McCartney: A Life in Lyrics

Season Two of McCartney: A Life in Lyrics comes out weekly starting February 7th, and features the stories behind songs like Yesterday, Band on the Run, Here, There and Everywhere, Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me) and many more. Binge the entire season early and ad-free starting February 7th by subscribing to Pushkin+ on our Apple show page or at pushkin.fm/plus.

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Countless decisions, large and small, aided The Beatles’ ascent to the top of popular culture. The release of their debut single, “Love Me Do,” in the UK in the fall of 1962 was one of those decisions. Their debut on American television was another. In this first episode of season two, Paul McCartney and Paul Muldoon discuss the early evolution of The Beatles.

“McCartney: A Life in Lyrics” is a co-production between iHeart Media, MPL and Pushkin Industries...

Paul McCartney found himself in a tricky place after The Beatles’ break up. What did his musical future look like without the three musicians he’d spent half of his life building a musical rapport with? McCartney’s other band, Wings, and an impromptu tour of UK colleges helped him find his footing.

“McCartney: A Life in Lyrics” is a co-production between iHeart Media, MPL and Pushkin Industries...

One day in the car, Paul McCartney heard a BBC production of the absurdist play “Ubu Cocu” by french writer Alfred Jarry.  Taken by the rebelliousness of the radio play, McCartney wrote a sweet-sounding tune about a murderous medical student that seemingly lives in the same universe as Ubu: “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.”

“McCartney: A Life in Lyrics” is a co-production between iHeart Media, MPL and Pushkin Industries...

The Beatles’ songbook became standard repertoire for artists to perform almost as quickly as they kicked off “the British invasion.” But one was covered more than all the rest: Yesterday.

“McCartney: A Life in Lyrics” is a co-production between iHeart Media, MPL and Pushkin Industries...

“Drink to me, drink to my health” were among the last words spoken by the great Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. On somewhat of a lark, Dustin Hoffman challenged Paul McCartney to use those words to write a song – on the spot. McCartney indulged Hoffman and, without hesitation, an early version of “Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me)” poured out of him.

“McCartney: A Life in Lyrics” is a co-production between iHeart Media, MPL and Pushkin Industries...

From his earliest days as a songwriter, Paul McCartney was interested in love songs. But by the time of Wing’s 1976 album “At the Speed of Sound” McCartney had become tired of critics suggesting that was all he wrote. And so he wrote the album’s lead single, a defiant anthem about the importance of love in our lives, and named it “Silly Love Songs...

Paul McCartney and John Lennon had a knack for finishing each other's songs. They collaborated by lending ideas for verses, choruses and middle eights many times over the course of their partnership. 1967’s “A Day in the Life” is one of the most prominent examples of McCartney and Lennon’s collaboration. What started as a Lennon song, once worked on with McCartney, became a truly collaborative piece—and a standout in The Beatles’ catalog...

In 1968 the longest song to ever reach number one on the Billboard charts was Paul McCartney’s epic “Hey Jude”—clocking in at seven minutes and twelve seconds. The song was written to soothe John Lennon’s son Julian amid his parent’s divorce. But as with all great works, it has come to mean something a little different to everyone who hears it.

“McCartney: A Life in Lyrics” is a co-production between iHeart Media, MPL and Pushkin Industries...

The breadth of Paul McCartney’s influences is astounding. One of the many surprising places McCartney found inspiration was in the music of his parent’s generation. For 1966's “Here, There and Everywhere”, he found himself looking to write something akin to Fred Astaire’s 1935 classic “Cheek to Cheek.” In the process, McCartney wrote what might be his favorite song in his catalog.

“McCartney: A Life in Lyrics” is a co-production between iHeart Media, MPL and Pushkin Industries...