Paul McCartney Songs

When you think of the greatest popular music composers of all time, few come immediately to mind.  However, there is one man who is the epitome of popular song writing and performing; a founding member of The Beatles, Paul McCartney.   

Amazingly, 32 Paul McCartney songs have reached number one on the Billboard Top 100 chart!   

Paul’s writing and composing skills have extensively grown from his original compositions’ as a young man growing up in Liverpool.  His first efforts have often been labeled as light and “silly” love songs, which some may consider to be true when you think of Paul McCartney songs such as: Love Me Do, She Loves You, and Please, Please Me.   

In his co-writing compositions, John Lennon and Paul McCartney gave credit and royalties quite easily to each other, not allowing egos to interfere with their early success.   

Paul was clearly the most versatile musician of the Fab Four. He could play drum part, leads, and classical styles expertly. This made him finicky about the band’s songs, which was very evident when he stretched The Beatles refinement and profundity when it came to Beatles lyrics and music.   

In Rubber Soul, the Beatles album featured an expansion from the “cute period,” as Paul puts it, and launched songs such as: In My Life, Nowhere Man and Michelle as a break from previous the Fab Four previous fare. Perhaps a breakup of the band, based purely on style direction was imminent at this point.   

Songs such as Paperback Writer, Eleanor Rigby and Got to Get You into My Life in 1966’s Revolver album, also show change and evolution of a new sound that reflected the changes in the Fab Four at the time; the introduction of psychedelic rock and innovative string arrangements emerges. This was a huge artistic leap for Paul McCartney and for John Lennon.   

Towards the end of the band’s performing career, McCartney sensed unease in the group. He wanted them to remain creative in their productivity and pressed them to work on a new project: the very significant Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts ClubBand.  It has been widely acclaimed as rock’s first concept album, rather groundbreaking.

   

When the band finally dispersed, Paul was the most productive at continuing to write and perform. This was when he wrote Maybe I’m Amazed. He put out a solo album in the first couple of years with hits of the same genre, but perhaps a little less edgy. In 1971 when he formed the band Wings, critics found his “mad-genius” style emerge again. He may not have had Lennon’s radical forward-thinking style, but he was able to poke fun at being labeled a writer of silly love songs with the super hit Silly Love Songs. Smart!   

The album featured the danceable track Coming Up. Other tracks feature his vocal eclecticism and soulful falsetto among a spicy horn section and some funky guitar riffs. Ballads continued about lonely women and ordinary day experiences.   

Other great Paul McCartney songs in this period include the catchy sing-along Hands Across the Water. Sound effects, funky flugelhorns and orchestrations all demonstrate Paul’s musicality and sophistication.   

Today, Paul McCartney is still writing, producing and performing. He is the first to admit that he can just sit down and think about things, and a pop song will come out of the simplest ideas. Whether it’s “I’ve got too much on my plate” to the classic simplicity of “Let it be, over 400 songs later Paul McCartney is the greatest song writer of many, many generations.