In October 1980, in one of his last interviews, John Lennon was asked what he thought about Paul McCartney‘s recent projects with Wings and whether he was ever surprised by his former bandmate’s creative output. His reply was telling. “No, he never surprised me. Like, can you be surprised by your brother? From aged 15 on?”
And he was right. Lennon and McCartney were so tight-knit that they were practically blood-related - and John recognized that their sibling-like relationship was still very much in existence, even a decade after The Beatles had split, with all four members going their separate ways. ll
From the thousands of books and biographies that have been written about them, Paul’s relationship with John was not especially complex - they admired each other, respected each other - despite the slight age difference, and having different personalities. In some ways they shared a similar background, growing up in the south end of post-war Liverpool just as an exciting new brand of music, rock ‘n’ roll, started seeping in from the United States. They both got the bug at the same time.
They had a mutual understanding - one glance, one raised eyebrow, a smil details
The Beatles used a performing trick to stand them apart from other acts. Music icon Paul McCartney said The Beatles found ways to stand out from their peers, including using one performance trick that boosted their gigs.
For decades since The Beatles took music by storm in the early 1960s, fans, scholars, authors, journalists, scientists, religious leaders, and even haters have wondered what made the Fab Four special.
Everything about them has been documented repeatedly in virtually every single form of media, and while some have come close to encapsulating the reason for their greatness, no one other than them can truly explain their own phenomenon. McCartney, who has never shied away from talking about The Beatles' history, including what made them tick, once tried to explain what The Beatles did to distinguish themselves from their competition.
Along with their own specific skills in the recording studio, he revealed that the band was highly proficient when it came to performing for their fans. However, one trick truly set them above the bar: playing certain covers.
From their early days, McCartney explained, The Beatles made themselves unique by writing their own songs, but t details
The Beatles' rise to fame was as quick as it was dramatic. After becoming Liverpool's biggest band in 1962, they took the UK by storm in 1963, scoring their first official number one single with 'From Me to You' before their debut album 'Please Please Me' topped the charts after its March release.
By 1964 they were world famous. The Fab Four were on a 19-date concert residency in Paris on January 25, 1964 of that year when manager Brian Epstein told them they had achieved their first number one in America when 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' topped the US's Cashbox charts.
The song hit number one on the USA's main chart - the Billboard Hot 100 - by February 1 and stayed there for seven weeks. From that point, Brian decided they needed to make the most of international markets.
As The Beatles had been big hits in the clubs of Hamburg in their very early days, Berlin-based Odeon Records told Brian and producer George Martin that singing in German would allow the band to sell more records in West Germany. As such, The Beatles were sent into the Pathé Marconi studio in Paris on January 29 to sing in a foreign language.
Translations of 'She Loves You' and 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' were details
After the Fab Four called it quits for good in 1970, fans around the world were anxiously waiting for the announcement of a proper reunion. Before the sad passing of John Lennon in 1980 and George Harrison in 2001, fans were hoping that at least some semblance of a reunion would happen. It never really did.
However, in the 1970s, a Beatles reunion was apparently on the table. And we can thank George Harrison (not exclusively, but partially) for it not actually taking off. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing, I’ll leave up to the diehard fans. Still, it’s an interesting story if nothing else.
Shortly after The Beatles broke up in the early 1970s, the possibility of a reunion was not even considered. The Fab Four were beefing with each other, there were lawsuits being thrown around, and Paul McCartney and John Lennon had taken to writing a few beef tracks about each other. It was a mess.
Eventually, things died down, and each member of the former band went on to produce excellent solo works. As things settled further, rumors of a potential reunion began to circulate. However, they would never come to fruition. And guitarist George Harrison was pretty dead set on a reunion never happening details
When people think of the Beatles, the first thing that comes to mind is not their drug use, at least for most people. When compared to some of their wilder contemporaries, the Fabs feel somewhat innocent. But that certainly doesn’t mean the band didn’t partake from time to time.
They famously entered into a psychedelic era in the mid-’60s, fueled by LSD and other hallucinogens. They were also not strangers to marijuana. The Beatles’ post-introduction to drugs was markedly more experimental in the studio. Like many of their contemporaries, drugs provided a creative spark. There was one studio session wherein John Lennon accidentally took drugs, luckily leading to one of the Beatles’ best psychedelic songs.
