IMAGINE - Music and Arts Festival

McCartney was the first to be involved in a project outside of the group, when he composed the score for the film The Family Way in 1966. The soundtrack was later released as an album (also called The Family Way), and won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Instrumental Theme, ahead of acclaimed jazz musician Mike Turner.

McCartney wrote songs for and produced other artists, including Mary Hopkin, Badfinger, and the Bonzo Dog Band, and in 1966, he was asked by Kenneth Tynan to write the songs for the National Theatre's production of As You Like It by William Shakespeare (starring Laurence Olivier) but declined. In 1968 he co-produced the song "I'm the Urban Spaceman" by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and was credited as "Apollo C. Vermouth" because of contractual restrictions.

McCartney later attempted to persuade Lennon and Harrison to return to the stage, and when they had a meeting to sign a new contract with Capitol Records, McCartney suggested "going back to our roots," to which Lennon replied, "I think you're mad!" Although Lennon had quit the group in September 1969, and Harrison and Starr had temporarily left the group at various times, McCartney was the one who publicly announced The Beatles' breakup on 10 April 1970—one week before releasing his first solo album, McCartney. The album included a press release inside with a self-written interview stating McCartney's hopes about the future. The Beatles' partnership was legally dissolved after McCartney filed a lawsuit on 31 December 1970.

Paul McCartney (solo) and Wings

McCartney released his debut solo album, McCartney, in April 1970. He insisted that his wife should be involved in his musical career so that they would not be apart when he was on tour. McCartney's second solo album, Ram (1971) was credited to both Paul and Linda McCartney.

In August of that year McCartney formed Wings with guitarist Denny Laine and drummer Denny Seiwell (although membership in Wings would change several times during its existence) and released their debut album, Wild Life. In 1972, Wings started an unplanned tour of British universities and small European venues. In February of that year, they released a single called "Give Ireland Back to the Irish", which was banned by the BBC. Wings then embarked on the 26-date Wings Over Europe Tour.

The first of Wings' two 1973 albums Red Rose Speedway spawned the band's first #1 in the United States, "My Love" (#2 in Canada). On 16 April, McCartney starred in a TV variety show called James Paul McCartney. Wings then released the theme song for the James Bond film Live and Let Die. It reunited McCartney with George Martin, who both produced the song and arranged the orchestral break.

Their second 1973 album Band on the Run, which won two Grammy Awards is Wings' most lauded work. From it were released the singles "Jet" and, in 1974, "Band on the Run" as well as the non-album single "Junior's Farm". A jam session — with Lennon and McCartney — was recorded in California, in 1974, and released on the bootleg A Toot and a Snore in '74. The same year, he recorded an instrumental, "Walking in the Park with Eloise", which had been written by his father. The song featured Wings, Floyd Cramer and Chet Atkins. Venus and Mars was released in 1975, which featured "Listen to What the Man Said" and "Rock Show." Till 1976, Wings embarked on the Wings Over the World tour.

In 1977, McCartney released Thrillington under the name "Percy 'Thrills' Thrillington". Wings also released "Mull of Kintyre". It stayed at #1 in the UK for nine weeks (#34 in Canada), and was the highest-selling single in the UK until 1984, when Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas beat its record. Wings toured again in 1979, and McCartney organised the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea. McCartney's "Rockestra" theme won a Grammy award. At Christmas 1979, McCartney released his (solo) "Wonderful Christmastime".

Although McCartney's relationship with Lennon was troubled, they reconciled during the 1970s. McCartney would often call Lennon, but was never sure of what sort of reception he would get, such as when McCartney once called Lennon and was told, "You're all pizza and fairytales!"

McCartney understood that he could not just phone Lennon and only talk about business, so they often talked about cats, baking bread, or babies. According to May Pang, during Lennon's "Lost Weekend" with her he announced plans to surprise McCartney in New Orleans and record songs; however, soon afterward he rejoined Ono in New York City and abandoned the idea.

