Paul McCartney Biography

(From Paul's first meeting with John to Wings)

Paul McCartney was born at Walton Road Hospital in Rice Lane, Liverpool, on June 18, 1942. Paul was the first son of Mary and James McCartney. His brother, Michael, was born eighteen months later. Paul's mother was a midwife and died of breast cancer in 1955. Her death deeply hurt Paul. Paul's father was a cotton salesman and an amateur jazz musician.

Paul passed his 11-Plus examination in 1957 and entered the Liverpool Institute, a popular high school, near the city center. One day while traveling to school on a bus he met a younger student, George Harrison. Another good friend of Paul's was Ivan Vaughan who invited Paul to "The Woolton Parish Church Fete" at St. Peter's Church. There Paul was introduced to John Lennon, who was playing in a "skiffle group" called "The Quarry Men". Paul played guitar for John back stage and a day later John asked Paul to join the group.

After Paul had joined the group more and more changes were taking place. Paul pitched George as a potentially guitar player to John and George joined the group. More rock 'n' roll songs were introduce into the act and Paul encourage John to write and use some of their own material. Paul and John started writing songs together and their musical and writing talents work perfectly together.

Although John was the leader of the group, Paul was the one who seemed to have the greater drive for success and he worked hard to achieve it. Paul switched from guitar to bass guitar when Stuart Sutcliffe left the band in 1961. The songs from John and Paul were mainly written in the early days of The Beatles. After they had become established, John and Paul mainly wrote their own songs but agreed to credit all songs as "Lennon/McCartney" numbers. While John's songs were more head on rock 'n' roll or cutting edge songs, Paul preferred romantic numbers and songs which indicated the influence of Hollywood musicals. Songs like "Yesterday", "Michelle", "When I'm Sixty-Four", and "Lovely Rita" are typical McCartney songs.

Paul seemed to be more cultural then the other Beatles. When The Beatles moved to London Paul stayed in the city while the others chose to live in houses out in the suburbs. Paul attended the theater and collected paintings by artists such as Magritte. His long time girlfriend Jane Asher helped him to develop his artistic tastes. After a five year romance, Paul and Jane broke up much to the shock of the media.

After Brian Epstein was found dead in August 1967, Paul was determined to prevent the group from losing interest in their career and encouraged them to film "Magical Mystery Tour". This caused some friction between Paul and John because John felt like Paul was trying to become leader of the band. Paul directed The Beatles promotional film for "Hello Goodbye" that year.

In 1968, Paul began seeing Linda Eastman and the couple were married in March 1969. Paul adopted Linda's daughter Heather and the couple had three children of their own, Mary, Stella, and James. During the filming and recording of the "Let It Be" project, Paul and George got into several arguments one eventually lead to George walking out. After some convincing George came back, but The Beatles were not the team they use to be. Paul became angered even more when the other three Beatles appointed Allen Klein as the head of Apple Corps. against Paul's wishes.

After the release of Paul's first solo album "McCartney", Paul formally announced that he was no longer a member of The Beatles due to "Musical differences". Paul had quickly formed his own group called "Wings" which included his wife Linda on keyboards. Paul made several albums through out the 70's and 80's and also made several television appearances in the 80's and 90's.

Some Excerpts Were Taken From "The Ultimate Beatles Encyclopedia" by Bill Harry.