Who's Who? Paul McCartney That's Who (1981)

 

Who's Who? Paul McCartney That's Who

AP

March 21, 1981

    Paul McCartney finally has joined the ranks of the British establishment. The  ex-Beatle is listed in the 1981 edition of Who's Who. The 39 year old rock music superstar, son of a Liverpool factory hand, and now reputed to earn $50 million a year gets a 41 line listing-- more than many judges, politicians and other outstanding public figures.

     While McCartney was given the accolade, neither of the other two surviving Beatles, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, was mentioned in the famous 2800-page red book, the latest edition of which was published Thursday. McCartney may be the only personality in the tomb, widely regarded as the last word in social standing, to have a string of drug busts to his name, although they are discreetly omitted.

     He declined to comment on his elevation, but many felt it was long overdue. It came almost 19 years after the Beatles first became famous, and 16 years after the lads from Liverpool were made members of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the nation.

     A spokesman for the publishers, Adam and Charles black said of the rock musicians' long omission from the reference book. "Their reputations may not be altogether permanent. We were very doubtful about the Beatles as four separate people. We wanted to wait and see if they made a continued mark, which Lennon and McCartney have done."

     It was not clear whether John Lennon, McCartney's songwriting partner in the Beatles days, would have made the Who's Who. He quit music for five years and had just launched a musical comeback when he was murdered outside his New York apartment last December 8. 

    The publisher spokesman commented that Harrison and Starr, who have done little of note for years, have rather faded from the public eye. The Beatles broke up in 1969.

     John Chambers of the Beatles fan club in their native Liverpool welcomed McCartney's accession to the establishment but criticized the continued snubbing of the other Beatles. "It's a bit crazy," he said. "It took four of them. It's 100% or nothing."

     In McCartney's entry lists, 23 of the hits he composed with John Lennon, from "Love Me Do," the Beatles' first British hit in 1962, to "Hey Jude" in 1968. It also details McCartney's career after the breakup, particularly his success with his own band Wings.

     McCartney is the only ex-Beatle to have consistently made his mark in show business since the split. He had a unique multiple listing in the Guinness Book of Records two years ago as the most successful composer of all time, with 43 songs that sold a million copies each. Winner of a record 63 gold discs with The Beatles and Wings, making him the world's most successful recording artist with estimated global sales of more than 100 million singles and 100 million albums.

     Among other new entries in this year's Who's Who are author Andrew Boyle, whose book, The Climate of Treason unmasked royal art historian Anthony Blunt as a one time Soviet spy, actor Tom Conti who won a claim on Broadway, for Whose Life Is It Anyway, Prime Minister Charles Hogley of the Irish Republic and Prime Minister Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.