Solo career

McCartney played every instrument on the 1980 release McCartney II (as he had on McCartney before it), this time with an emphasis on synthesisers instead of guitars. The single "Coming Up" reached #2 in Britain, #1 in Canada, and #1 in the US. "Waterfalls" was another UK Top 10 hit. McCartney's next album, 1982's Tug of War, reunited him with Ringo Starr and Beatles producer George Martin, and the album hit No.1 on both sides of the Atlantic at the same time as its lead single, a duet with Stevie Wonder, "Ebony and Ivory", did likewise. Two further hit duets followed, both with Michael Jackson: "The Girl Is Mine", from Jackson's Thriller album, and "Say Say Say", a single from McCartney's 1983 album, Pipes of Peace.

McCartney wrote and starred in the 1984 film Give My Regards to Broad Street. The film and soundtrack featured the US and UK Top 10 hit "No More Lonely Nights", and the album reached #1 in the UK, but the film did not do well commercially or critically. Roger Ebert awarded the film a single star and wrote, "You can safely skip the movie and proceed directly to the sound track".

Later that year, McCartney released "We All Stand Together", the title song from the animated film Rupert and the Frog Song, which was the supporting feature to "Broad Street" in cinemas and which, when released on video cassette would become the year's top-seller. The following year, McCartney released Spies Like Us the title song to the Dan Ackroyd/Chevy Chase comedy which hit #7 on the Billboard chart (making it his last US Top 20 hit to date) and #24 in Canada.

On 13 July 1985, McCartney played "Let It Be" at the Live Aid concert in London, but much of his performance was marred by technical difficulties. He was backed on this performance by Bob Geldof, Pete Townshend, George Michael, and Alison Moyet.

In the second half of the decade McCartney would find new collaborators. Eric Stewart had appeared on McCartney's Pipes of Peace album, and he co-wrote most of McCartney's 1986 album Press to Play. The album and its lead single, "Press", became minor hits. McCartney returned the favour by co-writing two songs for Stewart's band, 10cc: "Don't Break the Promises" (...Meanwhile, 1992), and "Yvonne's the One" (Mirror Mirror, 1995). In 1987, EMI released All the Best! which was the first compilation of McCartney's own songs.

In 1988, he released, initially in the Soviet Union only, a collection of McCartney cover-versions of his favourite vintage Rock and roll classics which later had a general release in 1991. Around this time, McCartney also began a songwriting partnership with Elvis Costello (Declan MacManus) from which songs would appear on singles and albums by both artists, notably "Veronica"on Costello's album Spike and "My Brave Face" from McCartney's Flowers in the Dirt, (which reached #1 in the UK on release in 1989).

Further McCartney/MacManus compositions for surfaced on Costello's 1991 album Mighty Like a Rose and McCartney's 1993 album Off the Ground. A 1992 McCartney / Starr collaboration "Angel In Disguise" was intended for Ringo's Time Takes Time album, however was not included and remains unreleased to this day. In late 1989, McCartney started his first concert tour since Lennon's murder, also his first tour of the US in thirteen years.

In a 1980 interview, Lennon said that the last time he had seen McCartney was when they had watched the episode of Saturday Night Live (May 1976) in which Lorne Michaels had made his $3,000 cash offer to get Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr to reunite on the show. McCartney and Lennon had seriously considered going to the studio, but were too tired. This event was fictionalised in the 2000 television film Two of Us.

Reaction to John Lennon's murder

On the morning of 9 December 1980, McCartney awoke to the news that Lennon had been murdered outside his home in the Dakota building in New York. Lennon's death created a media frenzy around the surviving members of The Beatles. On the evening of 9 December, as McCartney was leaving an Oxford Street recording studio, he was surrounded by reporters and asked for his reaction to Lennon's death. He replied, "I was very shocked, you know—this is terrible news," and said that he had spent the day in the studio listening to some material because he "just didn't want to sit at home." When asked why, he replied, "I didn't feel like it."