When we think of the Beatles and drugs, it’s hard for the mind not to immediately go to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Although we don’t have the statistics, this feels like the Beatles’ “highest” album. That’s likely due to the inclusion of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”–which Lennon swore up and down wasn’t about LSD…However, there is another song that rivals “Lucy” in details
“Yesterday” by The Beatles is a musical blank canvas, open to interpretation, reinvention, and—sometimes—utter reinvention in genres the Fab Four never saw coming. With over 2,000 known versions out there, here are 10 of the most genre-bending, mood-swinging, mind-tilting covers of “Yesterday” you never knew you needed… until now.
1. Marvin Gaye (1970)
Motown’s smoothest operator took “Yesterday” and wrapped it in satin. His version, from That’s the Way Love Is, lives in a warm, soulful haze—like heartbreak at sunset, with a bassline for a hug.
2. Molly Hatchet (2012)
Southern rock titans Molly Hatchet brought muscle and denim to “Yesterday” on Regrinding the Axes. Imagine a bar fight breaking out in the middle of a memory—that’s how hard this one hits.
3. En Vogue (1992)
If ’60s harmonies got a ’90s R&B glow-up, this is it. En Vogue’s a cappella spin on “Yesterday” doesn’t just cover it—it serenades it with perfect pitch and powerhouse soul.
4. La Lupe (1967)
Known as the Queen of Latin Soul, La Lupe’s fiery version on El Rey y Y
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When The Beatles broke up, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr all seemed a bit adrift for their first few years as ex-members of The Fab Four. Only George Harrison seemed to be thriving on his own, at least in terms of his career choices.
Maybe that’s because Harrison no longer had to answer to his bandmates when it came down to the material he wanted to present. If he wanted to go the spiritual route, as he did on the 1970 track “Hear Me Lord”, there was no one to stop him. The final year or so of The Beatles as a group was a particularly unhappy time for the four members in terms of their interactions. In one notorious example, George Harrison clashed with Paul McCartney while cameras were rolling in January 1969 on a documentary about the group’s new record.
Earlier that fateful day, Harrison had tried to interest the other members in a new track of his called “Hear Me Lord”. Unfortunately, like so many other Harrison compositions of that era, The Beatles couldn’t be bothered to do much with it. Harrison added it to his stockpile of unrecorded songs. He would unleash that stockpile upon the world as part of the triple album All Things Must Pass in 1970. details
Beatles history is full of stories about Paul McCartney’s dual life as a bassist and guitarist. After getting saddled with the instrument when Stuart Sutcliffe left the group in July 1961, McCartney didn’t play guitar with the Beatles again until 1965’s Help! album. In addition to performing acoustic guitar on the album cut “Yesterday,” he took electric guitar solos on the songs “Another Girl,” “The Night Before” and “Ticket to Ride.” It was quite a shift for McCartney, considering he’d originally been put off playing lead guitar after his first attempt to do so onstage became a disaster.
In fact, it was that very episode of stage fright that resulted in George Harrison joining the group, at McCartney’s suggestion, seeing as neither he nor John Lennon had any facility for playing lead. Paul’s inability is ultimately what got him stuck playing bass, as Lennon had no ability to play the instrument and Harrison was too vital as a lead guitarist.
Of course, once McCartney began to solo, it was hard to stop him. He took solo sports on Harrison’s Revolver cut “Taxman,” when Harrison was unable to come up with anything details
Every so often, Paul McCartney and John Lennon would conjure up a Beatles song specifically for Ringo Starr to sing. And as one would expect from songs written for the least singing member of the band, some were better than others (both in chart performance and the general opinion of the rest of the band).
One of the first songs Lennon wrote for Starr was left on the cutting room floor, although the musicians would mention the song in later interviews. To Lennon, it was hilarious. To George Harrison, the throwaway song was just plain weird.
