Paul McCartney Through the Years: The Beatles and More

Paul McCartney rose to worldwide stardom as a member of The Beatles alongside John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Nicknamed the “cute Beatle,” McCartney’s talent as a songwriter and musician led to his partnership with Lennon and the formation of The Beatles, one of the most iconic groups in history. McCartney and Lennon cowrote many of the bands’ hit songs, including “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Let It Be.”

In his book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, McCartney described writing with Lennon as a “kind of pingpong.”

“He’d be sitting there and I’d be sitting there, and one of us would suggest an opening line. And then the other one would go, ‘OK’ and would make a suggestion for the second line,” McCartney explained. “It was just easier with me and John, just because you could iron out any wrinkles there and then.”

In 2023, McCartney and Starr completed Lennon’s unfinished demo of “Now and Then.” With the use of new technology, the two were able to use guitar tracks by Harrison and salvaged Lennon’s voice with audio restoration technology. Lennon died in December 1980 after being shot by an envious fan named Mark David Chapman and Harrison died in November 2001 due to cancer.

In November that year, McCartney told BBC Radio 1 that while recording, “You could imagine he [Lennon] was just in the next room in a vocal booth or something” and that “it’s very special for me to be singing with John again.”

Keep scrolling to see a timeline of McCartney’s career: