Sir James Paul McCartney

Sir James Paul McCartney

Sir James Paul McCartney was born on June 18, 1942 in the city of Liverpool. He is a British musician, singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer, one of the founders of “The Beatles” group. Sir McCartney got “Grammy” Award six times. He is the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) (1965). In 2011 Sir McCartney was recognized as one of the best bass guitarists of all ages according to the survey conducted by “Rolling Stone” magazine.

Paul McCartney was included into the Guinness Book of Records many times, in particular, as the most successful musician and composer of the contemporary history: his 60 discs has a “Gold” status, an overall number of his singles exceeded 100 mln copies, the song “Yesterday” takes the top position according to the quantity of its recorded cover-versions (more than 3.700).

Sir McCartney got the first stroke of fate at the age of 14: his mother died of breast cancer. Paul was shocked, and his father bought a guitar for him in order to take him out of this condition.

In June 1956 Paul McCartney got acquainted with John Lennon - thereby forming the basis of the future triumph - “The Beatles”. In July 1957 it was John who brought Paul into a teenage group “Quarrymen” which gave birth to “The Beatles”. A melodic talent of Paul McCartney had already been revealed in the earliest compositions of the group, and by 1965 more than 2.000 variants of performance of the songs by Lennon-McCartney had been in the world.

The first album of “The Beatles” “Please, Please Me” was released on March 22, 1963. More than a half of 14 songs were the original compositions by McCartney-Lennon. The group which became more and more popular moved to the capital.

The breakthrough mega-hit which opened the doors of the worldwide fame before “The Beatles” was “She Loves You” – the song which headed the British pop-chart for 7 weeks. On November 04, 1963 the group performed in “The Royal Variety Performance”: it was a program which was watched by more than 26 mln televiewers and had an immense response, the effect from which “Daily Mirror” newspaper named as “the Beatlemania”.

“The Beatles” stopped their joint work in 1970, although at least starting from 1967 Paul and Lennon had been running their own projects. When the group ceased to exist, each of the musicians continued his solo career.

The first solo album of Paul McCartney (the musician played all the instruments himself, and the disc was mixed by superimposition) recorded at the end of 1969 was released in April 1970.

Starting even from the first years of participation in “The Beatles”, Paul McCartney worked a lot for other musicians – using his name or pseudonyms. Probably, the most successful cooperation for him in terms of profit-making was work with “Peter & Gordon” duo. One of McCartney’s songs performed by the duo “A World Without Love” reached the top position in pop-charts of Great Britain and the USA.

Paul McCartney is the first person in the world who was given a prize established in 1992 by the legendary Swedish musician Sting Anderson and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. “Polar” Prize is equal to the Nobel Prize in the sphere of music.

The beginning of the 1990s was connected for Paul McCartney with partial move from pop genres to the spheres related to classical music. In 1991 Paul McCartney in cooperation with Carl Davis created “Liverpool Oratorio” under the order of the Royal Musical Association in Liverpool which was preparing for celebration of its 150-year anniversary. The first night of this “Oratorio” took place in the Liverpool Cathedral of the Church of England.

In February 2011 it became known that Paul McCartney wrote the ballet being the first in his musical career.

Sir McCartney has four children, namely: an adopted daughter Heather who appeared in Paul’s life together with his wife Linda and became his elder daughter, and three other children who were born in his family with Linda – Mary, Stella and James.

Paul McCartney is known as an activist for the animals’ rights and supporter of vegetarianism.

Paul also opposed distribution of genetically modified products. Sir McCartney took part in the campaign aimed at prohibition of AP mines.

Paul McCartney also called to boycott the producers of clothes of fur many times, and in 2005 he gave a public promise not to hold concerts in China, as cruel killings of animals for fur became a standard practice in this country.

Sir McCartney became keen on drawing after he saw how a painter Willem de Kooning was drawing in his granary in Long Island. Paul went in for drawing in 1983. In 1999 he exhibited his pictures for the first time (including his portraits of John Lennon, Andy Warhol and David Bowe) in Siegen, Germany.