The most commercially successful of the Beatles. Paul was so blessed with huge musical talent. Undoubtedly, he was the most talented musician in the Beatles. That’s not to say he hasn’t written some bad songs, but as a musician, he could have played with anyone. There is a story that Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix wanted to collaborate on a project and attempted to recruit Paul on bass.
He has had so many hits that it would be impossible to not leave one off. Paul is known for his pop hits, but when the mood struck, he could rip out rock and roll with the best of them. I always liked it when Paul would write something with loud guitars. In a stretch in the early 70s, he had quite a few of them. One of them I liked but didn’t make this list was Hi, Hi, Hi.
- Junior’s Farm – This one doesn’t get played as much as some others, but it’s my favorite Paul song.
- Let Me Roll It – I always thought this one could have been written and performed by John Lennon.
3. Band On The Run – One of Paul’s masterpieces. He pretty much stuck 3 short songs together on this, like he did on Abbey Road.
4. Picasso’s Last Words (Drink To Me) – The Spanish artist Pablo Picasso died at the age of 91 on April 8, 1973. News of his passing reached Paul McCartney when he was in Jamaica.
While having dinner there with Paul McCartney, Dustin Hoffman told the story of the death of Pablo Picasso and his famous last words, “Drink to me, drink to my health. You know I can’t drink anymore.” Picasso then went to bed and died in his sleep.
Paul had a guitar with him and immediately played an impromptu chord progression while singing the quote. Thus, “Picasso’s Last Words” was born, later recorded and added to the album Band On The Run in 1973. Hoffman later said of Paul writing the song in front of him, the experience was “right under childbirth in terms of great events of my life.”
5. Sally G -I’ve always liked B-Sides… Let’s listen to some Liverpudlian Country Music. I cannot hear this song without thinking of my grandmother. Her name was Sally, and yes, her last name started with G. She lived to the ripe old age of 96.
6. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five – This song was on arguably McCartney’s best album, Band On The Run. It didn’t chart, but it was released as the B side to the song Band on the Run, and it was played quite a bit on the radio. One of my favorite McCartney album tracks.
Nineteen Hundred And Eighty-Five was never performed live by Wings, and only became part of McCartney’s live set in 2010.
7. Uncle Albert/ Admiral Halsey – I remember hearing this before I knew who Paul McCartney was…it was unbelievably catchy, but I had no clue what it was about…still don’t.
Paul combined pieces of various unfinished songs to create this… in the later years of The Beatles, he helped do this for the Abbey Road Medley. As a result, Uncle Albert – Admiral Halsey contains 12 different sections over the course of its 4:50 running time.
8. Jet – It was a terrific single…I like the B side (Let Me Roll It) more, but I love this song. Tony Visconti, who did a lot of production work for David Bowie and Thin Lizzy, did the orchestration on this song.
9. Listen to What the Man Said – It’s far from his best song, but it’s a good pop hit. It was recorded for the album Venus and Mars. It was a song that McCartney had high hopes for, but early recordings did not live up to the song’s potential. The missing ingredient was Jazz musician Tom Scott’s sax solo. They ended up keeping the first take that Tony Scott played on.
10. Maybe I’m Amazed – I’ve always liked the original version of this song the best. The studio version of this song was never released as a single (no tracks on the album were), but it is one of the most remembered songs on McCartney’s first solo album McCartney. “Maybe I’m Amazed” was written in 1969, just after The Beatles broke up, about Linda.
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 