He was then asked when he first heard the news, McCartney replied "This morning sometime," and one of the reporters asked "Very early?" McCartney said "yeah" and then asked the reporters if they all knew, they added "yeah." McCartney then said, "drag, isn't it?" When published, his "drag" remark was criticised, and McCartney later regretted it. He furthermore stated that he had intended no disrespect but had just been at a loss for words, after the shock and sadness he felt over his friend's murder.

He was also to recall:“ I talked to Yoko the day after he was killed and the first thing she said was, "John was really fond of you." The last telephone conversation I had with him we were still the best of mates. He was always a very warm guy, John. His bluff was all on the surface. He used to take his glasses down, those granny glasses, and say, "It's only me." They were like a wall, you know? A shield. Those are the moments I treasure ”

In 1983 McCartney said:
“ I would not have been as typically human and standoffish as I was if I knew John was going to die. I would have made more of an effort to try and get behind his "mask" and have a better relationship with him.”

In a Playboy interview in 1984, McCartney said that he went home that night and watched the news on television—while sitting with all his children—and cried all evening. His last telephone call to Lennon, which was just before Lennon and Yoko released Double Fantasy, was friendly. During the call, Lennon said (laughing) to McCartney, "This housewife wants a career!" which referred to Lennon's "house-husband" years, while looking after Sean Lennon.

McCartney carried on recording after the death of Lennon but did not play any live concerts for some time. He explained that this was because he was nervous that he would be "the next" to be murdered. This led to a disagreement with Denny Laine, who wanted to continue touring and subsequently left Wings, which McCartney disbanded in 1981. Also in 1981, six months after Lennon's death, McCartney sang backup on George Harrison's tribute to Lennon, "All Those Years Ago," which also featured Ringo Starr on drums. McCartney would go on to record "Here Today", a tribute song to Lennon.

Orchestral music

The 1990s saw McCartney venture into orchestral music. In 1991 the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society commissioned a musical piece by McCartney to celebrate its sesquicentennial. McCartney collaborated with Carl Davis to release Liverpool Oratorio. The Oratorio was premiered in Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral, and had its North American premiere in Carnegie Hall in New York on 18 November 1991, with Davis conducting. McCartney's singers and musicians included the opera singers Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Sally Burgess, Jerry Hadley and Willard White, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the choir of Liverpool Cathedral. EMI Classics recorded the premiere of the oratorio and released it on a 2-CD album which topped the classical charts.

His next classical project to be released (in 1995) was A Leaf , a solo-piano piece played by Royal College of Music gold-medal winner Anya Alexeyev. The Prince of Wales later honoured McCartney as a Fellow of The Royal College of Music. Other forays into classical music included Standing Stone (1997), Working Classical (1999), and "Ecce Cor Meum" (2006).

Early 1990s

In the early 1990s (after another world tour), McCartney reunited with Harrison and Starr to work on Apple's The Beatles Anthology documentary series. It included three double albums of alternative takes, live recordings, and previously unreleased Beatles songs, as well as a ten-hour video boxed set. Anthology 1 was released in 1995, and featured "Free as a Bird", which was the first Beatles reunion track, while Anthology 2, released in 1996, included "Real Love" (1996), the second and final in the reunion series. Both reunion tracks were co produced by Electric Light Orchestra frontman Jeff Lynne, who had worked with Harrison in The Traveling Wilburys. Both reunion tracks were completed by adding new music and vocal tracks to Lennon's demos from the late 1970s.

In 1997, McCartney released Flaming Pie which was produced by Lynne and Martin. It debuted at #2 in the UK and the US, and was nominated in the Grammy Awards category Album of the Year. The same year, McCartney made his second venture into classical music with Standing Stone, which was commissioned by EMI Records to mark their 100th anniversary in autumn. It was announced in the 1997 New Year Honours that he was to be knighted for "services to music", and he received the accolade from the Queen at Buckingham Palace on 11 March 1997, becoming "Sir Paul McCartney".

