On the Charts 56 Years Ago, Paul McCartney “Stepped From the Shadow of the Beatles” With His First Solo No. 1 Album

For the first decade of his career, Sir Paul McCartney was one part of a dazzling whole. The Beatles were a cultural phenomenon, inspiring scores of shrieking fans wherever they went. Behind the scenes, however, the Fab Four were deteriorating amid personal feuds and conflicting creative visions. All the turmoil remained firmly behind closed doors until April 9, 1970, when McCartney issued a press release simultaneously announcing the end of the band and the beginning of his solo career. Eight days later, he released McCartney, his debut solo album, on April 17. By this day (May 23) in 1970, the record had climbed to the top of the U.S. albums chart, where it would remain for three weeks.

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Paul McCartney Kept the Album Under Wraps

First, let’s back up to September 1969, when John Lennon informed his bandmates he wanted a “divorce” from the Beatles.

Severely depressed and adrift after losing the only job he’d ever known, Paul McCartney retreated to his farm in Campbeltown, Scotland. After returning home to London shortly before Christmas, he began secretly recording what would become McCartney.

With the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer seemingly determined to make a record completely unrecognizable from his work with the Beatles, McCartney possesses exactly none of the studio “tricks” that the Fab Four had pioneered. With the exception of a few vocal harmonies from his wife, Linda McCartney, he recorded the entire thing himself.

Unsurprisingly, many were expecting the Beatles 2.0, and fans and critics alike eviscerated McCartney. (One notable exception was the song “Maybe I’m Amazed”, which even ex-bandmate George Harrison admitted was “great.”)

It certainly didn’t help that everyone associated McCartney with the Fab Four’s split, although he was simply the messenger. It was actually John Lennon who had put the final nail in the coffin.

“The point of it really was that John was making a new life with Yoko and he wanted… to lie in bed for a week in Amsterdam for peace. You couldn’t argue with that. It was the most difficult period of my life,” McCartney said in a 2021 interview with BBC. “This was my band, this was my job, this was my life. I wanted it to continue. I thought we were doing some pretty good stuff – Abbey Road, Let It Be, not bad – and I thought we could continue.”

A Belated Reckoning

In the decades since the album’s release, critics have praised Paul McCartney for creating rock music’s first “indie”, “lo-fi” record—the kind that would captivate audiences in the 1990s.

Folk singer-songwriter Neil Young sang McCartney’s praises when he inducted the 19-time Grammy winner into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.

[RELATED: On This Day in 1976, Paul McCartney Was at No. 1 With His Biggest US Hit—a Response to a Snide Comment From John Lennon]

“I loved that record because it was so simple. And there was so much to see and to hear, it was just Paul,” Young said. “There was no adornment at all, there was no echo, there was nothing. There was no attempt made to compete with things he’d already done. And so out he stepped from the shadow of the Beatles.”

Featured image by Chris Walter/WireImage