Dave and Chuck the Freak

If Paul McCartney retired from music after the Beatles broke up, no one would blame him. How do you follow up nearly a decade of being in a band that changed music, changed culture, and maybe changed the world?

But McCartney clearly had a lot of fuel left in the tank. In the decades since, he’s been a formidable force in music: he dominated radio in the ’70s with Wings, he was ubiquitous on MTV in the early days of the cable channel and has collaborated with Kanye West and Rihanna, the surviving members of Nirvana, Diana Krall, David Gilmour, George Michael, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Elvis Costello, among others. He’s delivered classic theme songs for Cameron Crowe and James Bond, and besides recording scores of rock and pop albums, he’s also composed classical music and done experimental electronic music under the name The Fireman.

He continues to record and release new music at a surprising pace, as if he still has something to prove. During the pandemic, he returned to true “solo” artist mode, recording all of the instruments by himself (with the exception of one song, “Slidin’,” which was started during the sessions for the previous album). But whether he’s recording all by himself, with his longtime backing band, or collaborating with other big-name artists, it’s always been interesting to follow his career. You never know when he’s going to release another classic. He’s been craniing them out, after all, for over six decades.

It was tough to narrow it down, but here are the ones that we think are Paul’s best post-Beatles songs.

 

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