History Music / PaulMcCartney

** 2021 - ''[=McCartney III=] Imagined'' [[note]] A collaborative album featuring remixes and covers of songs from ''[=McCartney III=]''

[=McCartney=] began his career as a member of the band The Quarrymen in 1957, already a skilled songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, which evolved into the Beatles in 1960. Starting with the album ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' (1967), he gradually became the Beatles' de facto leader. His songs with the Beatles "And I Love Her" (1964), "Yesterday" (1965), "Eleanor Rigby" (1966) and "Blackbird" (1968) rank among the most covered songs in history. Along the way, despite his innocuous, sentimental reputation, he helped also create of the earliest examples of UsefulNotes/HeavyMetal with "Helter Skelter."

[=McCartney=] began his career as a member of the band The Quarrymen in 1957, which evolved into the Beatles in 1960. Starting with the album ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' (1967), he gradually became the Beatles' de facto leader. His songs with the Beatles "And I Love Her" (1964), "Yesterday" (1965), "Eleanor Rigby" (1966) and "Blackbird" (1968) rank among the most covered songs in history. Along the way, despite his innocuous reputation, he helped also create of the earliest examples of UsefulNotes/HeavyMetal with "Helter Skelter."

** On ''[=McCartney=]'', ''[=McCartney=] II'', and ''[=McCartney=] III'', Paul performs all the instruments and produced the albums himself. ''Chaos and Creation in the Backyard'' also fits, with Paul credited for a majority of the instruments in the album's liner notes, to the point that many people considered it to be ''[=McCartney=] III'' before the actual ''[=McCartney=] III'' was released years later.

** On ''[=McCartney=]'', ''[=McCartney=] II'', and ''[=McCartney=] III'', Paul performs all the instruments and produced the albums himself. ''Chaos and Creation in the Backyard'' also fits, with Paul credited for a majority of the instruments in the album's liner notes.

** On ''[=McCartney=]'', ''[=McCartney=] II'', and ''[=McCartney=] III'', Paul performs all the instruments and produced the albums himself.
*** ''Chaos and Creation in the Backyard'' also fits, with Paul credited for a majority of the instruments in the album's liner notes.

* TheSouthpaw: Him obviously, but also Ringo Starr. However unlike Ringo who played a standard right-handed setup, Paul exclusively played left-handed guitars. This helped give the band a striking visual image onstage and allowed him to do all sorts of interesting moves with John Lennon, such as turning back-to-back but having their guitar necks both pointing towards the audience. He is likely the most famous left-handed musician of all time, and considering the perennial influence of the Beatles, probably always be.

* GreatestHitsAlbum: He's had several. ''Wings Greatest'' covers mainly Wings, but has some early solo tracks. ''All the Best'' is under Paul's name, but half of the album contains Wings material. The two-disc ''Wingspan'' was a comprehensive collection, covering both Wings and Paul's solo output through 1984. ''Wingspan'' was supplanted in 2016 by ''Pure [=McCartney=]'', which is available in two and four-disc configurations.

** On ''[=McCartney=]'', ''[=McCartney=] II'', ''Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard'', and ''[=McCartney=] III'', Paul performs almost all the instruments himself.

After the Beatles disbanded in 1970, [=McCartney=] debuted as a solo artist with the album ''Music/McCartney'', before forming the band Music/{{Wings}} with his first wife, Linda. After leading Wings throughout the 1970s, [=McCartney=] resumed his solo career in 1980.

* 1971 - ''Music/{{Ram}}'' [[note]]A collaboration with Linda [=McCartney=][[/note]]

* 1993 - ''Paul Is Live''[[note]]A TakeThat to the "Paul is dead" hoax.[[/note]]

Beyond music, he has been known for promoting subjects such as vegetarianism.

** 2021 - ''[=McCartney III=] Imagined'' [[note]] A collaborative album featuring remixes and covers of songs from ''[[=McCartney III=]]''

** On ''[=McCartney=]'', ''[=McCartney=] II'', and ''Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard'', Paul performs almost all the instruments himself.

* {{Veganopia}}: One of the most famous vegetarians in showbusiness. Ironically not a straight example, as he's largely chill with dairy.

