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By any measure, Paul McCartney is the most successful musician of all time.

With his bands and his solo career, Sir Paul has sold more albums than anyone. McCartney is among the top Grammy winners, and he has dozens of platinum albums.

Of course it helps that he was part of the Beatles.

With 178 million albums sold, the Fab Four are the top-selling artist of all time in the U.S. The group had 43 platinum certifications, 26 multiplatinum and six diamond.

But McCartney’s solo work and his material with Wings have kept him in the spotlight, selling albums and winning more awards since the Beatles’ breakup. And McCartney’s tours have ranked among the top 15 worldwide for the last six years.

We took a look at McCartney and the Beatles statistics, and, in some cases, checked to see how he and they compare with other major musicians. See the stats below.

Credit where credit’s due

Some might say McCartney deserves only ¼ of the credit for his time in the Beatles.

I say no.

He should get full credit.

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A Dallas-based auction announced plans to sell what's said to be the first recording contract signed by the Beatles. It is expected to sell for $150,000, as part of a larger collection to be sold on September 19. (Aug. 21) AP

“Revolver” probably would have been a very different album without drugs and Indian music.

The former inspired much of John Lennon’s inventiveness, which paved the way for the legendary “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” the following year. And the latter heavily influenced George Harrison’s songwriting and musicianship as he contributed three of his own songs.Revolver" by The Beatles. (Photo: Submitted)

Released on Aug. 5, 1966, in the United Kingdom, the album directly preceded the band’s final concert on Aug. 29, 1966, in front of 25,000 people at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

“Musically, I felt we were progressing in leaps and bounds.”
— Ringo Starr, The Beatles

During the recording process the band spent about 300 hours in the studio, where producer George Martin said their ideas were beginning to become “much more potent,” according to TheBealtes.com. Ringo also recogni details

Famed British performer Paul McCartney plans to return to the Iowa Events Center this summer for a one-night only concert, his second ever in Des Moines.

In case you didn't already know: Paul McCartney is performing in Des Moines on Friday, as part of his “One on One" summer tour.

So it's only fitting that July 21, 2017, is declared "Paul McCartney Day" in Polk County.

Polk County Auditor Jamie Fitzgerald tweeted a photo of the proclamation at the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday morning.

McCartney, 75, is a storied songwriter and famed member of The Beatles. He is an 18-time Grammy Award winner and has sold an estimated 700 million records worldwide with The Beatles, Wings and through solo efforts.

Friday will be McCartney's third performance in Iowa. He first performed in 1990 at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames and again in 2005 at Wells Fargo Arena.

Source: Des Moine Register

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Ringo Starr has just turned 77. It's a few days after his celebrity-packed “Peace and Love”-themed birthday bash at Capitol Records in L.A., and he’s holding forth inside a Beverly Hills hotel on a warm summer afternoon. Among other things, about how he almost ended up decamping to Nashville last year with his pal and former Eurythmics guitarist Dave Stewart to make a country album. And about living in Los Angeles, where he first bought a house back in 1976 (“I love America,” he tells Billboard, “but I love L.A.”). He's even talking about those long strings of emojis he tacks on to the ends of his tweets -- which, by the way, he posts himself.

At some point during the conversation, you find yourself wondering whether it’ll always be like this. That one of the most famous drummers in rock music will remain the act you’ve known for all these years and keep this up well into his eighth decade. And why shouldn't he?

Ringo Starr may get old, but as far as he's concerned, being Ringo never does.

“I love joy,” he says. “I love the light. I’m still doing what was my dream at 13, and that’s playing. I think that help details

BOSSIER CITY, La. - The parking lots, as well as grassy area across the street from CenturyLink arena in Bossier City began filling up with cars with license plates from surrounding states early Saturday afternoon, as former Beatles and Wings member-turned-solo artist Paul McCartney kicked off his United States tour Saturday.

When the doors opened at 6:30 p.m., people began flowing into the arena, which was filled to capacity before the official 8 p.m. start time.

But when Sir Paul and his band bounded up the steps to the stage around 25 minutes late, no one seemed to care, as the 75-year-old rocker immediately got the huge crowd on their feet with an elaborate, yet pure, rendition of the Beatles classic 1964 hit, “Hard Days Night.”

