Paul McCartney’s Career Timeline Revisited

Even if you’re living under the rock these past few years, we can be some good money that you’d still remember the name of Paul McCartney. In the life of someone as significant as Paul McCartney, there are bound to be many instances that stand out. Over his eight decades in the music industry, Paul McCartney has been successful in virtually every facet of the industry, from becoming famous as a member of The Beatles in the early 1960s to heralding the beginning of the hippie movement and achieving more hits than any other musician out there. Below, we’ll visit the timeline of the legend by taking a look at some of his greatest accomplishments below.

June 18, 1942: Jim and Mary McCartney’s first son, James Paul McCartney, is born in the Walton neighborhood of Liverpool.

June 18, 1956: McCartney’s father gave him a trumpet for his 14th birthday, but the young musician quickly exchanged it for a guitar after becoming enthralled with the emerging rock and roll scene.

October 31, 1956: Following a diagnosis of breast cancer, McCartney’s mother, Mary, passed away as a result of surgical complications. McCartney’s debut song, “I Lost My Little Girl,” and the eventual Beatles song “Let It Be” were both inspired by the tragedy.

July 6, 1957: After meeting in 1954 as classmates, McCartney and George Harrison were fast friends by 1957. In the summer of 1957, McCartney went to a gathering at St. Peter’s Church and heard a band called The Quarrymen, fronted by a teenage vocalist named John Lennon. Between sets, McCartney and Lennon met, and the rest is history.

April 1961: The Quarrymen transformed into The Beatles after the recruitment of Stuart Sutcliffe and, later, Pete Best, who helped them land gigs in clubs across Hamburg. McCartney unwillingly then became the group’s bass player after Sutcliffe quit to pursue his art education.

January 1, 1962: The band hired Brian Epstein as their manager, and he promptly got them an audition at Decca Records, which they were rejected. Epstein then sent the band’s recorded audition tape to EMI, where producer George Martin was eventually persuaded to meet and sign The Beatles.

October 5, 1962: In light of The Beatles’ move to EMI, it was agreed that drummer Best should be replaced. By the end of August, Ringo Starr had taken over for him, and by the end of the following month, the Beatles had recorded their debut song, “Love Me Do.”

April 18, 1963: McCartney met his girlfriend, Jane Asher. She would inspire some of Macca’s famous songs, such as “We Can Work It Out.”

May 2, 1963: Despite the widespread success of Lennon’s “Please Please Me,” the song only peaked at #2 on the chart that would become known as the “official” Singles Chart in the UK. The next single “From Me to You” would become the band’s first legitimate No. 1.

February 9, 1964: When the Beatles arrived in New York for their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, Beatlemania swoop in the country, and a total of 73 million viewers watched the fab four perform on stage.

January 6, 1967: George Martin scored The Family Way in 1966; he requested a string arrangement from McCartney, of which he obliged. It was McCartney’s first release without Lennon’s name, along with Peter and Gordon’s “Woman.”

May 15, 1967: McCartney meets his future wife, Linda Eastman in a 1967 Georgie Fame concert. They would eventually hit it off with the Sgt. Peppers launch party and would marry each other in 1969.

August 28, 1969: The newlyweds welcomed their first child, Mary, 5 months following their wedding.

April 10, 1970: McCartney said he has no ambitions to collaborate with the fab four once again in a press statement for his debut solo album, spreading the breakup rumors that only was finalized in 1975.

April 17, 1970: Exactly one week after he caused a global uproar by seemingly disbanding The Beatles, Paul McCartney issued his self-titled debut solo LP, on which he played every instrument.

December 7, 1971: He created his group, Wings, and released their first album.

May 3, 1976: In 1975, McCartney became the first former Beatle to tour the United States without the assistance of his former bandmates as Wings embarked on the Wings Over the World Tour.

January 16, 1980: The musician was detained in Tokyo, Japan, for possession of marijuana.

May 15, 1982: McCartney and Stevie Wonder’s duet of “Ebony and Ivory” became his 28^th number one smash on the Billboard Hot 100, a first in any artist.

July 13, 1985: McCartney performed the phenomenal “Let It Be” at the end of the Live Aid London event, which was seen by approximately 2 billion people around the world.

November 19, 1995: McCartney’s participation in The Beatles’ Anthology project marked his return to the Fab Four’s canon. McCartney got back together with Harrison and Starr to conduct finish early Beatles recordings as well as to give interviews.

March 11, 1997: In 1997, Queen Elizabeth II recognized McCartney’s significant contributions to the music industry by knighting him.

April 17, 1998: His wife, Linda, passed away from breast cancer. It was same cancer that killed his mother when he was young.

March 15, 1999: McCartney’s solo career was recognized with a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Before that, in 1988, he was inducted into the RRHF alongside his fellow Beatles members.

February 6, 2005: He headlined at the halftime of Super Bowl XXXIX, which was seen by 86 million viewers.

January 24, 2015: McCartney’s collaboration with Rihanna and Kanye West on “FourFiveSeconds,” the rock star was exposed to a new audience of music listeners, some of whom may not have been familiar with his work before.

December 18, 2020: Bored and in need of a project, Paul started to form his 3^rd self-titled album, McCartney III amid the pandemic. With that, McCartney made history by becoming the first musician to have an album in the top five of the U.S. albums charts on at least one occasion in each of the last six decades.

March 4, 2022: He is the first oldest rockstar to have headlined the Glastonbury Festival, and remains to perform even at the age of 80.