McCartney, Sir (James) Paul

McCartney, Sir (James) Paul (1942- ), British singer and songwriter, the most commercially successful composer in history. Born in Liverpool, he joined the Quarry Men, the skiffle band formed by John Lennon, in 1958. He was co-writer, along with Lennon, of most of the songs recorded by The Beatles during the 1960s. Since the band's demise in 1970, his career has yielded many other hits. His melodic sensibility and tendency to dwell on sentimental themes have resulted in numerous songs that have become “standards”, broadcast around the world, and performed and recorded by other artists. His first post-Beatles album, McCartney (1970), yielded an international hit with “Maybe I'm Amazed”, while the second, Ram (1971), was made with his wife Linda, who also joined him in Wings, his touring band. Wings topped the American charts with the single “My Love” (1973), and had sustained public and critical approval with the albums Band On The Run (1974), Venus And Mars (1975), and At The Speed of Sound (1976). In 1977 he co-authored, with guitarist Denny Laine, the folk-style ballad “Mull Of Kintyre”, which sold 2.5 million copies in Britain. In 1979 he was officially congratulated in London by a government representative for writing or co-writing 43 songs that had sold in excess of 1 million copies each.

Wings officially disbanded in 1981. McCartney recorded with Stevie Wonder on the single “Ebony And Ivory” (1982) and with Michael Jackson on “The Girl Is Mine” (1982) and “Say Say Say” (1983). His feature film, Give My Regards To Broad Street (1984), was not commercially successful, although the soundtrack, which included Beatles material, was warmly received. He co-wrote a number of songs with Elvis Costello, showcased on Flowers In The Dirt (1989), which was hailed as a return to writing form. Along with Carl Davis, he composed Liverpool Oratorio (1991), a classical-style piece that drew on his childhood memories. His 1993 world tour highlighted his career from the Beatles era to the present and was enthusiastically rated. In 1995 he combined with former band-mates George Harrison and Ringo Starr to record new material to go with demo recordings of two songs by the late John Lennon, effecting a Beatles reunion of sorts.

In 1997 Paul McCartney was knighted in the Queen's New Year's Honours list. In the same year his most ambitious classical composition, the symphonic poem Standing Stone, was premiered in London. In January 2000 he released the album A Garland for Linda, a tribute to his wife who died in 1998. McCartney remarried in 2002, to model and charity campaigner Heather Mills (the couple announced their separation in 2006). Shortly after, McCartney, who continues to be successful in the United States and staged a charity concert in Madison Square Garden to raise funds for the families of victims of the September 11 acts of terrorism, received a Kennedy Center Honor. In March 2003 he began his “Back in the World” tour—his first UK and European tour in ten years. The tour coincided with the release in the UK of a live double album entitled Back in the World and a three-hour DVD, Back in the US, which used footage recorded during McCartney’s US tour the previous year. McCartney released another classical album in 2006: a recording of Ecce Cor Meum (Behold My Heart), an oratorio in four movements for choir and orchestra.