He dedicated his knighthood to fellow Beatles Lennon, Harrison, and Starr, and to the people of Liverpool. In 1999, McCartney released another album of rock 'n' roll songs, titled Run Devil Run. That same year he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist. (Bitter that he had not been inducted sooner, McCartney brought his daughter to the stage with him and smiled as he pointed to her shirt, which read: "About Fucking Time.") In 1999, he released Working Classical.

In May 2000, he was given a Fellowship by the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters. The chairman of the academy, Guy Fletcher, said McCartney had played a major role in changing the course of British popular music.

2000s

In 2000, McCartney released A Garland for Linda: A Commemoration of the Life of Linda McCartney; a choral tribute album with compositions from eight other contemporary composers. The music was performed by "The Joyful Company of Singers" to raise funds for The Garland Appeal, a fund to aid cancer patients.

In May 2001, he released Wingspan: An Intimate Portrait, a retrospective documentary that features behind-the-scenes films and photographs that he and Linda McCartney (who had died in 1998) took of their family and bands. Interspersed throughout the 88 minute film is an interview by Mary McCartney with her father. Mary was the baby photographed inside McCartney's jacket on the back cover of McCartney, and was one of the producers of the documentary.

Earlier in the year, McCartney worked on what would become his new album, Driving Rain, released on 12 November. Driving Rain featured uplifting songs inspired by and written for his soon-to-be wife Heather.

Clearly determined to follow the example of Run Devil Run's brisk recording pace, most of the album was recorded in two weeks, starting in February 2001. McCartney also composed and recorded the title track for the film Vanilla Sky, released later that year. The track was nominated for—but did not win—an Oscar for Best Original Song.

McCartney, who witnessed the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks from the JFK airport tarmac, took a lead role in organising The Concert for New York City in response. The concert took place on 20 October 2001.

In late 2001, McCartney was informed that George Harrison was losing his battle with cancer. Upon Harrison's death on 29 November, McCartney told Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, Extra, Good Morning America, The Early Show, MTV, VH-1 and Today that Harrison was like his "baby brother". Harrison spent his last days in a Hollywood Hills mansion that was once leased by McCartney. On 29 November 2002—on the first anniversary of George Harrison's death—McCartney played Harrison’s "Something" on a ukulele at the Concert for George.

In 2002, McCartney began a two-year world tour. He contributed to an album titled Good Rockin' Tonight: The Legacy Of Sun Records, which included a version of Elvis Presley's song "That's All Right (Mama)". He performed during the pre-game ceremonies at the NFL's Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002 and starred in the halftime show at Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005. In 2003, McCartney played a concert in Red Square, Russia. Vladimir Putin gave him a tour of the Square.

In what would be only his second British music festival appearance (after Knebworth 1990), McCartney headlined the Glastonbury Festival in June 2004. McCartney and festival organiser Michael Eavis won the NME Award on behalf of the festival, which won 'Best Live Event' in the 2005 awards. McCartney performed at the main Live 8 concert on 2 July 2005, playing "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with U2 to open the Hyde Park event, although Ringo Starr criticised McCartney for not asking him to play.

On 13 November 2005, McCartney played a live concert at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, CA. Towards the end of the concert, a satellite link-up was made to the International Space Station so McCartney and those at the concert could see NASA Astronaut Bill McArthur and Russian Cosmonaut Valery Tokarev as they were awakening for the 44th day of their six month mission in space. McCartney proceeded to play the traditional wakeup song played on each space mission, a tradition that began during the moon missions. McCartney also performed "Good Day Sunshine", and "English Tea". Afterwards he and the concert goers talked with McArthur and Tokarev via a projection screen. This was the first time a live concert had been linked to a U.S. spacecraft.

