Why were Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr successful when they were so inadequate as musicians?

Tsahi Shemesh

Such a wonderful question – really brought a smile to my face.

Let’s have a look at the inadequacies of Paul & Ringo –

Paul McCartney the most successful musician & songwriter in world history (according to the Guinness Book of Records, the American Billboard & the record buying public); who – according to some musicologists – was, by his mid-twenties, developing musically along the lines of Beethovan & Bach; the first musician in history to write and record an album entirely on his own, in other words he played every instrument; whose song `yesterday` – the most covered song of all time – is being played on the radio somewhere in the world every minute of every day; whose vocal range, in his prime, spanned an enormous five octaves (compare to Prince with four octaves, Elvis with three & Sinatra with two); who had access to several voices – hey jude, blackbird, maybe i’m amazed, lovely rita, helter skelter, eleanor rigby; whose guitar playing on Beatle tracks formed some of their greatest solos; who wrote songs that spanned 6 keys; who simply plucks sublime melodies from chords at will – Eleanor Rigby, Yesterday, Blackbird; whose band, which broke up when he was all of 27, is the most influential music act of all time.

As for Ringo – a supremely talented & highly idiosyncratic percussionist who happens to be rated number 8 in the list of greatest drummers of all time.

You do make a great point tho 🐞🐞🐞🐞

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