Listening to What the Man Sang: The Casual Fan's Guide to Appreciating Paul McCartney

On October 29, 1979, publishers of the Guinness Book of Records hosted a dinner for Paul McCartney in recognition of his supposed status as the most successful recording artist of all time. More than 40 years later, the list of challengers for that hyperbolic title remains remarkably short. But despite all we've heard from McCartney as a musician and all that's been written about his life, the songs and the person have usually been presented to us separately. Listening to What the Man Sang serves as a guided, biographical playlist that combines the two and puts his creative output in a human context. It's a career-spanning story that's told fittingly through the lens of the man's best work. All the while, it reflects on the experience of being a McCartney fan and invites the uninitiated to discover their own favorites.