ther manipulation techniques ... limiters and ... effects like flanging and ADT."[53] Their recording required a forty-piece orchestra, which Martin and McCartney took turns conducting.[54] The sessions produced the double A-side single "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane" in February 1967, and the LP followed in June.[31][nb 6] McCartney's "She's Leaving Home" was an orchestral pop song. MacDonald described the track as "[among] the finest work on Sgt. Pepper—imperishable popular art of its time".[56] Based on an ink drawing by McCartney, the LP's cover included a collage designed by pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth, featuring the Beatles in costume as the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, standing with a host of celebrities.[57][nb 7] The heavy moustaches worn by the Beatles reflected the growing influence of hippie style trends on the band, while their clothing "spoofed the vogue in Britain for military fashions", wrote Gould.[59] Scholar David Scott Kastan described Sgt. Pepper as "the most important and influential rock-and-roll album ever recorded".[60]
—John Lennon, Rolling Stone magazine, 1970
Epstein's death in August 1967 created a void, which left the Beatles perplexed and concerned about their future.[62] McCartney, stepping in to fill that void, gradually became the de facto leader and business manager of the group Lennon had once led.[63]
His first creative suggestion after this change of leadership was to
propose that the band move forward on their plans to produce a film for
television, which was to become Magical Mystery Tour. The project was "an administrative nightmare throughout", according to Beatles' historian Mark Lewisohn.[64] McCartney largely directed the film, which brought the group their first unfavourable critical response.[65] However, the film's soundtrack was more successful. It was released in the UK as a six-track double extended play disc (EP), and as an identically titled LP in the US, filled out with five songs from the band's recent singles.[31] The only Capitol compilation later included in the group's official canon of studio albums, the Magical Mystery Tour
LP achieved $8 million in sales within three weeks of its release,
higher initial sales than any other Capitol LP up to that point.[66]
In January 1968, EMI filmed the Beatles for a promotional trailer intended to advertise the animated film Yellow Submarine, loosely based on the imaginary world evoked by McCartney's 1966 composition. Though critics admired the film for its visual style, humour and music, the soundtrack album issued seven months later received a less enthusiastic response.[67] By late 1968, relations within the band were deteriorating. The tension grew during the recording of their self-titled double album, also known as the "White Album".[68][nb 8] Matters worsened the following year during the Let It Be sessions, when a camera crew filmed McCartney lecturing the group: "We've been very negative since Mr. Epstein passed away ... we were always fighting [his] discipline a bit, but it's silly to fight that discipline if it's our own".[70]
In March 1969, McCartney married Linda Eastman, and in August, the couple had their first child, Mary, named after his late mother.[71] For Abbey Road, the band's last recorded album, Martin suggested "a continuously moving piece of music", urging the group to think symphonically.[72] McCartney agreed, but Lennon did not. They eventually compromised, agreeing to McCartney's suggestion: an LP featuring individual songs on side one, and a long medley on side two.[72] In October 1969, a rumour surfaced that McCartney had died in a car crash in 1966 and been replaced by a lookalike, but this was quickly refuted when a November Life magazine cover featured him and his family, accompanied by the caption "Paul is still with us".[73]
On 10 April 1970, in the midst of business disagreements with his bandmates, McCartney announced his departure from the group.[74] He filed suit for the band's formal dissolution on 31 December 1970. More legal disputes followed as McCartney's attorneys, his in-laws John and Lee Eastman, fought Lennon's, Harrison's, and Starr's business manager, Allen Klein, over royalties and creative control. An English court legally dissolved the Beatles on 9 January 1975, though sporadic lawsuits against their record company EMI, Klein, and each other persisted until 1989.[63][nb 9][nb 10] They are widely regarded as one of the most popular and influential acts in the history of rock music.[79]
Prior to, and for a while after leaving the group, McCartney suffered from a deep depression as a result of the band's break-up. He spent days in bed and drank excessively: "I nearly had a breakdown," he said. "I was going crazy."[80] Biographer Howard Sounes writes that "McCartney sank into whisky-soaked oblivion, [and] only Linda knew how to save him."[80] She helped him pull out of that emotional crisis by praising his work as a songwriter and convincing him to continue writing and recording. In her honor, he later wrote "Maybe I'm Amazed", explaining that with the Beatles breaking up, "that was my feeling: Maybe I'm amazed at what's going on... Maybe I'm a man and maybe you're the only woman who could ever help me; Baby won't you help me understand... Maybe I'm amazed at the way you pulled me out of time, hung me on the line, Maybe I'm amazed at the way I really need you." He added that "every love song I write is for Linda."[81][82]
—McCartney
After the Beatles' break-up in 1970, McCartney continued his musical career with his first solo release, McCartney, a US number-one album. Apart from some vocal contributions from Linda, McCartney is a one-man album, with Paul providing compositions, instrumentation and vocals.[84][nb 11] In 1971, he collaborated with Linda and drummer Denny Seiwell on a second album, Ram. A UK number one and a US top five, Ram included the co-written US number-one hit single "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey".[86] Later that year, ex-Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine joined the McCartneys and Seiwell to form the band Wings.
