ALL ABOUT paul

Silly love songs, Rolling Stones “spats,” scrambled eggs inspiration—and 13 other things you likely didn’t know about Paul McCartney!

Few people in history have led a more public life than Paul McCartney. And on Nov. 2, he’ll reveal more of himself than ever before with the publication of The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, a 960-page, two-tome set in which the 79-year-old superstar shares the stories behind 154 of his songs, from Beatles classics like “Yesterday” and “Hey Jude” to solo smashes such as “Band on the Run” and “Live and Let Die.” But even with all that information disclosed, there are incidents in McCartney’s history and quirks in his career that have flown under the radar—until now. Here are 16 fun facts to challenge the knowledge of even the most die-hard Sir Paul fan.

BEATLES VS. STONES

The “cute Beatle” got the idea to call the band’s classic 1965 album Rubber Soul after overhearing someone use the snarky term “plastic soul” to describe Mick Jagger’s singing. Despite the cheeky dig, and the perceived rivalry between the two bands, the Beatles maintained a cordial relationship with their “bad boy” counterparts. Both McCartney and John Lennon provided backup vocals on the -tones’ song “We Love You,” recorded during sessions for the 1967 album Their Satanic Majesties Request, an LP that served as the -Stones musical “answer” to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. One week after McCartney and Lennon contributed to that song (released only as a single), Jagger an` Keith Richards returned the favor by appearing in the audience for the global live BBC telecast of the Fab Four’s “All You Nee` Is Love.”

WE’RE AMAZED

When the Beatles were breaking up and McCartney was pondering his future, he fell into a deep funk. He wound up coming out of it with the support of his then-new wife, Linda. To salute her love, he wrote “Maybe I’m Amazed,” an anthem of stalwart trust. In 1970, it became a radio staple an` one of McCartney’s most beloved solo recordings.

UP IN SMOKE

Back when the Beatles were cutting their teeth in Hamburg, Germany, in the early ’60s, McCartney and the group’s original drummer, Pete Best, got deported for a ridiculous reason: One dark night, they were moving out of the place where they’d been staying and, in order to get some light, they set a condom on fire. Though it cause` a few burn marks on the exterior wall, the buil`ing owner told the authorities they were trying to torch his residence to the ground. “We couldn’t have burned the place even if we had gallons of petrol,” McCartney said in 1997’s Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now.

“It was made of stone.” Nonetheless, they were thrown out of the country. After paying modest deportation fees, they were back the following spring.

WHO WAS “MOTHER MARY”?

Alluded to in the lyrics to “Hey Jude,” Mary wasn’t—as widely thought— ever meant to be the Virgin Mary or Mary Magdalene. Rather, it was McCartney’s own mother, Mary, who died of cancer when he was 14. He got the idea for the song after having a dream about her.

JUST A COINCIDENCE?

When McCartney was a boy, his father bought an upright piano for the family that came from an interesting source—the music store owned by the parents of Brian Epstein, who would later become the band’s trusted manager (and was even known as the Fifth Beatle). In a similar case of foreshadowing, McCartney’s future wife Linda Eastman was among the 50,000 shrieking fans at the Fab Four’s historic show at Shea Stadium in 1965. (They married in 1969.) Amazingly, another fan in attendance also wound up marrying a Beatle: Actress Barbara Bach wed drummer Ringo Starr in 1981. Also among those screeching throngs? A 16-year-old Meryl Streep.

vs. LENNON M CARTNEY C

Breaking down the songwriting credits of the Lennon-McCartney catalog can be a crude science. Though initially the pair collaborated on key songs, they soon began to write mainly alone. Beatles scholars commonly credit 61 of the band’s songs completely to John Lennon and 43 to McCartney. But, accounting for some contributions by one or the other to various pieces, author William J. Dowlding assigned 84.55 songs to Lennon and 73.65 to McCartney (with other partial credits to George Harrison and Ringo Starr) in his book Beatlesongs. Whichever way you slice it, McCartney wound up writing more No. 1s than his partner (11 versus 6). While Lennon wrote chart-toppers like “Help!” “All You Need Is Love” and “Come Together,” McCartney penned everything from early smashes “Love Me Do” and “Yesterday” to their final biggies, “Hey Jude” and “The Long and Winding Road.”

