One of the greatest songwriters and singers in rock and roll, Paul McCartney turns 67 on Thursday (June 18). With the Beatles and later as a solo performer and bandleader, McCartney created some of the best (and worst) music in rock and roll history. He isn’t as cool today as he was in the 1960s, or in the early part of the 1970s, but even at the twilight of his career McCartney is still a formidable talent. His album Electric Arguments, released as The Fireman late last year, was considered to be one of the year’s best and a return to form for McCartney. A collaboration with fellow legend Bob Dylan may be in the works – if it happens, that would be another milestone in an incredible career.
In 1965 McCartney wrote “Yesterday,” which the Guinness Book of World Records says is the most covered song ever. It has been covered more than 3,000 times and in the 20th century alone the song was performed more than 7 million times. We thought about doing a marathon with different covers of one song (as we did a few weeks ago on Bob Dylan’s birthday) but thought it would be more fun to just dig up songs from throughout McCartney’s career. So after the jump you have some of McCartney’s best music as performed by others, as well as a few versions of “Yesterday.” McCartney may be rather unfairly judged by his output over recent years, but most of this shit rocks. Happy birthday!
30 Days Out 