In addition to the release of McCARTNEY III on December 18th, and the year spent recording and preparing the rollout of this second straight #1 album, Paul also saw in 2020…….
April 11th saw handwritten lyrics of Paul’s “Hey Jude” sell for $910,000 at auction.
On April 18, 2020, Paul’s 1st solo album, McCARTNEY, received a special 50th anniversary release in a limited edition half-speed mastered vinyl pressing for Record Store Day.
On May 18th two versions of “Angel in Disguise“, the unreleased song written by Ringo Starr & Paul McCartney in 1991 were auctioned by Omega Auctions, and sold for £8,000 (below the £10,000 – £20,000 estimation).
One of the versions is a rough demo with the vocals sung by McCartney; the other one is a mixed version featuring other musicians & backing vocals, and Ringo Starr’s vocals.
Those versions are a cassette tape which was owned by Radio Luxembourg DJ Tony Prince. At the time in the nineties, he was asked to find artists to record alternative versions of the song, after Ringo Starr rejected the track.
June 12th had the announcement of the 13th archive release from Paul, his 1997 “FLAMING PIE.”
The achieve was available in many formats including
A numbered, limited seven-disc (5CD/2DVD) Deluxe Edition Box Set comprised of the original album remastered at Abbey Road Studios, 32 bonus audio tracks including unheard home recordings and demos, alternative studio recordings, rough mixes and B-sides including selections from Oobu Joobu parts 1-6, Flaming Pie At The Mill CD (Paul’s hour-long tour of his studio), video content including the In The World Tonight documentary, original music videos, EPKs, interviews, performances and behind-the-scenes material, a 128-page book containing previously unpublished images by Linda McCartney, expanded album artwork from the archives and the story behind the album written by Chris Heath – including track-by-track information, recipes and new interviews with Paul, Ringo Starr, Jeff Lynne, Steve Miller and key album personnel, studio notes, handwritten lyrics, the 1997 Flaming Pie issue of Club Sandwich, the official newspaper of the Paul McCartney Fan Club, downloadable 24bit 96kHz HD audio, and more…
A 4LP/5CD/2DVD Collector’s Edition — strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies issued in a cloth wrapped two-piece collector’s box —featured everything in the Deluxe Edition plus a marbled art print portfolio of six silkscreened Linda McCartney art prints, exclusive vinyl versions of the remastered album cut at half speed across 2LPs in an exclusive gatefold sleeve, an LP of home recordings in a hand-stamped white label sleeve, and “The Ballad of the Skeletons” – Paul’s 1996 collaboration with Allen Ginsberg, also featuring Philip Glass and Lenny Kaye – released for the first time on vinyl and cut at 45 RPM with vinyl etching and poster.
Additional Flaming Pie Archive Collection formats included…
2CD (remastered album + 21 tracks of bonus audio).
2LP (remastered album cut at half speed across two 180g LPs in gate-fold sleeve with booklet).
3LP (remastered album cut at half speed across two 180g LPs in gate-fold sleeve with booklet, plus single 180g LP of unreleased home recordings in hand-stamped white label sleeve both housed in a slipcase).
The release was also available on streaming platforms. All of these available formats were released on July 31st.
On November 8th the restored “Rupert And The Frog Song” video and audio was released. It was restored in 4K and the official music video for “We All Stand Together” was also remastered and upgraded to HD, and released at the same time.
On December 16th, two days before the release of his “McCartney III” album, Paul announced an upcoming documentary made with legendary producer Rick Rubin.
The official announcement would come in May 2021, and the documentary would be given a name (“McCartney 3,2,1“) and a July 16th, 2021 release date.
December 19th saw BBC1 broadcast an interview of Paul with famed actor Idris Elba. The promotion continued as Paul and Idris spent the 60 minutes discussing all things Paul.
December 20th had filmmaker Peter Jackson release an exclusive sneak peek of his upcoming documentary “The Beatles: Get Back” for fans everywhere to enjoy.
The 5-minute special look was available to fans worldwide on TheBeatles.com and streaming on Disney+.
Jackson said, “We wanted to give the fans of The Beatles all over the world a holiday treat, so we put together this five-minute sneak peek at our upcoming theatrical film ‘The Beatles: Get Back.’ We hope it will bring a smile to everyone’s faces and some much-needed joy at this difficult time.”
Paul also did an an interview on December 20th with CBS Sunday Morning TV show, and an interview on the Zane Lowe Show and The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show on December 21st.
The same day saw an online listening party for III on Twitter.
Finally, a chat on Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything on December 23rd).
Then to wake up on Christmas morning, the 78 year old musical icon opened up the news of the album going #1 in the U.K.
Not a bad year, in a very bad year.
Next….2021…
A Life Through The Eyes Of A Man 