An A To Z of Sir Paul McCartney
An A To Z of Sir Paul McCartney
by Bill Harry
A is for Asher, the girl he nearly married. The five-year romance ended in an engagement, but romance fizzled out. Paul was to say, “We nearly did get married. But it always used to fall short of the mark…for which I’m obviously rather glad now.”
B is for Beatles, the most famous group in the world, who Paul had to take legal steps to officially disband.
C is for Classical Music. Paul once said, “I don’t know much about classical. If it came on the radio, my dad, who was a jazz fan, would say ‘Bloody classical, turn it off!’ But that was before Paul composed ‘Liverpool Oratorio’, the ‘Leaf’ and ‘Working Classical.’
D is for drugs, the possession of which led Paul to spend ten days in a Japanese prison in 1976.
E is for Epstein, the Beatles original manager who was to say, “Paul can be temperamental and moody and difficult to deal with but I know him very well and he me.’
F is for Forthlin Road in Liverpool. From 1955 to 1964 Paul lived in No 20, a council house, which has now become a show house for the National Trust.
G is for the Guinness Book Of Records who presented Paul with a rhodium-plated disc as ‘The Most Successful Composer And Recording Artist Of All Time.’
H is for Heather, the name of his adopted daughter and also that of his second wife, Heather Mills. Their Los Angeles home was in Heather Road.
I is for ‘I Lost My Little Girl, ’the first number Paul ever wrote. He was 14 years old and it was shortly after the death of his mother. This was the number that Paul first played to John Lennon and probably set the seal of their idea of becoming a song writing partnership.
J is for Michael Jackson, who acquired the Lennon & McCartney song catalogue, much to the annoyance of Paul, who said; “He was the first of all the owners of the songs to use them in commercials. I think this is a bad move commercially, not just morally. It cheapens the songs.”
K is for Knighthood. Paul was 54 years old when the Queen knighted him. The investiture took place at Buckingham Palace at 11.00am on Tuesday March 11, 1997 and lasted approximately two and a half hours. Linda was too ill to attend and his children, James, Stella and Mary, accompanied Paul.
L is for Linda, Paul’s late wife and inspiration for numerous love songs such as ‘The Lovely Linda’ and ‘Maybe I’m Amazed.’
M is for McCartney. The current family includes daughters Heather, Mary, Stella and James.
N is for the Nurk Twins, the name Paul and his brother Mike used when they entertained friends or family with a duet. Paul and John Lennon made an appearance as a duo at the Fox and Hounds pub in Caversham, Berkshire in April 1960 and called themselves the Nerk Twins.
O is for Yoko Ono who Paul refused to invite to his Madison Square Garden Concert in New York and was to admit publicly that they did not get on with each other. He said, “Yoko Ono and I are just not the greatest of buddies…too many things have gone down in the past.”
P is for partnership. The song writing partnership Paul had with John Lennon was the most successful partnership in song writing history.
Q is for Aidan Quinn the actor, who appeared as Paul in the film ‘The Two Of Us,’
R is for Paul Ramon, the name Paul used when he went on his first tour with the Beatles in 1960. He was to use the name again in 1969 when he recorded a track with the Steve Miller band, ‘My Dark Hour.’ Paul’s pseudonym then inspired the Ramones.
S is for ‘Suicide’ a number Paul originally wrote with Frank Sinatra in mind. When Sinatra asked him if he had a song for him, Paul quickly made a demo of ‘Suicide’ and sent it to him. Apparently, Sinatra thought Paul was taking the mickey and said, “Is this guy having me on?”
T is for Twiggy, Paul’s model friend. He wrote ‘Back In The U.S.S.R’ for her when she was due to make a documentary in Russia.
U is for Paul’s Uncle Albert who died when Paul was young. Paul recalled him as a good bloke who used to get drunk and stood on the table and read passages from the Bible. He inspired the No. 1 American hit ‘Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey.’
V is for Ivan Vaughan, Paul’s childhood friend who introduced him to John Lennon. Ivan’s death inspired Paul to begin writing poetry.
W is for Wings, the group he formed on leaving the Beatles that included his wife Linda, guitarist Denny Laine and drummer Denny Seiwell.
X is for Xmas. Paul has written several Christmas songs including ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ and ‘Rudolph The Rednosed Reggae.’
Y Is for ‘Yesterday,’ one of Paul’s most famous compositions, of which there have been over 2,500 versions by a wide variety of artists of almost every musical genre, including Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Tammy Wynette, Placido Domingo, Howard Keel, Liberace and Erroll Garner. Paul said “I really reckon ‘Yesterday’ is probably my best song.”
Z is for Zenith. The first guitar Paul owned and one that he still possesses.
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