McCartney had this to say on the group's formation: "Wings were always a
difficult idea ... any group having to follow [the Beatles'] success
would have a hard job ... I found myself in that very position. However,
it was a choice between going on or finishing, and I loved music too
much to think of stopping."[87][nb 12] In September 1971, the McCartneys' daughter Stella was born, named in honour of Linda's grandmothers, both of whom were named Stella.[89]
Following the addition of guitarist Henry McCullough, Wings' first concert tour began in 1972 with a debut performance in front of an audience of seven hundred at the University of Nottingham. Ten more gigs followed as they travelled across the UK in a van during an unannounced tour of universities, during which the band stayed in modest accommodation and received pay in coinage collected from students, while avoiding Beatles songs during their performances.[90] A seven-week, 25-show tour of Europe followed, during which the band played solely Wings and McCartney solo material except for a few covers, including the Little Richard hit "Long Tall Sally", the only song McCartney played during the tour that had previously been recorded by the Beatles. McCartney wanted the tour to avoid large venues; most of the small halls they played had capacities of fewer than 3,000 people.[91] Of his first two post-Beatles tours, McCartney said, "The main thing I didn't want was to come on stage, faced with the whole torment of five rows of press people with little pads, all looking at me and saying, 'Oh well, he is not as good as he was.' So we decided to go out on that university tour which made me less nervous ... by the end of that tour I felt ready for something else, so we went into Europe."[92]
In March 1973, Wings achieved their first US number-one single, "My Love", included on their second LP, Red Rose Speedway, a US number one and UK top five.[93][nb 13] Paul's collaboration with Linda and former Beatles producer Martin resulted in the song "Live and Let Die", which was the theme song for the James Bond film of the same name. Nominated for an Academy Award, the song reached number two in the US and number nine in the UK. It also earned Martin a Grammy for his orchestral arrangement.[94] Music professor and author Vincent Benitez described the track as "symphonic rock at its best".[95][nb 14]
After the departure of McCullough and Seiwell in 1973, the McCartneys and Laine recorded Band on the Run. The album was the first of seven platinum Wings LPs.[97] It was a US and UK number one, the band's first to top the charts in both countries and the first ever to reach Billboard magazine's charts on three separate occasions. One of the best-selling releases of the decade, it remained on the UK charts for 124 weeks. Rolling Stone named it Album of the Year for 1974, and in 1975 it won Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary/Pop Vocal and Best Engineered Album.[98][nb 15] In 1974, Wings achieved a second US number-one single with the title track.[100] The album also included the top-ten hits "Jet" and "Helen Wheels", and earned the 413th spot on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[101][nb 16]
Wings followed Band on the Run with the chart-topping albums Venus and Mars (1975) and Wings at the Speed of Sound (1976).[103][nb 17] In 1975, they began the fourteen-month Wings Over the World Tour, which included stops in the UK, Australia, Europe and the US. The tour marked the first time McCartney performed Beatles songs live with Wings, with five in the two-hour set list: "I've Just Seen a Face", "Yesterday", "Blackbird", "Lady Madonna" and "The Long and Winding Road".[105] Following the second European leg of the tour and extensive rehearsals in London, the group undertook an ambitious US arena tour that yielded the US number-one live triple LP Wings over America.[106]
In September 1977, the McCartneys had a third child, a son they named James. In November, the Wings song "Mull of Kintyre", co-written with Laine, was quickly becoming one of the best-selling singles in UK chart history.[107] The most successful single of McCartney's solo career, it achieved double the sales of the previous record holder, "She Loves You", and went on to sell 2.5 million copies and hold the UK sales record until the 1984 charity single, "Do They Know It's Christmas?"[108][nb 18]