** A personal and professional relationship with Music/MichaelJackson abruptly ended when Jackson bought the publishing rights to the Lennon/[=McCartney=] catalog. [=McCartney=]'s specific reason for being angry at Jackson seemed to change through the years, however, from MJ "buying the rug he was standing on," to some of the choices he made in exploitation of the songs (e.g. putting certain [[Music/TheBeatles Beatles]] songs in certain commercials) to simply not giving [=McCartney=]--despite the fact that [=McCartney=] is one of the wealthiest men in showbiz--a raise in the royalties.

* ChronologicalAlbumTitle: ''[=McCartney=] II''. It's technically his second album only if you don't include Wings releases or ''Ram'', which was officially credited to Paul and Linda together.

* CoverAlbum: ''Снова в СССР''. ''Run Devil Run'' and ''Kisses on the Bottom'' as well, though they contain three and two originals, respectively.
* CultSoundtrack: His soundtrack for the film ''The Family Way'', famous for being considered to be technically the first solo album by a member of the Beatles.[[note]]"Technically" because Music/GeorgeHarrison's ''Music/WonderwallMusic'' (1968), also a film soundtrack, also tends to be considered the first solo album by a member of the Beatles, ''Wonderwall Music'''s merits being that, unlike with [=McCartney's=] film score, Harrison directed and produced the recordings for the album, in addition to playing on some of it, plus ''Wonderwall Music'' was the first release on the Beatles' label Apple Records.[[/note]]

* EmbarrassingFirstName: His full name is James Paul [=McCartney=]. You wouldn't think James was all that embarrassing, but no fewer than three post-UsefulNotes/WorldWarI British prime ministers have had the same aversion: James UsefulNotes/RamsayMacDonald, James UsefulNotes/HaroldWilson and James UsefulNotes/GordonBrown. Another was more enthusiastic, or maybe saw it as the lesser of two evils: Leonard UsefulNotes/JamesCallaghan. Word of Biographer has it that everyone called him Paul to avoid confusion with his father, James 'Jim' [=McCartney=], and he named his own son James Louis, after his father and Linda's mother Louise.

* GreatestHitsAlbum: He's had several. ''Wings Greatest'' covers mainly Wings, but has some early solo tracks. ''All the Best'' is under Paul's name, but is about half Wings. The two-disc ''Wingspan'' was a comprehensive collection, covering both Wings and Paul's solo output through 1984. ''Wingspan'' was supplanted in 2016 by ''Pure [=McCartney=]'', which is available in two and four-disc configurations.

* HiddenDepths: [=McCartney=] may be best known for his Silly Little Love Songs, but he's also widely credited as one of the creators of UsefulNotes/HeavyMetal with "Helter Skelter."

* IconicItem: His trademark violin-shaped Höfner 500/1 bass. As the page image above shows, he even has guitars that look like it. He chose the Höfner violin bass because it looked symmetrical and therefore not as weird-looking for a leftie like Paul.

* OddFriendship: With Music/KanyeWest out of all people... the two have collaborated on quite a few songs, famously "[=FourFiveSeconds=]" with Music/{{Rihanna}}, and [[https://www.gq.com/story/the-untold-stories-of-paul-mccartney surprisingly they still keep in touch despite Kanye's ongoing douchebag behavior]].

* IntercourseWithYou: "Hi Hi Hi" contains sexually suggestive lyrics, but was banned by the Creator/{{BBC}} [[CompletelyMissingThePoint for being about drugs]].

* SelfParody:
A variation. The album cover for ''Paul Is Live'' is based on the album cover for The Beatles' ''Music/AbbeyRoad'', but it only features Paul walking his dog, Arrow. The cover was also deliberately constructed as a response to the ''Paul is Dead'' legend; several of the "clues" proving Paul's death from the original cover have either been deliberately changed or removed.

Sir James Paul [=McCartney=], [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever CH MBE]] (born June 18, 1942) is an English musician who gained worldwide fame as co-lead vocalist and bassist for Music/TheBeatles. His songwriting partnership with Music/JohnLennon remains the most successful in history.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: "Eat At Home" is about the pleasure of oral sex with your wife.

** "Fuh You", from ''Egypt Station'', also might count. Also doubles as GettingCrapPastTheRadar.

* FakeOutFadeOut: "Find My Way" appears to end before the three end mark before the minute-long coda starts.

* 2020 - ''[=McCartney III=]'' (upcoming)