Sunday - June 18, 2006

On This Day In History

Paul McCartney Turns 64

James Paul McCartney was born to a working class family on 18 June, 1942, at Walton Hospital in Liverpool. His mother, Mary, had been a nursing sister at the hospital, and was given a bed in a private room for the birth. Sir Paul was baptised as a Roman Catholic, his mother’s faith, but religion did not play a strong part in his upbringing.

His father, Jim, was a gifted musician who played with a jazz band in the evening while holding down a day job as a cotton salesman. Both Sir Paul and his younger brother Michael received piano lessons during their early years, but neither kept up the instrument. The McCartneys moved several times during Sir Paul’s early life, but eventually settled in a terraced house in Liverpool’s Forthlin Road in 1955.

Just one year later, the family was struck by tragedy when Sir Paul’s mother died of breast cancer, aged 47. Her death had a huge impact on Sir Paul. He referred to her in the lyrics of Let It Be, singing: “When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me”. Soon after she passed away, Sir Paul asked his father to buy him a guitar, and the young musician learnt to play by imitating American R&B hits he heard on the radio.

In October 1957, Sir Paul auditioned for John Lennon’s band, The Quarrymen, at a church fair and was asked to join as the group’s third guitarist. The pair began writing songs together and several of their earliest hits were composed in the house on Forthlin Road, including Love Me Do and I Saw Her Standing There. It was also about this time that Sir Paul wrote When I’m 64, and the band are reported to have played it early concerts.

After decamping to West Germany to play a residency in the Indra Club in Hamburg, the band - now rechristened The Beatles - returned to Liverpool in 1960. It was at a gig in the Cavern nightclub that they were seen by Brian Epstein, who offered to become their manager. Epstein secured The Beatles an audition with Decca on New Year’s Day 1962, but the record company decided not to offer the band a contract.

However, the manager eventually persuaded producer George Martin to sign the group to Parlophone Records in May 1962. Beatlemania was not long coming. The group’s first single, Love Me Do, reached number four in October, and by August 1963 they spent seven weeks on top of the charts with She Loves You. By then, The Beatles were household names, with Sir Paul as the band’s main pin-up.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/18/2006 at 04:02 AM   
Filed Under: • Celebrities • History •  
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