London Town (1978) spawned a US number-one single ("With a Little Luck"), and was Wings' best-selling LP since Band on the Run, making the top five in both the US and the UK. Critical reception was unfavourable, and McCartney expressed disappointment with the album.[110][nb 19] Back to the Egg (1979) featured McCartney's collaboration with a rock supergroup dubbed "the Rockestra". Credited to Wings, the band included Pete Townshend, David Gilmour, Gary Brooker, John Paul Jones and John Bonham. Though certified platinum, critics panned the album.[112] Wings completed their final concert tour in 1979, with twenty shows in the UK that included the live debut of the Beatles songs "Got to Get You into My Life", "The Fool on the Hill" and "Let it Be".[113]
In 1980, McCartney released his second solo LP, the self-produced McCartney II, which peaked at number one in the UK and number three in the US. As with his first album, he composed and performed it alone.[114] The album contained the song "Coming Up", the live version of which, recorded in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1979 by Wings, became the group's last
"After Brian died ... Paul took over and supposedly led us you
know ... we went round in circles ... We broke up then. That was the
disintegration. I thought, 'we've fuckin' had it.'"[61]
In January 1968, EMI filmed the Beatles for a promotional trailer intended to advertise the animated film Yellow Submarine, loosely based on the imaginary world evoked by McCartney's 1966 composition. Though critics admired the film for its visual style, humour and music, the soundtrack album issued seven months later received a less enthusiastic response.[67] By late 1968, relations within the band were deteriorating. The tension grew during the recording of their self-titled double album, also known as the "White Album".[68][nb 8] Matters worsened the following year during the Let It Be sessions, when a camera crew filmed McCartney lecturing the group: "We've been very negative since Mr. Epstein passed away ... we were always fighting [his] discipline a bit, but it's silly to fight that discipline if it's our own".[70]
In March 1969, McCartney married Linda Eastman, and in August, the couple had their first child, Mary, named after his late mother.[71] For Abbey Road, the band's last recorded album, Martin suggested "a continuously moving piece of music", urging the group to think symphonically.[72] McCartney agreed, but Lennon did not. They eventually compromised, agreeing to McCartney's suggestion: an LP featuring individual songs on side one, and a long medley on side two.[72] In October 1969, a rumour surfaced that McCartney had died in a car crash in 1966 and been replaced by a lookalike, but this was quickly refuted when a November Life magazine cover featured him and his family, accompanied by the caption "Paul is still with us".[73]
On 10 April 1970, in the midst of business disagreements with his bandmates, McCartney announced his departure from the group.[74] He filed suit for the band's formal dissolution on 31 December 1970. More legal disputes followed as McCartney's attorneys, his in-laws John and Lee Eastman, fought Lennon's, Harrison's, and Starr's business manager, Allen Klein, over royalties and creative control. An English court legally dissolved the Beatles on 9 January 1975, though sporadic lawsuits against their record company EMI, Klein, and each other persisted until 1989.[63][nb 9][nb 10] They are widely regarded as one of the most popular and influential acts in the history of rock music.[79]
Prior to, and for a while after leaving the group, McCartney suffered from a deep depression as a result of the band's break-up. He spent days in bed and drank excessively: "I nearly had a breakdown," he said. "I was going crazy."[80] Biographer Howard Sounes writes that "McCartney sank into whisky-soaked oblivion, [and] only Linda knew how to save him."[80] She helped him pull out of that emotional crisis by praising his work as a songwriter and convincing him to continue writing and recording. In her honor, he later wrote "Maybe I'm Amazed", explaining that with the Beatles breaking up, "that was my feeling: Maybe I'm amazed at what's going on... Maybe I'm a man and maybe you're the only woman who could ever help me; Baby won't you help me understand... Maybe I'm amazed at the way you pulled me out of time, hung me on the line, Maybe I'm amazed at the way I really need you." He added that "every love song I write is for Linda."[81][82]
1970–81: Wings
Main article: Paul McCartney and Wings
"I didn't really want to keep going as a solo artist ... so it became
obvious that I had to get a band together ... Linda and I talked it
through and it was like, 'Yeah, but let's not put together a supergroup,
let's go back to square one.'"[83]
