic
1990 Tripping the Live Fantastic: Highlights!	1991 Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)
1993 Paul is Live	2002 Back in the U.S
2003 Back in the World