Happy 77th Birthday Paul McCartney!

Happy Birthday to Paul McCartney, who turns 77 today (June 18th). To date, McCartney is the most successful songwriter in history, having written or co-written 30 U.S. Number One hits. McCartney met his original songwriting partner John Lennon on July 6th, 1957 at a church social where Lennon was performing. After joining Lennon’s band, the Quarrymen, McCartney persuaded Lennon to add his friend George Harrison in 1958, and the seeds of the Beatles were born. Ringo Starr joined the group in 1962.

Last September, Paul McCartney scored his first Number One album on the Billboard 200 albums chart since 1982 with his latest release, Egypt Station. Egypt Station, which is the former-Beatle’s eighth solo chart-topper, marked his first album to enter the Billboard 200 at the top spot. The album entered the UK charts at Number Three. The album’s success can be attributed in part to McCartney’s now iconic appearance with James Corden on “Carpool Karaoke.”

2018 saw the release of the long lost live Wings album Wings Over Europe. The set was issued as part of the sprawling Paul McCartney And Wings – 1971-73 Limited Edition Box Set, which features both the new Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway “Archival Series” collections combined, Wings Over Europe spotlights the earliest live incarnation of Wings, featuring Paul and Linda McCartney, Denny Laine, Henry McCullough, and Denny Seiwell. All but one of the disc’s 20 songs is from the band’s summer ’72 European trek, with the album’s opening number “Big Barn Bed” coming from July 10th, 1973 at the lineup’s final gig in Newcastle, England.

In May 2015, McCartney spoke about his recent pop chart success with Kanye West and Rihanna on the hits “Only One” and the Top Five smash, “FourFiveSeconds,” telling The Standard, “It’s good to connect with different artists. The secret is I keep myself very open to suggestions — I still feel like I’m about 30. I’m lucky that someone like Kanye would go, ‘Yes I would like to work with Paul McCartney.’ I was quite flattered — I thought, ‘Why does he want to work with me?’ It was a few months later when I was starting to think, ‘should I ring him and ask him did anything come of the stuff we did?’ But then I thought ‘I can’t do that — that’s too soppy!’ I’ll just leave it and try and act cool. And suddenly he sends me ‘Only One,’ and then Rihanna’s on the other record.”

In 2016, Paul McCartney released his latest solo compilation called, Pure McCartney. The album, featuring a vintage 1971 photo of the former-Beatle, has been issued in single, double, and four-disc editions. The four-disc version features a whopping 64 tracks spanning the past 46 years.

In May 2017, McCartney made a rare big screen appearance as the old pirate “Uncle Jack” in the latest installment of The Pirates Of The Caribbean saga, titled, Dead Men Tell No Tales.

• Paul McCartney tour dates (subject to change):
  June 22 – San Diego, CA – Petco Park
  June 26 – Phoenix, AZ – Talking Stick Resort Arena
  June 28, 29 – Las Vegas, NV – T-Mobile Arena
  July 6 – Vancouver, BC – BC Place
  July 10 – San Jose, CA – SAP Center
  July 13 – Los Angeles, CA – Dodger Stadium