Throughout the evening, McCartney interspersed early Beatles tunes with those from his years with Wings, and many in the audience never sat down during the almost three-hour concert…singing along with many of the songs.

Though many people in the audience clearly remembered the Beatles early days, some only remembered Wings, the band McCartney and his late wife Linda formed after he left the Beatles in 1970.

And others, obviously grandchildre details

For a knighted pop singer with a career stretching nearly 60 years, Paul McCartney seems like such a normal person.

The most scandalous thing I could find on TMZ was a video of him getting rejected alongside Beck at the doors of a club.

I read his latest interview with Rolling Stone and couldn't help but notice how cooly the 75-year-old performer dissected The Beatles' legacy.

“We always tried to be the best band in Liverpool,” McCartney told the magazine. “Then we tried to be the best band in England. Then we tried to be the best in the world.”

There's only a handful of musicians who could say something like that without appearing arrogant. McCartney's reflection on his mop-topped phase sounds so matter of fact, and there was very little precedent for what The Beatles did in their touring years. Those suits, songs and the resulting screams are the building blocks of arena tours and today's high-profile music entertainment.

The newest leg of the "One On One" tour lands in Oklahoma City on Monday and marks Sir Paul's return to the Chesapeake Energy Arena roughly 15 years after he helped open the downtown venue. He'll play nearly 40 songs over the course of three hou details

The nominations for the 69th annual Emmy Awards were announced this morning, and the Ron Howard-directed rock doc The Beatles: Eight Days a Week — The Touring Years came away with a fab five nods, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special.

The film, which got its TV premiere on Hulu in September, will also compete for Emmys in four other Nonfiction Program categories: outstanding writing, picture editing, sound editing and sound mixing.

Eight Days a Week — The Touring Years takes an in-depth look at the Fab Four’s history from 1962 to 1966, while showcasing the band’s live performances. Those span from their historic early hometown gigs at the Cavern Club in Liverpool through their final official concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

The movie, which features rare and previously unseen footage of The Beatles, was produced with the full cooperation of surviving members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, and from the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison: Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison.

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THE hotel where The Beatles stayed during their 1964 tour of Scotland has been snapped up by a new owner.Guests can stay in the chalet where John Lennon and Paul McCartney spent the night at The Four Seasons at St Fillans in Perthshire after the 19th century boutique hotel was bought by businesswoman Susan Stuart in a £795,000 takeover deal. Ms Stuart can already stake her own claim to fame, having launched the legendary Roundhouse venue – a former railway engine shed converted into a performing arts and concert venue in London.

She moved to Perthshire for a change of scenery and chose the Four Seasons because of its setting and history.The Fab Four arrived at the hotel during a night of heavy rain on October 19, 1964.Fresh from another wild show in Edinburgh’s ABC Cinema, the travel-weary Liverpudlians were ushered into the dining room for steaks.

John Lennon's psychedelic Rolls-Royce returns to Britain to mark the launch of its new Phantom and 50 years of Sgt Peppers

It will travel from Canada to London to join ‘The Great Eight Phantoms’ – A Rolls-Royce Exhibition, at Bonhams on Bond Street, an area visited regularly by Lennon in the late 1960s in this very car.

Members of the public will be able to see it there from 29 July to the 2 August.

Lennon took delivery of his car on on 3 June 1965 – the same day that astronaut Edward H White left the capsule of his Gemini 4 to become the first American to walk in space.

Originally the Rolls-Royce Phantom V was in Valentine Black. But Lennon had it customised in true rock-star style.

The rear seat was converted to a double bed, and a television, telephone and refrigerator were installed, along with a 'floating' record player and a custom sound system (which included an external loud hailer).

Then, in April 1967, just as the recording of the ground-breaking Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album was finishing, Lennon asked Surrey-based coachbuilders JP Fallon to give the Phantom a new paint job which was carried out by local artist Steve Weaver, w details

TAMPA (FOX 13) - He saw her standing there and pulled her up on stage. A Polk County woman got a surprise chance to sing with music legend Paul McCartney Monday night, and there's no maybe about it: She's amazed.

The former Beatle played some of the greatest hits from the Fab Four and also from his solo career during a rocking show at Amalie Arena in Tampa.