In March 2006, McCartney finished composing a 'modern classical' musical work named Ecce Cor Meum (Behold My Heart). It was recorded with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and the boys of King's College Choir, Cambridge, Magdalen College School, Oxford, and was premiered at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 3 November 2006. It was voted Classical Album of the Year in 2007 in the Classical Brit Awards.

On 18 June 2006, McCartney celebrated his 64th birthday, as in "When I'm Sixty-Four." Paul Vallely noted it in The Independent as "a cultural milestone for a generation. Such is the nature of celebrity, McCartney is one of those people who have represented the hopes and aspirations of those born in the baby-boom era, which had its awakening in the Sixties."

McCartney joined Jay-Z and Linkin Park onstage at the 2006 Grammy Awards in a performance of "Numb/Encore" & "Yesterday" to commemorate the recent passing of Coretta Scott King. McCartney later noted that it was the first time he had performed at the Grammys and quipped, "I finally passed the audition," which was a reference to the Lennon comment at the end of the Let It Be film: "I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we passed the audition." McCartney was nominated for another Grammy Award in 2007 for "Jenny Wren"—a song from his 2005 album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, which itself had been nominated as Album of the Year in 2006.

On 21 March 2007, McCartney left EMI to become the first artist signed to Starbucks's new record label, Los Angeles-based Hear Music, to be distributed by Concord Music Group. He made an appearance via a video-feed from London at the company's annual meeting. "For me, the great thing is the commitment and the passion and the love of music, which as an artist is good to see. It's a new world now and people are thinking of new ways to reach the people, and that's always been my aim".

On 2 April 2007, a fan drove through the security fence on McCartney's Peasmarsh county estate shouting that he had to "get at" the ex-Beatle. The incident echoed the murder of Lennon and the attempted murder of George Harrison. The assailant was arrested after a chase through Sussex country lanes.

McCartney played "secret gigs" in London, New York, and Los Angeles to promote his album. Several live recordings from these shows have been released as B-sides to singles from Memory Almost Full. In New York, the crowd included only a few hundred contest winners and celebrities such as Whoopi Goldberg, Elijah Wood, Kate Moss, Aidan Quinn, and Steve Buscemi.

McCartney played at the BBC Electric Proms on 25 October 2007, at The Roundhouse in Camden, which is run by a music festival run by the British Broadcasting Corporation. On 13 November 2007, The McCartney Years, a 3-DVD set was released. It contains a commentary, behind the scenes footage, over 40 music videos, Wings' live performances, interviews with Melvyn Bragg and Michael Parkinson, LIVE AID, the Super Bowl XXXIX Halftime Show and the 2005 documentary Creating Chaos at Abbey Road.

In February 2008, McCartney was awarded a BRIT award for outstanding contribution, the same as a Lifetime Achievement Award. The minor planet 4148, discovered in 1983 was named 'McCartney' in his honour. Yale University conferred an honorary Doctor of Music degree on Paul McCartney on 26 May 2008. On 1 June 2008 McCartney celebrated Liverpool's year as European capital of culture by playing a concert at Anfield Stadium. It featured special guest Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters. Grohl played guitar and sang backing vocals on "Band on the Run" and played drums on Back in the U.S.S.R. and I Saw Her Standing There. McCartney also played "A Day in the Life " as a tribute to John Lennon, marking the first time the song has been played live by a Beatle.

In April 2008 it was revealed that McCartney was invited by Ukrainian tycoon Victor Pinchuk to play a free concert in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on 14 June 2008. He played in the city's main square Maidan Nezalezhnosti at a show dubbed the Independence Concert. Over 350,000 concert goers braved adverse weather conditions as Paul McCartney played the biggest concert in Ukraine’s history. Furthermore, McCartney opened a personal exhibition of his artistic works at the PinchukArtCentre.

