Paul McCartney

Back in 2015, Paul McCartney cut a couple of songs with Kanye West. (Well, as much as one writes a song with West; McCartney characterized the encounter in GQ as building an “ingredient pool.”) One of the songs, “FourFiveSeconds,” which West made into a vehicle for Rihanna, became McCartney’s biggest hit since 1983, when he dropped “Say Say Say” with Michael Jackson. It also prompted a legion of Kanye stans to think their idol had just plucked a then seventy-three-year-old British granddad out of obscurity. The idea, of course, is patently ridiculous: McCartney was in The Beatles, the most successful and influential band of their era and the most enduring pop group in recorded history. When someone brings up the greatest songwriting teams, Lennon-McCartney is usually number one. He’s less man than myth. Who else has formed half of an all-time great songwriting partnership then launched a successful, if scattershot, solo career with impressive longevity? Who else could?