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Paul McCartney: 40 career highlights on his birthday

Beatle Paul is 70 this week. Will we still feed him? Not sure about that, but we sure as heck still need him. And what better time to celebrate "the cute one" with our own Magical McCartney Tour: His Top 40 career highlights. Tag along with us on this guided tour (in no particular order) through the McCartney treasure trove.

1. 'Twenty Flight Rock' (single, 1957, by Eddie Cochran)

  • By John Kehe Staff

A song Paul didn't write nevertheless qualifies as one of his shining moments. When he first met partner-to-be John Lennon at a Liverpool church fete, 15 year-old McCartney whipped out his guitar and played a flawless rendition of Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock." John was mightily impressed. "I dug him.... he's as good as me!," Lennon is reported to have said. Paul was invited to join John's group the Quarrymen the very next day.

Oh well, I've got a girl with a record machine
When it comes to rockin' she's the queen
We love to dance on a Saturday night
All alone, I can hold her tight
But she lives in a twentiest floor up town
The elevator's broken down

So I walked one, two flight, three flight, four
Five, six, seven flight, eight flight more
Up on the twelfth I started to drag
Fifteenth floor I'm ready to sag
Get to the top, I'm too tired to rock

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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