Kecia Howell and her son were pulled up on stage to sing ‘Get Back’ with McCartney.  She was wearing a handmade Sergeant Pepper-style jacket and sitting up in the front, so they're thinking that's why he may have noticed her.Not only did she get to sing and dance on stage with Sir Paul, she also got something that would be the envy of pretty much any fan -- a smooc details

The Blue Meanies are about to invade comic book stores.

In time for the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' beloved animated movie Yellow Submarine, Titan Comics will release an all-new comic book adaptation of the feature.

The movie, originally released in July 1968, saw animated versions of Paul, John, George and Ringo led to Pepperland by Captain Fred in an attempt to rescue it from the menace of the music-hating Blue Meanies. A mix of psychedelia and straight-forward animation that featured unreleased Beatles tracks and a cameo from the live-action band themselves, Yellow Submarine went on to become both critically acclaimed — it received a New York Film Critics Circle Special Award in 1968 — and warmly embraced by fans.

Source: Graeme McMillan (Hollywood Reporter)

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Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr celebrated his 77th birthday on Friday by announcing a new album that will feature former bandmate Paul McCartney.

Starr's 19th solo album "Give More Love" will be released on Sept. 15 and will include McCartney on two tracks - "We're on the Road Again" and "Show Me the Way," which is dedicated to Starr's wife, Barbara Bach.

"We are still mates," Starr told Reuters of his former bandmate. "He's out on the road, he's got his own life. I'm out on the road a lot making records and he was in town so I called him and I said, 'I've got this track for you to play on.'"

Happy Birthday Ringo 77 on 7-7-2017 have a great day from all the Beatles Radio Listeners

Oct. 13-14, 17, 20-21, 24, 27-28 – Las Vegas, NV @ Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino
Oct. 30 – El Paso, TX @ Abraham Chavez Theatre
Oct. 31 – Austin TX @ Moody Theater
Nov. 2 – Sugarland, TX @ Smart Sugarland Civic Center
Nov. 4 – Thackerville, OK @ Global Events Center at Winstar
Nov. 7-8 – Ft Lauderdale, FL @ Parker Playhouse
Nov. 11 – Atlanta, GA @ Fox Theater
Nov. 12 – Norfolk, VA @ ODU Pavilion
Nov. 14 – Morristown, NJ @ Mayo Performing Arts Center
Nov. 15 – New York City, NY @ Beacon Theater
Nov. 16 – Newark, NJ @ New Jersey Performing Arts Center

t looks like Ringo Starr may be ushering a new George Harrison composition into the world.

Harrison's widow Olivia tells The Sun in the U.K. that she discovered some lyrics to a song called "Hey, Ringo" -- which includes the line "Hey Ringo, now you I want you to know/That without you my guitar plays too slow" -- in a folder inside the bench of an old piano and has given them to Starr.

"He'd never seen this song before. He was so surprised," Olivia Harrison said. She noted that her husband "would put down a notebook and forget where he left it. A piano bench was the obvious place to stash the night's debris;" She dates the song to about 1970 and plans to "dig a little" to see if Harrison committed it to tape at all.

There's no word yet on what Starr intends to do with the song; He's been working on a new album with help from Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh, Peter Frampton, Van Dyke Parks and others with no title or release date yet announced.

PAUL McCartney is set to rock AAMI Park this summer.

Concert industry sources say The Beatles and Wings icon is close to locking in long-awaited Australian tour dates in November and December with promoter Michael Gudinski.

If the deal is done, McCartney will play at the venue, which has hosted superstars including Bruce Springsteen, Foo Fighters and Taylor Swift.

Mr Gudinski, and publicists from his companies Frontier Touring and Mushroom Music Group could not be reached for comment today.

McCartney played a week of shows in Tokyo last month, and will return to the US from July to October with his One On One tour.

A 10-year-old girl asks to play bass with Paul McCartney during a concert. Courtesy: YouTube/facu1983p

Girl asks to play bass with Paul McCartney

His proposed visit to Australia comes 15 years after McCartney abruptly cancelled two nights at Docklands Stadium.

McCartney cited the Bali bombing as the reason and the fact he felt Australia was still in need of healing, not hearing “Hey Jude”.

“This is not the appropriate time for a rock show,” McCartney said in a statement.

He gave no date for a rescheduled event, add details

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl discussed breaking his leg in a new Absolute Radio interview, which Alternative Nation transcribed.