Following the addition of guitarist Henry McCullough, Wings' first concert tour began in 1972 with a debut performance in front of an audience of seven hundred at the University of Nottingham. Ten more gigs followed as they travelled across the UK in a van during an unannounced tour of universities, during which the band stayed in modest accommodation and received pay in coinage collected from students, while avoiding Beatles songs during their performances.[90] A seven-week, 25-show tour of Europe followed, during which the band played solely Wings and McCartney solo material except for a few covers, including the Little Richard hit "Long Tall Sally", the only song McCartney played during the tour that had previously been recorded by the Beatles. McCartney wanted the tour to avoid large venues; most of the small halls they played had capacities of fewer than 3,000 people.[91] Of his first two post-Beatles tours, McCartney said, "The main thing I didn't want was to come on stage, faced with the whole torment of five rows of press people with little pads, all looking at me and saying, 'Oh well, he is not as good as he was.' So we decided to go out on that university tour which made me less nervous ... by the end of that tour I felt ready for something else, so we went into Europe."[92]
In March 1973, Wings achieved their first US number-one single, "My Love", included on their second LP, Red Rose Speedway, a US number one and UK top five.[93][nb 13] Paul's collaboration with Linda and former Beatles producer Martin resulted in the song "Live and Let Die", which was the theme song for the James Bond film of the same name. Nominated for an Academy Award, the song reached number two in the US and number nine in the UK. It also earned Martin a Grammy for his orchestral arrangement.[94] Music professor and author Vincent Benitez described the track as "symphonic rock at its best".[95][nb 14]
After the departure of McCullough and Seiwell in 1973, the McCartneys and Laine recorded Band on the Run. The album was the first of seven platinum Wings LPs.[97] It was a US and UK number one, the band's first to top the charts in both countries and the first ever to reach Billboard magazine's charts on three separate occasions. One of the best-selling releases of the decade, it remained on the UK charts for 124 weeks. Rolling Stone named it Album of the Year for 1974, and in 1975 it won Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary/Pop Vocal and Best Engineered Album.[98][nb 15] In 1974, Wings achieved a second US number-one single with the title track.[100] The album also included the top-ten hits "Jet" and "Helen Wheels", and earned the 413th spot on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[101][nb 16]
Wings followed Band on the Run with the chart-topping albums Venus and Mars (1975) and Wings at the Speed of Sound (1976).[103][nb 17] In 1975, they began the fourteen-month Wings Over the World Tour, which included stops in the UK, Australia, Europe and the US. The tour marked the first time McCartney performed Beatles songs live with Wings, with five in the two-hour set list: "I've Just Seen a Face", "Yesterday", "Blackbird", "Lady Madonna" and "The Long and Winding Road".[105] Following the second European leg of the tour and extensive rehearsals in London, the group undertook an ambitious US arena tour that yielded the US number-one live triple LP Wings over America.[106]
In September 1977, the McCartneys had a third child, a son they named James. In November, the Wings song "Mull of Kintyre", co-written with Laine, was quickly becoming one of the best-selling singles in UK chart history.[107] The most successful single of McCartney's solo career, it achieved double the sales of the previous record holder, "She Loves You", and went on to sell 2.5 million copies and hold the UK sales record until the 1984 charity single, "Do They Know It's Christmas?"[108][nb 18]
London Town (1978) spawned a US number-one single ("With a Little Luck"), and was Wings' best-selling LP since Band on the Run, making the top five in both the US and the UK. Critical reception was unfavourable, and McCartney expressed disappointment with the album.[110][nb 19] Back to the Egg (1979) featured McCartney's collaboration with a rock supergroup dubbed "the Rockestra". Credited to Wings, the band included Pete Townshend, David Gilmour, Gary Brooker, John Paul Jones and John Bonham. Though certified platinum, critics panned the album.[112] Wings completed their final concert tour in 1979, with twenty shows in the UK that included the live debut of the Beatles songs "Got to Get You into My Life", "The Fool on the Hill" and "Let it Be".[113]
Paul McCartney being interviewed at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, January 1980
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