The Life and Death of Paul McCartney (1942-1966)

I have been happily singing and playing Beatles songs on the guitar for 40 years now. So when Internet rumors resurfaced that Paul McCartney died and was replaced in 1966 with a look-alike, I had to examine it—if only to put it to rest. However, after seven books and 30 hours of YouTube, I was unable to do so. The best “objective” book I found is The Life and Death of Paul McCartney (1942-1966): A Very English Mystery by Nicholas Kollerstrom. For me, among about 30 intriguing factoids in the book—clues on album covers, hidden messages in song lyrics—the clincher is the photographic forensics done by an Italian team in 2009, which concluded that the post-1966 Paul is 2 inches taller, has a longer and narrower face, different teeth and has had plastic surgery over the years. With pupil distance measured, the faces don’t seem to match at all (see comparisons at the Paul Really Is Dead site and judge for yourself: bit.ly/1hMSPRz). No wonder they stopped touring.