“Yeah, it sucked. We had 53 more shows, which I sat down in this crazy throne for. But by the time we were done with that tour, I just thought, ‘You know, we need to take a break. I need to learn how to walk again, 6 or 8 months of physical rehab.”

“Basically, I broke it in Sweden. I fell off the stage, the band kept playing. I took a huge hit of whiskey, and then I said, ‘I want to finish the show. So I went up, and I finished the show. I went to this hospital, they took X-rays, they said, ‘You have to have surgery.’ They said, ‘You don’t have to have it today, but you got to do it in the next 3 days.’

So we thought, okay, well let’s fly down to London. But I don’t know any doctors in London, but I have a couple friends there, so I actually texted McCartney and I said, ‘Hey man, do you know any good doctors?’ He hooked me up with this doctor, he looked at my leg and said, ‘I could fix it like that.’ Paul McCartney is not only the most brilliant rock and roll musician of all time details

Like a lot of music executives, Herb Alpert -- whose cover of the Beatles' Michelle" from his upcoming album Music Vol. 1 is premiering exclusively below -- has some regrets when it comes to the Fab Four.

"When people ask me, 'Do you regret anything,' I was thinking, man, in 1962, after A&M (Records) started, the Beatles were hunting for a record company," Alpert tells Billboard. "They were on VeeJay for a while and I guess nobody really was coming to the party. I was thinking, 'Man, if I had flown over to London just to see if we could do something...' but the timing was off. I didn't get them at that moment. I retrospect you think, 'Man, they were available...'"

Nevertheless Alpert -- whose 1966 concert with the Tijuana Brass in London was promoted by Beatles manager Brian Epstein -- remains a professed Beatles fan who's more than happy to have a jazzy take of "Michelle" on Music Vol. 1, which comes out July 28 (pre-order here). The rendition was spurred by a groove presented by album producer Jochem van der Saag (Destiny's Child, Andrea Bocelli). "We were just kicking around some rhythm ideas, and all of a sudden he came up with this groove that just really touched me, and I started playing 'Michelle' ove details

Sixty-four choirs will pay tribute to The Beatles across Merseyside tomorrow morning (Thursday 8 June) as they sing at the same time.

Performances of the band’s track ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’ will take place at locations including Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, supermarkets, schools and on the streets as the Sgt Pepper at 50 celebrations continue.

With hundreds of people also expected to gather near the statue of the ‘Fab Four’ on Liverpool’s iconic waterfront when the region bursts into song at 10.30am prompt, those unable to attend are also being encouraged to get involved via social media.

The track will be broadcast live on BBC Radio Merseyside, which has organised the event alongside the team behind the citywide Sgt Pepper festivities, and the station is inviting members of the public to post videos of themselves singing along on its Facebook page.

On the same day, a series of poems from writers across the world including Roger McGough, Tracy K. Smith and Yasuhiro Yatsumoto to name a few will be loaded onto the www.sgtpepperat50.com website responding to the track.

The celebration is one of a series of world premiere commissions being held details

Pop music isn’t always an effective way of delivering a socially conscious message, and duets aren’t always as intriguing as they might appear on paper. But when Paul McCartney hooked up with Stevie Wonder to make a plea for racial harmony in 1982, the result was one of the biggest hits in either artist’s distinguished career.

The song in question, “Ebony and Ivory,” was demoed in late 1980 and developed during the sessions for McCartney’s third solo album, 1982’s Tug of War. With lyrics using the piano as a metaphor for ideal race relations, the song seemed like a natural for the duet treatment — and McCartney immediately knew who he wanted for a partner. “I wanted to sing it with a black guy,” he later recalled. “And my first thought was Stevie.”

Phoned by McCartney, Wonder quickly agreed. “I listened to the song, and I liked it very much,” said Wonder. “I felt it was positive for everybody. I won’t say it demanded of people to reflect upon it, but it politely asks the people to reflect upon life in using the terms of music … this melting pot of many different people.”

The duo convened at AIR St details

The pair sing about Sean’s famous parents John Lennon and Yoko Ono on Tomorrow Never Came.

Sean Lennon nearly cried with joy after Lana Del Rey declared their collaboration was “perfect”.

The Born to Die singer, 31, teamed up with John Lennon and Yoko Ono’ son Sean on track Tomorrow Never Came, from her new album Lust for Life.

