Paul McCartney has been writing songs almost as long as he’s been alive. He played an Eddie Cochran song to impress John Lennon during an audition to join The Quarrymen, and the pair started writing originals soon after. The rest — The Beatles, Wings, a prolific solo career, being called an idiot by an artist who covered one of their songs — is history. But how many songs has Paul written? Let’s take a look.
Paul McCartney has written at least 1,059 songs
John and Paul routinely shared songwriting credits on their Beatles tunes. Even if one contributed far more to the formulation of a song than the other (such as “The Ballad of John and Yoko”), both were listed as co-writers.
The duo started their own publishing company, Northern Songs, to house the rights to their music. The enterprise published hundreds of Fab Four songs. Even some non-Beatles tunes, such as George Harrison’s soundtrack for the movie Wonderwall, appeared under the Northern Songs banner.
One massive step to determine how many songs Paul McCartney has written in his career is to rely on the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers repertory. ASCAP shows that Paul has penned 1,059 songs. That’s an astounding number, regardless of how you look at it.
Paul was born on June 18, 1942. If he began writing songs from Day 1 (which he obviously didn’t), that’s more than 13 songs each year — more than one per month. Macca started writing music when he was around 15 years old. If you were to say he’s been an active songwriter every day for 66 years, then the per-year total jumps to more than 16. It wouldn’t move the meter much, but Paul used a fake name — Bernard Webb — on the 1966 hit song “Woman” he gave to Peter and Gordon.
Paul probably has dozens of songs he never recorded or never filed with ASCAP. Which means he has undoubtedly written more than 1,059 songs in his life. Yet that’s the best jumping-off point when looking at Macca’s output.
What was Paul’s most successful Beatles song?
Paul and John shared songwriting credits on most Beatles tunes, but Macca worked virtually solo on some others. Several Paul songs became some of the Fab Four’s biggest hits.
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“Hey Jude,” the song Paul wrote for John’s son, Julian, and one he performs on every solo tour, spent nine weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart in 1968. That was the longest tenure on top for any Beatles song. Paul’s delicate ballad “Yesterday” held the top spot for four weeks in 1965. It was one of the only Beatles songs to feature just Paul playing solo. “Let It Be” sat at No. 1 for two weeks in 1970.
Primarily Paul songs “Get Back” and “The Long and Winding Road” were also No. 1 hits for the Fab Four.
Paul’s biggest solo hits featured famous collaborators
Macca wrote most of the music in his post-Beatles band Wings. He continued collaborating with other musicians when the band dissolved in the early 1980s. Macca’s most successful solo songs feature two well-known collaborators.
“Ebony and Ivory,” the song he made with Stevie Wonder, spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 1982. A year later, his song with Michael Jackson, “Say Say Say,” went to No. 1 for six weeks. (Their other tune, “The Girl Is Mine,” with Paul supporting Jackson instead of vice versa, rose to No. 2).
In the digital era, Paul, Rihanna, and Kanye West scored a hit with “FourFiveSeconds.” It peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard singles chart, but the tune racked up more than 984,000,000 Spotify streams in just over eight years.
The Wings tune “Silly Love Songs,” ostensibly co-written with his wife, Linda McCartney, lasted five weeks at No. 1 in 1976.
Paul McCartney has written at least 1,059 songs during his career. Many were hits — for The Beatles, Wings, and himself — and at least one was a massive flop, but it’s an impressive total no matter how you look at it.
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