On 18 July 2008, McCartney made a surprise cameo appearance at the Billy Joel concert at Shea Stadium in Flushing, New York, which was appropriately titled "The Last Play at Shea", referring to the stadium's scheduled demolition in early 2009. Rumours had been circulating that McCartney might appear at this concert, since the Beatles were the first band to perform at Shea; McCartney arrived and played "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Let It Be" with Joel on stage in front of thousands of screaming fans, closing the stadium as a music venue the way it opened.

McCartney played on the Plains of Abraham on 20 July 2008 as part of the celebrations surrounding Quebec City's 400th anniversary. McCartney delighted the crowd of more than 250,000. He frequently addressed the crowd in French and dedicated the song "Birthday" to this city that he had not had the opportunity to visit before.

McCartney also played a special concert dubbed by him as "Friendship First" at Hayarkon Park, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on 25 September 2008, attracting about 50,000 fans. He wished the massive crowd Shana Tova in Hebrew.

In February of 2009, McCartney received two nominations for the 51st annual Grammy awards, and performed the Beatles classic "I Saw Her Standing There" with Dave Grohl on drums.

Later that month, Sirius XM launched a limited run channel devoted exclusively to the music of Paul McCartney. Entitled Fireman Radio, an homage to McCartney's alter ego, the program will premiere on February 14, 2009, and run until March 13, 2009.

Electronic music

After the recording of "Yesterday" in 1965, McCartney contacted the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in Maida Vale, London, to see if they could record an electronic version of the song, but never followed it up. When visiting John Dunbar's flat in London, McCartney would take along tapes he had compiled at Jane Asher's house. The tapes were mixes of various songs, musical pieces and comments made by McCartney that he had Dick James make into a demo record for him. He later made tape loops by recording voices, guitars and bongoes on a Brenell tape recorder, and splicing the various loops together. He reversed the tapes, sped them up, and slowed them down to create the effects he wanted (which were later used on Beatles' recordings, such as "Tomorrow Never Knows"). McCartney referred to them as electronic symphonies and was heavily influenced by John Cage at the time.

In the spring of 1966, while McCartney was part of a small group that included figureheads John Dunbar and (Barry) Miles, involved with giving birth to the Indica Gallery and the newspaper International Times, he rented a ground floor and basement flat from Ringo Starr at 34 Montagu Square, to be used as a small demo studio for spoken-word recordings by poets, writers (including William Burroughs) and avant-garde musicians. The Beatles' Apple Records then launched a sub-label, Zapple with (Barry) Miles as its manager, ostensibly to release recordings of a similar aesthetic, (although few releases would ultimately result as Apple and The Beatles slid into subsequent business and personal difficulties.)

In 1995, McCartney recorded a radio series called "Oobu Joobu" for the American network Westwood One, which McCartney described as being "wide-screen radio". During the 1990s, McCartney collaborated with Youth of Killing Joke under the name of the Fireman, and released two ambient electronic albums: Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest (1993) and Rushes (1998).

In 2000, he released an album titled Liverpool Sound Collage with Super Furry Animals and Youth, utilizing collage and musique concrete techniques that fascinated him in the mid-1960s. In 2005, he worked on a project with bootleg producer and remixer Freelance Hellraiser, consisting of remixed versions of songs from throughout his solo career and released under the name Twin Freaks. The Fireman's third album Electric Arguments was released on November 25, 2008. The album is available on the duo's website.

In January 2009 interview with L.A. Weekly newspaper, McCartney explained what he sees as the most significant difference between the music he creates as The Fireman and the rest of his catalog. "Fireman is improvisational theater," McCartney said. "When I sit down to write a song, it’s a kind of improvisation, but I formalize it a bit to get it into the studio, and when I step up to a microphone, I have a vague idea of what I’m about to do. I usually have a song, and I know the melody and lyrics, and my performance is the only unknown. In this case, I had neither lyrics nor melody to go on — and it felt great."

Life as The Beatles