Lyrics from the song reference Sean’s famous mum and dad, including the line “I wish we could go back to your country house/And put on the radio and listen to our favourite song by Lennon and Yoko”.

“She has exceptional taste,” Sean commented to Flaunt magazine of his collaborator’s approach to making music. “I told her that working on her song was a valuable lesson since I often modulate and take unintuitive chordal and melodic twists and turns, and she reminded me that you can be perhaps even more compelling if the melodies and chords feel natural and intuitive, not contrived or disorienting as in my music.

“Anyway I’ll never forget when she called me after I sent her what I did and her first words were ‘It’s perfect!’ I almost cried with joy because I honestly don&rsq details

The Beatles are back at Number 1 in the albums chart with ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’.

The band’s iconic eighth album was re-released on CD and vinyl last Friday (May 26), to commemorate the record’s 50th birthday. As a result, it has claimed the top spot in the Official Albums Chart again, half a decade on from its original release.

In a statement, Paul McCartney says, “Wow! Who would have thought that good old Sgt.Pepper would be back at number one 50 years on? It’s great news and all of us are well chuffed. Pepper rules!”

The record also takes the top spot in the Official Vinyl Album Chart, with 5,300 units sold of that re-release, which features remastered and remixed material, and unreleased session tapes. ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ claimed 37,000 sales this week across all formats.

‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ has now spent a cumulative 28 weeks at Number 1 on the Official Chart – it is the best-selling studio album ever in the UK, and the third biggest selling of all-time, having sold 5.2 million UK copies over the last fifty years.

A new ‘ details

The original Strawberry Field gates are to go on display in Liverpool to mark fifty years since the UK release of The Beatles' hit.

The iconic gates from The Salvation Army's children's home will be returned to their home city of Liverpool to mark the occasion.

They were replaced by replicas in 2011 to protect them. The song, written by John Lennon, was inspired by the Strawberry Field site in Woolton, close to where he grew up with his aunt Mimi.

The woods around the children's home were said to be a place of peace and refuge from Lennon's troubled childhood, where he played in the grounds with friends.

As custodians of the site, The Salvation Army were aware of how important the gates had become to Fab Four fans, they recognised that the original gates were extremely fragile and moved them to a secure location, to protect them for future use.

Now the original gates, which have been in storage ever since, have been loaned by The Salvation Army to the award-winning Beatles Story where they join a wealth of Fab Four memorabilia.

Source: ITV News

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To paraphrase that famous Beatles lyric: "It was 50 years ago today Sgt Pepper taught the band to play."

And, to celebrate the half-century since the release of the Fab Four's seminal album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, here's our rundown of the Mersey moptops' little known links to Wales.

Lennon was airlifted to Abergavenny:

The hysteria that followed The Beatles around was felt in such places as Abergavenny Town Hall Ballroom, which local promoter Eddie Tattersall had secured for the tiny fee of £250 in 1963, having luckily booked them just before they hit the big time.

However, in the run up to the show, John Lennon had been double-booked with an appearance on the BBC’s Jukebox Jury, leaving manager Brian Epstein to arrange a helicopter - at a cost of more than £100 - to take him from Battersea Heliport in London to Penypound Football Ground in order to make the gig.

They caused uproar in Llandudno:

But it was at a later two-night stint at the Odeon Cinema in Llandudno that the full weight of Beatlemania really became apparent.

Billed as “Britain’s fabulous disc stars”, the scenes at the shows drew in furious letters of compl details

When The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band fifty years ago, they inspired an entire generation of artists, musicians and, as it turns out, scientists.

One of the album’s most iconic songs, ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’ was immediately branded a psychedelic anthem, though John Lennon said it was inspired by a drawing his 3 year-old son Julian made of his classmate Lucy and the whimsical poeticism of Alice in Wonderland and The Wind in the Willows.

“When we sat down to write the song at John’s house, Julian’s drawing of Lucy and the stars was what inspired us,” said Paul McCartney. “At the top of the drawing Julian had written in childlike script, ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.’”

Almost a decade later, the song would become the backdrop to one of the biggest scientific discoveries of our time. On 24 November 1974, a team of scientists was digging in an isolated area in the Afar region of Ethiopia when paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson spotted a small fossil elbow bone. He immediately recognised it as coming from a human ancestor and soon discovered more parts that made up almost a complete hominin skeleton.