Happy 80th Birthday to Sir Paul McCartney!
Happy 80th birthday @PaulMcCartney!
We asked 80 artists to tell us about their favorite Paul McCartney song: https://t.co/XPKZIm1Ztj.
What's yours? #PaulMcCartney80 pic.twitter.com/4Xc0dZCoJe
- Stereogum (@stereogum) June 18, 2022
Sir Paul McCartney turns 80 years old today, two days after wrapping a US tour, and a week before his headlining gig at Glastonbury. Stereogum talked to a bunch of artists about their favorite McCartney penned tunes, both Beatles-era and beyond. A few of those choices:
Ben Gibbard, Death Cab for Cutie - Here, There, and Everywhere:
"You could choose cooler stuff or psychedelic stuff. That song just holds a lot of sentimental value. My dad always had this nylon string guitar leaned up against the wall, and he would entertain himself and to a certain extent us by playing through this Beatles fake book. I remember being 10 or 11 years old and hearing my dad play this song. He would always play it to my mom as a torch song of sorts. The melody is very beautiful."
Billy Joel - Yesterday
" I think I was about 15 or 16 when this came out - you know, at the height of puberty. I recognized that this was something dark, troubling, sad. Not like their other uptempo happy stuff like “Please Please Me” or “I Want To Hold Your Hand.” This was more of a grown-up song. A lot of people in my age group related to that song in the same way. It was kind of a rite of passage. Life isn’t going to be all roses. It’s going to get dark, and sometimes you’re going to be sad, and you’re going to have to deal with adult feelings. "
Laura Lee, Khruangbin - Golden Slumbers
"... A few years later, the home I knew and loved fell apart and I spent most of my childhood and adolescence clinging onto what I knew of it. “Golden Slumbers” became the anthem of my life. For years I’d listen to it every time I needed a hug or felt lost. It consoled me; it rocked me to sleep; and it put into words things I didn’t yet know how to articulate. It’s the gorgeous thing about music. The one minute, 32 second song managed to encapsulate an entire childhood’s worth of feelings in a beautifully nostalgic and painfully hopeful way."
Shirley Manson, Garbage - Venus and Mars (Reprise)
"It was Scotland in the ’80s and four of us schoolgirls were huddled around a record player, pouring over one of our dad’s record collections. We were all short skirts and long legs thrust into tucker boots, smoking Winston cigarettes and drinking weird mixtures of sneakily appropriated alcohol from our parents’ drink cabinets.
That was when I heard “Venus And Mars” for the first time. I’ve never really figured out what the lyrics mean. I don’t care. I just like how the words sound together and the gorgeous, wistful melody."
Nile Rodgers, Chic - Maybe I'm Amazed
"I remember when I first heard that song - man, I hate to sound like a crabby old person who says “My generation this, my generation that,” but the truth is when we listened to those records back in the day, we would sit around in a circle in a person’s house, play the record, decipher the lyrics and see what they meant to us. We almost had a classroom. This wasn’t a formal gathering. This was how friends discovered music when it first came out on the scene.
Paul’s music made me understand that you not only have the ability to explore the world and take it apart and maybe reassemble it, even if it’s just in your mind - you actually have the responsibility to do that."
+ 75 more picks at the source
The former Beatle received a lot of birthday wishes on Twitter:
They say it’s your birthday Saturday happy birthday Paul love you man have a great day peace and love Ringo and Barbara love love peace and love 😎✌️🌟❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/foex8TZa8m
- #RingoStarr (@ringostarrmusic) June 17, 2022
Ringo Starr
Happy Birthday, @PaulMcCartney! pic.twitter.com/He2TkTAqke
- Dhani Harrison (@DhaniHarrison) June 18, 2022
Dhani Harrison
Happy Birthday Sir @PaulMcCartney!! Celebrate his birthday with THE RSD SONG OF THE YEAR: “Women and Wives” as part of #RSDDrops at your local indie store. It comes with my remix! pic.twitter.com/fHVMO5zR4m
- St. Vincent (@st_vincent) June 18, 2022
St. Vincent, also doing some promo for their RSD single "Women and Wives"
A Friend Like You: Happy 80th Birthday to Paul McCartney! pic.twitter.com/LYJropOi0y
- Brian Wilson (@BrianWilsonLive) June 18, 2022
Brian Wilson
A very happy 80th birthday to actual legend (and noted Sparks fan) Sir Paul McCartney. #yesweregoingtoapartyparty pic.twitter.com/ej27WB1WHr
- edgarwright (@edgarwright) June 18, 2022
Edgar Wright
Happy Birthday @PaulMcCartney! #PaulMcCartney80 #PaulMcCartney pic.twitter.com/kLxQsnSVKG
- Susanna Hoffs (@SusannaHoffs) June 18, 2022
Susanna Hoffs
Little tribute to the Emperor of Pop himself…Happy Birthday @PaulMcCartney and thank you for all the great tunes. Eternally grateful. 🙏🏻 https://t.co/2n6dQF9GAU
- Seán Ono Lennon (@seanonolennon) June 18, 2022
Sean Ono Lennon
Happy birthday @paulmccartney.
Welcome to the 80’s.
❤️ pic.twitter.com/1WRlUFffPn
- Carole King (@Carole_King) June 18, 2022
Carol King
Click to viewElvis Costello covered "Here, There and Everywhere" for Paul's 80th.
An oldie but a goodie: Ten years ago, while promoting The Idler Wheel, Fiona Apple covered "Let Me Roll It" on Jimmy Fallon in honor of Paul's 70th birthday.
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Favorite Paul song?