John Lennon Wrote This Beatles Song For Ringo Starr
Although the Beatles originally intended for Ringo Starr to sing John Lennon’s song, “If You’ve Got Trouble,” on the 1965 album Help!, the band decided to scrap the song. From the lyrics to the melody to Starr’s humble performance, the Beatles ultimately left the song in the EMI Studios vault. During a 1965 interview with Melody Maker, Lennon described the song as hilarious.
“It’s the funniest thing I’ve ever done,” Lennon laughed. “I didn’t expect anybody to want to record it.” Guitarist George Harrison had an even blunter take. “It&r details
“‘There’s a Place’ was my attempt at a sort of Motown, black thing.
It says the usual Lennon things: ‘In my mind there’s no sorrow…’ It’s all in your mind.”
“There’s A Place” – the very first song recorded during the 11 February 1963 Please Please Me EMI session – was exceptional for its day (and for ours). As Wilfrid Mellers later pointed out in Twilight of the Gods, it was the first Beatles song about self-reliance. It established songwriter John Lennon’s recurring theme of “finding comfort in his thoughts, dreams, and memories…[dealing] with life’s sorrow by retreating into the safety of his inner thoughts…”, a significant theme Lennon would repeat in “later songs such as ‘Strawberry Fields Forever,’ ‘Girl,’ ‘In My Life,’ ‘Rain,’ ‘I’m Only Sleeping,’ ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’.” No “moon, June, croon, spoon” song, “There’s a Place” introduces a more sophisticated scenario.
McCartney supplied the inspiration for this song: the Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim details
It felt like any other summer day in Liverpool, but a chance encounter turned into one of the most notable days in music history: the day John Lennon first met Paul McCartney. On July 6, 1957, St. Peter’s Church in Woolton Village was having a church party, where The Quarrymen — Lennon’s skiffle band at the time — played.
“Apparently, we were on stage playing the Del-Vikings doo-wop number 'Come Go With Me,’ and Paul arrived on his bicycle and saw us playing,” Rod Davis of The Quarrymen recalled to Billboard. “It was somebody we didn’t know, Paul, who met someone we did know. It wasn’t a big deal. You explain this to people, particularly Americans, and they expect there to be angels hiding behind clouds blowing trumpets. It’s all terribly, terribly a non-event — except in hindsight.”
During the meeting, mutual friend Ivan Vaughan introduced the two — and McCartney joined the band a few months later. While they eventually changed the direction of their sound to rock ‘n’ roll — and their name to The Beatles — what made their eventually success so sweet was the tight friendship between Lennon and McCartney, t details
Creator Phil Rosenthal remembered star Peter Boyle, who died in 2006. Rosenthal told the audience a little-known fact that John Lennon was the best man at Boyle’s wedding to his wife, Loraine Alterman, a journalist
Everybody Loves Raymond probably doesn’t make you think of The Beatles, but it just might now.
On Monday, June 16, at the Paley Center in New York City, Everybody Loves Raymond stars Ray Romano, Patricia Heaton and Maggie Wheeler, creator Phil Rosenthal and producer Tom Caltabiano reunited to celebrate 30 years of the hit sitcom. The comedy series, which also starred Brad Garrett and the late Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts, ran from 1996 to 2005 and continues to find new fans in syndication. Romano, 67, starred as sportswriter Ray Barone, and the characters around him were loosely based on his real family.
During the panel, the group took time to remember Boyle, who died in 2006 at 71. Boyle played Ray’s dad, Frank, who could be extremely stubborn and over-the-top with his sons. Coexecutive producer and writer Cindy Chupack remembered how she based a plotline for Frank on her own dad, who was a “terrible driver,” and she said Boyle was “so belligerent&rd details
Even casual fans are familiar with the Beatles' album-opening songs.
Three of them went to No. 1, either in the U.K. or America, including 1964's "A Hard Day's Night," 1965's "Help!" and 1969's "Come Together." "I Saw Her Standing There" hit No. 1 in three other countries in 1963.
Tracks that were never issued as singles – 1965's "Drive My Car," 1966's "Taxman," 1967's "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/With a Little Help From My Friends" and "Magical Mystery Tour," and 1968's "Back in the U.S.S.R." – have also become broadly familiar through radio and soundtrack spins.
