Happy Birthday to Paul McCartney, who turns 81 on Sunday (June 18th). To date, Paul McCartney is the most successful songwriter in history, having written or co-written 30 U.S. Number One hits. McCartney met his original songwriting partner John Lennon on July 6th, 1957 at a church social where Lennon was performing. After joining Lennon's band, the Quarrymen, McCartney persuaded Lennon to add his friend George Harrison in 1958, and the seeds of the Beatles were born. Ringo Starr joined the group in 1962. Released this week is McCartney's first book of original Beatles photos, titled, 1964: Eyes Of The Storm. The collection features 275-shots of his long unseen photographs spotlighting six city portfolios -- Liverpool, London, Paris, New York, Washington, D.C. and Miami -- along with McCartney's personal recollections of the photos. In November 2021, McCartney published The Lyrics: 1956 To The Present, which includes "a treasure trove of material from McCartney's personal archive -- drafts, letters, photographs -- never seen before, which make this also a unique visual record of one of the greatest songwriters of all time." That July, the Paul McCartney / Rick Rubin docuseries, titled, McCartney 3, 2, 1, premiered on Hulu. The six-part, limited series found McCartney and the famed record producer discussing all aspects of his 60-year-career. September 2021 saw the publication of McCartney's latest animated picture book, Grandude's Green Submarine. The book, written by "Macca" and once again illustrated by artist Kathryn Durst, is the follow-up to the former-Beatle's Number One New York Times bestseller, Hey Grandude. Paul McCartney's recent album, McCartney III, scored him a Top Two hit on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The album earned him the distinction of being the first artist to have a new album in the top two chart positions in each of the last six decades. McCartney III also went on to top both Billboard's Top Album Sales and Top Rock Albums charts. The collection hit Number One in England, marking his first chart-topping album in his homeland since 1989's Flowers In The Dirt. McCartney III also hit Number One on the German, Scottish, and Dutch charts. It stalled at Number Two on both the Swiss and Swedish album charts. April 2021 saw the release of the McCartney III Reimagined album. The covers collection of his recent one-man-band McCartney III release was personally curated by McCartney, featuring "an A-List assortment of friends, fans and brand new acquaintances, each covering and/or reimagining their favorite McCartney III moments in their own signature styles." Artists on the set are: Beck, Damon Albarn, St. Vincent, Josh Homme from Queens Of Stone Age, Anderson .Paak, Blood Orange, Dominic Fike, Radiohead's Ed O'Brien, Idris Elba, Khruangbin, 3D RDN from Massive Attack, and Phoebe Bridgers. In July 2020, McCartney released the archival collection version of his 1997 Flaming Pie album in a four-LP / five-CD / two-DVD "Collector's Edition." The "Collector's Edition" includes the original album remastered at Abbey Road Studios, 32 bonus audio tracks -- including unheard home recordings and demos -- alternative studio recordings, rough mixes, and much more. In September 2018, McCartney scored his first Number One album on the Billboard 200 albums chart since 1982 with his latest release, Egypt Station. Egypt Station, which is the former-Beatle's eighth solo chart-topper, marked his first album to enter the Billboard 200 at the top spot. The album entered the UK charts at Number Three. The album's success can be attributed in part to McCartney's now iconic appearance with James Corden on "Carpool Karaoke." 2018 saw the release of the long lost live Wings album Wings Over Europe. The set was issued as part of the sprawling Paul McCartney And Wings - 1971-73 Limited Edition Box Set, which features both the new Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway "Archival Series" collections combined, Wings Over Europe spotlights the earliest live incarnation of Wings, featuring Paul and Linda McCartney, Denny Laine, Henry McCullough, and Denny Seiwell. All but one of the disc's 20 songs is from the band's summer '72 European trek, with the album's opening number "Big Barn Bed" coming from July 10th, 1973 at the lineup's final gig in Newcastle, England. In May 2017, McCartney made a rare big screen appearance as the old pirate "Uncle Jack" in the latest installment of The Pirates Of The Caribbean saga, titled, Dead Men Tell No Tales. In 2016, Paul McCartney released his latest solo compilation called, Pure McCartney. The album, featuring a vintage 1971 photo of the former-Beatle, has been issued in single, double, and four-disc editions. The four-disc version features a whopping 64 tracks spanning the past 46 years. In May 2015, McCartney spoke about his recent pop chart success with Kanye West and Rihanna on the hits "Only One" and the Top Five smash, "FourFiveSeconds," telling The Standard, "It's good to connect with different artists. The secret is I keep myself very open to suggestions -- I still feel like I'm about 30. I'm lucky that someone like Kanye would go, ‘Yes I would like to work with Paul McCartney.' I was quite flattered -- I thought, ‘Why does he want to work with me?' It was a few months later when I was starting to think, ‘should I ring him and ask him did anything come of the stuff we did?' But then I thought ‘I can't do that -- that's too soppy!' I'll just leave it and try and act cool. And suddenly he sends me 'Only One,' and then Rihanna's on the other record." Over 60 years since starting his musical career and having written some of the most beloved music of the 20th century, McCartney is still unable to read or write a note of music: "I can think songs up, I can think arrangements, I can structure things, but I can't physically write stuff down on a page. I always had a kind of dyslexia when I was a kid. I was taking piano lessons -- I took them at a few points in me life. Whenever I did, it always seemed boring, it always seemed like homework -- I don't wanna put any students off who are learning properly. I always had great difficulties with it." McCartney admitted that his past figures in quite heavily when working up new material: "Y'know, you reference most things you do either to, 'Would that work with the Beatles? Would this be a good Wings song? Would John (Lennon) like this?' Y'know, 'What would George play on this?' -- and stuff. I think you do that. I often think of John." Paul McCartney admitted that once an album hits the streets a bit of panic always seems to creep up on him: "You write the stuff and then you have a lot of fun recording it, and then you get ready to release it and I always forget, it's like sitting an exam -- and this is the oral. I always thing, 'I'm just doing this for me, for a bit of fun, I'm doing it for my family and stuff.' Then when you put it out, you realize, you're putting it out. So it's kind of, it's a little bit mixed feelings releasing something. But I say, it's like, you suddenly realize you've entered yourself for an exam, that you didn't mean to enter yourself for." In January 2014, Paul McCartney won all four Grammy's he was nominated for that year: Best Rock Song for his collaboration with Nirvana's Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, and Pat Smear on the Sound City track "Cut Me Some Slack"; Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package for massive 1976 Wings Over America - Deluxe Edition, along with Best Music Film and Best Surround Sound Album for his Live Kisses DVD from his live standards performance at L.A.'s Capitol Studios. McCartney married photographer Linda Eastman in 1969 and they had four chi