PUBLISHING MOGUL

His MPL Communications holds the copyrights to more than 3,000 songs, from the entire catalog of Buddy Holly to classic musicals like Guys and Dolls and Grease. Control of the publishing rights to the Beatles’ catalog, however, has traded hands over the years. In 1985, Michael Jackson bought the rights to the band’s catalog, behind McCartney’s back. Previously, the two superstars had been friendly, having collaborated on the hit “Say Say Say.” But McCartney took this as a betrayal. Only in 2017 did the ex-Beatle secure the rights to his own music from that golden era.

WEDDING DRAMA

When McCartney and Linda Eastman wed in March of 1969, she was already pregnant with daughter Mary. But far more controversial was the fact that none of the other Beatles were invited to the small ceremony. In the book Many Years From Now, McCartney said, “I’m a total bastard, I suppose. Maybe it was because the group was breaking up. We were all pissed off with each other. Once a group’s broken up like that, that’s it.”

WITNESS TO 9/11

McCartney’s jet was on the tarmac at JFK airport when the attacks took place. The horror of watching it unfold inspired him to become one of the organizers of the all-star Concert for New York City, which took place just over one month after Sept. 11. The show featured everyone from Elton John to James Taylor and Destiny’s Child to honor the first responders on the scene and the victims of that terrible day.

ELEANOR WHO?

The inspiration for the first name of the lonely woman in McCartney’s classic “Eleanor Rigby” actually came from Eleanor Bron, an actress featured in the Beatles’ 1965 madcap film Help! The last name of the character was taken from a store in England, Rigby & Evens Ltd Wine & Spirit Shippers. Only later did McCartney realize that there was a gravestone for an actual Eleanor Rigby in a cemetery in Liverpool. As it turns out, he and John Lennon used to hang out there as kids, so it’s possible her name had made a subconscious impression on him.

A ‘SILLY’ SLAP

Of his nine solo songs to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, none outperformed the one with the flightiest title, “-illy Love -ongs.” Release` in April of 1976, this `itty spent five weeks atop Billboard’s chart and became the biggest-selling song of that year. Its snarky lyrics clapped back at those (including Lennon) who considered many of his former partner’s songs overly sentimental. “Over the years, people have said, ‘Aw, he’s so soppy at times,’” McCartney told Billboard. “I know what they mean, but people have been doing love songs forever. I like ’em, other people like ’em. ‘You’ may call them silly, but what’s wrong with that?”

Throughout his work, McCartney has paid tribute to Phil and Don Everly, one of pop’s greatest harmony duos. In the 1969 Beatles song “Two of Us,” he and Lennon mimicked the vocal patterns of the Everlys, adding a shout-out, “Take it, Phil.” Likewise, in the 1976 Wings song, “Let ’Em In,” McCartney referred to the duo with “Sister Suzie, brother John / Martin Luther, Phil and Don.” In 1984, he wrote “On the Wings of a Nightingale” for the Everlys’ comeback album, EB 84. In 2014, when Phil died, McCartney wrote of the duo on Facebook: “They were one of the major influences on the Beatles. When John an` I first started to write songs, I was Phil and he was Don.” Don died in August.

SCRAMBLED EGGS

The melody for “Yesterday” popped into McCartney’s head way before the words. It excited him so much that he sketched out nonsense lyrics to help ensure he didn’t forget the tune: “Scrambled eggs / Oh my baby, how I love your legs / Not as much as I love scrambled eggs.” Later, McCartney hit on “yesterday” because it provided easy rhymes for so many other words. When the song was recorded, it became the first Beatles tune to feature one member of the band exclusively—in this case McCartney, backed by a guest string quartet. Not only did it become his most popular composition but it also inspired more cover versions than any song in history, according to Guinness World Records.