Paul McCartney: 64 and still going strong

Sir Paul McCartney, the singer who wrote When I'm 64 for The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper album, crossed the 64-year benchmark on June 18. By all reports the former Beatle lay low on his birthday.

While more is known about his life as a member of Beatles, in recent years McCartney had several projects in the pipeline--after his first wife Linda's death, he publicly exhibited his paintings for the first time and released a book of poetry titled Blackbird singing. He has also continued to record and tour, and headlined the Glastonbury Festival in 2004. The grapevine also has it that he and his second wife Heather Mills have parted ways recently.

McCartney was born to a working class family on June 18, 1942 in Liverpool. His father Jim was a gifted musician who played with a jazz band in the evening while working in a day job as a salesman. His mother Mary, was a former nursing sister at the hospital where he was born. Paul was baptised as a Roman Catholic, his mother's faith but religion did not play a major role in his upbringing. Nevertheless, his mother's death from breast cancer at the age of 47, hit him very hard. He referred to her in the lyrics of Let it be -- “When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me.”

His musical career began soon after her death. Paul got his father to buy him a guitar and learnt to play by emulating American R&B hits he heard on the radio. In October 1957, Paul auditioned for John Lennon's group The Quarrymen at a church fair and was invited to join as the group's third guitarist.

One of the band's early names was Johnny and The Moondogs. Lennon and McCartney went into writing songs such as Love me do and I saw her standing there. It is around this time that Paul wrote When I'm 64. The band is reported to have played it in early concerts.

After a visit to West Germany to play in a residency at Indra Club in Hamburg, the band --now renamed The Beatles, returned to Liverpool in 1960. Apparently the group got their 'moptop' haircuts in Germany. A turning point was a gig at a nightclub where they encountered Brian Epstein, who offered to become their manager. After one unsuccessful attempt at signing up for a contract with Decca in 1962, Epstein managed to rope in producer George Martin to sign the group to Parlophone Records in 1962.

The rest is history--Beatlemania reached its peak with The Beatles' first single, Love me do and She loves you. Around this time Paul began to date actress Jane Asher. Several Beatles' songs are believed to have been inspired by their relationship, including We can work it out and Here, there and everywhere. The band took America by storm in 1964, after their appearance in the widely viewed Ed Sullivan show.

By then The Beatles were beginning to fall apart through musical and personal differences. Paul released his first solo album, McCartney in 1970 around the same time as the last Beatles' song, Let it be. He joined forces with a new group called The Wings. The band's hits included Mull of Kintyre, the James Bond theme for Live and let die and Band on the run.

In 1981, the group disbanded. Paul went solo with albums McCartney II and Tug of War. Subsequently despite a few successes, he earned flak from critics and the public for the 'saccharine' nature of his work. Nevertheless Paul went to record new songs for the Beatles anthology albums, which zeroed in on alternative takes and forgotten recordings. In 1997, he received a knighthood. Clearly Paul epitomises The Beatles' mystique even today.

Compiled by Cultural Correspondent