Yet some lesser-known items still appear on the following list of Beatles Opening Songs Ranked From Worst to Best. "No Reply" quickly disappeared as a single in 1964, for instance, but has continued to grow in critical estimation. "Two of Us," from 1970's Let It Be, remains one of their late era's most congenial gems.
Which one's best? Here's a ranked look back at the songs that began every album by the Beatles:
No. 12. "It Won't Be Long"
From: With the Beatles (1963)
"Please Please Me" rose to No. 2 in the U.K. and then "She Loves You" topped the charts. So they stuck with the formula: Pairing details
After seven decades of writing iconic songs and performing for millions around the globe, fans rallied around McCartney on his special day.
Paul McCartney celebrates his 83rd birthday on June 18, and after more than seven decades of writing iconic songs and performing for millions across the globe, he's showing no signs of slowing down. But as the music legend marks another milestone, fans are rallying around one shared fear. With heartfelt messages pouring in, one thing is clear: the world isn't ready to say goodbye to Sir Paul just yet.
Fans of The Beatles legend took to Reddit to share their best birthday wishes. Most shared their hopes that the musician wouldn't consider retiring anytime soon.
One fan wrote, "I hope that I'll still be able to do three-hour concerts when I'm in my eighties." A second penned, "Long live Sir Paul McCartney!"
"Please don't ever retire, the world needs you. Happy birthday to you," a third fan exclaimed." A fourth admirer added, "Happy Birthday, Paul. Hope you have a wonderful day. May you be blessed with many more healthy and happy years. Keep making music, love you."
Source: Lucille Barilla/parade.com
A dollar bill signed by George Harrison is currently up for auction. It's listed among many items connected to classic rock artists.
Over two decades after his death, George Harrison is still proving how much his name is worth to Beatles fans. Harrison, who found the sale of Beatles memorabilia to be a bit strange, signed a dollar bill for a fan years ago. That item is currently up for auction and will bring in hundreds more than what the bill alone is worth. A dollar bill signed by George Harrison is up for auction.
RR Auction is currently auctioning off items from prominent classic rock artists in their Marvels of Modern Music collection. The collection includes a number of items relating to The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and more.
One item up for auction is a dollar bill. Writing in black ballpoint pen reads “To Bob, George Harrison.” Though it is unclear when Harrison signed the bill, it is from the 1981 series.
At the time of publication, the signed bill is worth over $600. Fans have until June 19 to purchase this item and more from the collection.
George Harrison was more concerned about the money in his pocket than his bandmates were. While Harrison said he di
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Born on June 18, 1942, Paul McCartney grew up in Liverpool, England, and ... well you probably know the rest. He hit global fame at a young age as the heartthrob of The Beatles, and has since released album after album of hits while touring and raising a family.
Look back at his epic life in photos as the legendary musician turns 83 on June 18, 2025.
McCartney was raised in Liverpool, England, with his parents and younger brother Peter Michael. His dad was a self-taught musician, and often gathered the family around the piano at night for a musical wind-down.
"I have some lovely childhood memories of lying on the floor and listening to my dad play 'Lullaby of the Leaves' [and other] old songs like [George Gershwin's] 'Stairway to Paradise,' " Paul said in interviews published in The Beatles Anthology.
Paul was a solid student and sang in the church choir while balancing piano and trumpet lessons.
Paul successfully campaigned his dad for a guitar and learned to play Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and Everly Brothers hits by ear.
At the Liverpool Institute, Paul reconnected with an old school friend, George Harrison, and soon after, met John Lennon.
"You saw him rather than met details
Beyoncé concluded the final night of her Cowboy Carter tour‘s six-show run at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on Monday, and took to social media to celebrate the moment, while also showing love for one of England’s most influential musicians of all time.
“Thank you, Sir Paul McCartney, for writing one of the best songs ever made,” wrote Beyoncé in an Instagram post. “Every time I sing it I feel so honored.” Beyoncé’s rendition of the Beatles’ White Album classic “Blackbird” was included on her historic, Grammy-winning Cowboy Carter album released last year.
In her post, the singer also included photos of her performing in fringe chaps and a white tee adorned with two blackbirds, crediting McCartney’s daughter, fashion designer Stella McCartney: “it is a full circle moment to wear your beautiful daughter’s design.”
