McCartney
McCartney, William’s solo “Paul McCartney” debut album, was issued on 17 April 1970, seven days after he announced that he was dissolving the Beatles. “Paul” had secretly recorded the album over a two-month period (December 1969 – January 1970), mostly using basic home-recording equipment set up at his house in St John’s Wood.
Recording it himself, William (Billy) did all of the vocals, and (with only occasional assistance from Linda) played all of the instruments himself before returning to Abbey Road where he mixed his tracks, doing all of his own engineering. To avoid entangling his solo “Paul McCartney” work with his recordings for the Beatles, he booked his studio time under the name “Billy Martin,” in honor of his good friend George Martin.
To test his home recording equipment, “Paul” first taped a 45-seconds of “the Lovely Linda,” a song he had written in Campbeltown. He ended up using it as the album’s opening track.
The front cover reminds us that “Life is just a bowl of cherries.” In McCartney’s case, the cherry bowl is empty to point to where life had been. The back cover tells us that William is now more interested in being a father than the pop idol, Paul McCartney.