Paul McCartney's solo career has now lasted 47 years, more than three times as long as The Beatles.
And that's if you start the clock when Paul met John Lennon at that Liverpool church picnic when they were teenagers.
With all that history under his belt, Rolling Stone magazine thought it time to rank his 40 greatest solo songs.
Here's the Top 10:
- "Maybe I'm Amazed"
- "Band on the Run"
- "Too Many People"
- "Live and Let Die"
- "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey"
- "Jet"
- "Junk"
- "Hi, Hi, Hi"
- "Another Day"
- "Venus and Mars"/"Rock Show"
Some other familiar titles down the list:
- 15. "Silly Love Songs"
- 17. "Junior's Farm"
- 18. "Coming Up"
- 19. "With a Little Luck"
- 23. "Listen to What the Man Said"
- 28. "Goodnight Tonight"
- 31. "Say Say Say"
Here's Rolling Stone's rationale for the Top 3:
1. "Maybe I'm Amazed" "The definite highlight of [his first solo album] McCartney, released several weeks before The Beatles' Let It Be movie in 1970, but strangely... never released as a single, despite significant radio airplay. A live version, however, made the Top 10 in 1977 via his new band's Wings Over America set. For all the peaks he'd hit in the years and decades that followed, this early triumph remains McCartney's solo-era signature -- an understated but perfect beginning to a truly remarkable second act."
2. "Band on the Run""If anyone still wondered whether McCartney could really cut it solo, 'Band on the Run' settled the question once and for all. It's an audaciously daft multi-part suite about a rock and roll prison break, with hints of escaping his Beatles past."
3. "Too Many People" "[Paul's] frustration spilled out in this startlingly biting track, recorded in New York." The lyrics, "That was your first mistake/You took your lucky break and broke it in two," are a direct swipe at John Lennon and the breakup of The Beatles.
What's your favorite McCartney solo song?
CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE LIST
Source: Rolling Stone and Premiere photo credit - iHM archive