“Thank you, London, for creating unforgettable memories for me and my family,” she wrote, before hinting at her return: “Holla at ‘ya when I come on tour again!”
McCartney previously applauded Beyoncé’s cover of“Blackbird,” details
The Beatles legend was apparently not pleased that the group sacked his son not once, but twice.
Zak Starkey isn’t the only one who has had enough of The Who. In a new Rolling Stone interview posted on Monday (June 16) the veteran session and touring drummer who was fired, rehired and then fired once more by The Who in a head-spinning span of several weeks earlier this year opened up about his current relationship with the band and how his dad feels about the tabloid tussle.
Asked what his father, former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, thought of the bizarre back-and-forth, Starkey said, “He [Ringo] said, ‘I’ve never liked the way that little man runs that band,'” in seeming reference to The Who singer Roger Daltrey.
After The Who “made a collective decision” to part ways with Starkey in April after his nearly 30 years behind the kit, guitarist/songwriter Pete Townshend relented a few days later and rescinded the firing, saying Starkey was “not being asked” to step down from his position. Then, a month later, Townshend took it all back and said after many years working together “the time has come for a change.” A week later, Starkey cla details
Pattie Boyd is one of the very few people in the world who can say she’s been married to not one but two rock icons. The model and photographer, who was famously married to George Harrison, only to leave him for Eric Clapton after a decade, was one of the ultimate musical muses.
Boyd’s name is synonymous with the swinging ’60s, and the many songs she inspired are classics of the era. Now 81, Boyd is still going strong, and her photography exhibitions featuring indelible images of her musical peers have earned acclaim for her keen eye. In 2007, she published a bestselling memoir, Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me, and flipped the narrative on the muse label by finally sharing her side of the story.
Pattie Boyd was in high demand as a model, rocking looks from Swinging London designers like Ossie Clark and Mary Quant, and a 1964 potato chip commercial she starred in ended up being pivotal in her personal life. The ad was directed by Richard Lester, who’d go on to direct the Beatles movies A Hard Day’s Night and Help!, and he was so charmed by Boyd that he offered her a bit part in the Fab Four’s first film.
Source: womansworld.com/Abbey Bender details
Paul McCartney makes sweet nod to late wife Linda as he marks Father's Day with throwback snap. The Beatles star Sir Paul McCartney has shared a touching family memory to mark Father's Day. Paul, who is father to five children, celebrated Father's Day (Sunday June 15) with a sweet throwback picture on his Instagram of himself with his daughter Mary as a baby, being cradled in his jacket that was taken by his first wife Linda. In the caption he wrote: "All you wonderful fathers out there, have a great Father’s Day today! - Paul."
Fans have flooded the comments to praise the sweet father and daughter moment from The Beatles star, as one wrote: "My absolute favourite picture of Paul and sweet Mary."
Paul, who turns 83 tomorrow, is a father to five kids including three biological and one adopted with late wife Linda McCartney.
The singer-songwriter, who turns 83 on June 18, first became a father in 1969, when he married photographer Linda Eastman and adopted her daughter from a previous marriage, Heather, 62. The couple eventually went on to welcome three kids: Mary, 55, Stella, 53, and James, 47.
Source: themirror.com/Niamh Spence
George Harrison was an English musician best known as the lead guitarist of The Beatles, one of the most famous bands in history. Often called the quiet Beatle, he brought Indian music and spiritual ideas into the group’s songs.
He wrote classics like Here Comes the Sun and Something for The Beatles. After the band split, he had a successful solo career with hits such as My Sweet Lord and organized the famous Concert for Bangladesh.
About the Song
Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth) is a heartfelt plea wrapped in warm melodies and gentle guitar. The lyrics ask for light, life, and peace, aiming to lift worry and bring calm. The song’s music supports this honest message with smooth rhythm and memorable tunes.
