I'm guessing that at least a person or two has figured out the four week theme after reading this week's title....
The artist biography for this week is going to be really easy, because much like last week with John Lennon, it's impossible to encapsulate a career as full as Paul McCartney's in a simple paragraph. Like Lennon, McCartney has been inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He's won an Academy Award, eighteen Grammy's, has been knighted in his native U.K. and just to show what a cultural icon he truly is, he has an asteroid named after him (4148 McCartney--though actually all of the Beatles do). Since he left the Beatles, McCartney has released 38 albums and 111 singles. Including his work with the Beatles, Sir McCartney has had 32 number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, 24 number one singles on the UK Singles Chart, and has sold over 100 million singles and albums. There's so many stats in this one that there should be a ball being tossed about, don't you think?
Fun Story: My very first boss with Camelot Music liked to tell the tale of the time in the late 70's when he was managing one of our stores and a young man came to the counter with one of McCartney's post Beatles LPs, and asked my boss in all earnestness, "Did you know that Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings?" My boss swore that he merely said, "Yes, I did," and thanked the youngster for his purchase...and had a story to tell for the rest of his life.
"Maybe I'm Amazed" was released on McCartney's first solo album, entitled amazingly enough, McCartney, in 1970. It was not released as a single, though a live version was released in 1977 and reached #10 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100. It was also ranked at #347 on Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All-Time."
Not gonna lie--of all the songs released by each of the Beatles in their solo careers, there isn't a one of them that comes close to me loving as much as I love "Maybe I'm Amazed." Part of it is the simplicity (says the guy who knows as much about music theory as he does about nuclear physics--nothing)--there is a starkness to McCartney's piano playing that accentuates the uplifting melody. The lyrics are short and sweet, honest without being sugary. There's a couple of nice instrumental breaks, including one with a tasty guitar solo. But what turns it into a classic is McCartney's impassioned vocals, sung with the wonder and conviction of a man who knows how lucky he is to have found the love of his life. I'm not sure in the fifty years that have followed McCartney ever gave a better vocal performance. As I've noted a time or two here before, it's one of those songs that sounds as, uh, amazing to me today as it did when I first heard it eons ago when I was a senior in high school. One of the best love songs ever.
Lyric Sheet: "Maybe I'm amazed at the way you help me sing my song/Right me when I'm wrong/Maybe I'm amazed at the way I really need you..."
Enjoy:
230,000+ Dead Americans
Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee
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