Detail Information
Release Date May 7, 1973
Album Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison (2009)
Writer George Harrison
Producer George Harrison
Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth) Lyrics
Give me love, give me love
Give me peace on earth
Give me light, give me life
Keep me free from birth
Give me hope, help me cope
With this heavy load
Trying to touch and reach you with
Heart and soul
Om, my Lor
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In one of John Lennon‘s final interviews with David Sheff, months before his death in December of 1980, he revealed a song Paul McCartney had written for the Beatles that he wished he had penned, including one of his favorites, “Here, There and Everywhere,” from the band’s 1966 album Revolver.
“I remember John saying, ‘You know, I probably like that better than any of my songs on the tape,’” recalled McCartney in The Beatles Anthology from 2002. “Coming from John, that was high praise indeed.”
Lennon also praised McCartney’s “Hey Jude,” a song he had written to comfort Lennon’s son Julian during his parents’ divorce. “That’s his best song,” said Lennon in a 1972 interview with Hit Parader. “‘Hey Jude’ is a damn good set of lyrics, and I made no contribution to that.”
The third McCartney song by the Beatles, their Abbey Road track “Oh! Darling,” was one Lennon said sounded like something he would have written. Lennon also said he would have given the song stronger vocals than McCartney, who even admitted that his singing was “lukewarm” on the track.
detailsLast year, the world got a new Lennon-McCartney song, but it wasn’t John Lennon or Paul McCartney. Instead, James McCartney, son of Paul and Linda McCartney, got together with Sean Ono Lennon, son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, to write and record a single called “Primrose Hill.” Now, James McCartney and Sean Ono Lennon are together on a new song, and this one also features Zak Starkey, son of Ringo Starr.
Zak Starkey has been in the news a lot lately — for being fired, unfired, and re-fired from his job as the Who’s touring drummer. In an interview with The Telegraph last week, Starkey claimed that he turned down a spot in the Oasis reunion tour to play with the Who before he lost his spot in the Who. But Starkey still has his gig in Mantra Of The Cosmos, the UK rock supergroup. The band’s other members are Shaun Ryder and Bez, of the Happy Mondays and Black Grape, and Ride’s Andy Bell, who used to be in Oasis and Beady Eye with Starkey. Last week, Mantra Of The Cosmos shared their Noel Gallagher collab “Domino Bones (Gets Dangerous).”
In that Telegraph interview, Zak Starkey mentioned that Mantra Of The Cosmos have a new song called “Rip Off” that details
Paul McCartney can be a hard one to pin down under the spotlight. Unlike his former bandmate, John Lennon, who often took on the role of the more outspoken and brash of the two, McCartney is nown to be measured and self-preserved.
McCartney is known to hold the work of himself and bandmates, Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison close to his heart, and not often disclosing any negativity towards their body of work. Despite their impressive cannon of music, artists are bound to have a few songs that don't sit right with them in the years that follow their release and Lennon was not shy in sharing his least favourites. However, McCartney is a little harder to read - but after a bust-up with his bandmates, there was a song that he didn't feature on, and that could may well be a sore spot for the bassist.
She Said, She Said was a track that Lennon brought to the studio pretty much finished. McCartney shared his feelings about this in Barry Miles’ Many Years From Now. McCartney said: "John brought it in pretty much finished.
"I’m not sure, but I think it was one of the only Beatles records I never played on. I think we’d had a barney or something, and I said: ‘Oh, f*** you!&rsqu details
The biggest band of the 20th century was the subject of plenty of rumors, myths, and conspiracies through the years. Years after The Beatles had split and well into the internet age, those myths and legends have persisted. Are any of them based in truth? Let’s look at just a few Beatles myths and rumors and examine if they were rooted in reality.
I’ve written about this little rumor often, and I couldn’t leave it off this list. The “Paul is dead” rumor is by far the craziest thing to come out of Beatles lore. The story goes that Paul McCartney was killed in a car crash just as The Beatles were ascending to megafame. Afraid of losing out on their momentum, the band and their management hired a doppleganger to take McCartney’s place and covered up his death. The myth went further into the internet age, with some conspiracy theories claiming that the “new” Paul was one Billy Shears, who is included as a character in Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Is this one true? Obviously not. That would be insane. And I doubt they’d be able to find anyone baby-faced enough to play a convincing Paul McCartney.
This is the kind of legend that followed many details