What if I told you that the greatest basselines, melod.i.es, and songs of the 20th century didn’t spring from nowhere? That Paul McCartney, one of the most celebrated musicians in history, when I have a musician on, especially one that I admire, Paul McCartney, you know, even though you’re just a lovely guy, was not just a genius, but a student of other geniuses.
Every note he played, every harmony he sang carries the fingerprints of voices that came before him. The Beatles didn’t invent rock and roll. They absorbed it, mastered it. That’s the Beatles in 1964 on the Ed Sullivan Show, and transformed it into something the world had never heard. Today, we’re uncovering the 10 artists who taught Paul McCartney everything he needed to become legendary.
Some names you know, others will surprise you. But all of them left their mark on the man who would change music forever. Number 10, the Everly Brothers. At number 10 are the Everly Brothers, the duo that Paul McCartney once called the greatest band to ever exist. I liked it and the Everlys liked it. That was the main thing.
It sounded just like an Everly Brothers record. And that is not casual praise. That is McCartney placing two brothers from Kentucky above every other musical act in history, including his own. When you understand why, you begin to understand how the Beatles learned to sing. Brothers Don and Phil Everly did something that transformed how McCartney understood harmony.
When McCartney and John Lennon first heard songs like All I Have to Do Is Dream in 1958, it changed everything for them. Two male voices blending together in perfect harmony, creating something neither could achieve alone. McCartney later said that the biggest influence on him and Lennon was the Everly brothers and that they wanted to be just like them.
When the two young Liverpool songwriters started creating music together, McCartney would pretend to be Phil while Lennon played the role of Dawn. And they were not just listening to the Everlys, they were studying them, becoming them, learning how two voices could intertwine and create magic.
Years later, in 1984, when the Everly brothers reunited after a painful breakup, McCartney wrote a comeback song for them called On the Wings of a Night andale. It was his way of repaying a debt that could never truly be repaid. When Phil Everly d.i.ed in 2014, we look back at the life of a music legend Phil Everly, one half of the Everly brothers, McCartney wrote that he would always love him for giving him the sweetest musical memories of his life.
The harmonies you hear on every Beatles record started with two brothers from Kentucky singing into a single microphone. Number nine, Chuck Barry. At number nine is Chuck Barry, the man McCartney called a magician who created music that was exotic yet normal at the same time. When the Beatles first heard the guitar intro to Sweet Little 16, they instantly became fans.
But it was not just the music that captivated them. It was the words. McCartney said Barry’s stories were more like poems than lyrics. Songs like Johnny be Good and Maybelline were not just rock and roll tracks. They were narratives. They were cinema compressed into three minutes. Barry taught the Beatles that songs could tell stories.
That lyrics could paint pictures. That rock and roll did not have to be meaningless noise. The Beatles covered multiple Berry songs during their early years, including rock and roll music, Sweet Little 16, and Johnny B. good. But McCartney went further than covers. He borrowed when he wrote I Saw Her Standing There, one of the Beatles most iconic early tracks.
He lifted the baseline directly from Barry’s I’m Talking About You. McCartney admitted it openly. He said he played exactly the same notes because they fit perfectly. There was no shame in it. Barry had created the template. McCartney was building on the foundation. When McCartney eventually met Barry in his hometown of St.
Louis, he called it a memory he would cherish forever. Barry was one of rock and roll’s greatest legends. It’s the mid50s and Chuck Barry was at the height of his success. And McCartney admitted it was impossible to sum up what he meant to all the young guys growing up in Liverpool. Number eight, Fats Domino.
Number eight brings us to Fats Domino, the New Orleans piano legend who introduced McCartney and the Beatles to an entirely different sound. Legendary New Orleans musician Fats do the rock and roll pioneer was known for his piano playing of songs like Ain’t That a Shame, Blueberry Hill, and I’m in love again carried the flavor of New Orleans.
you that unique blend of rhythm and blues and boogie woogie piano that could not be found anywhere else in the world. McCartney said Domino’s voice, piano playing, and musical style was a huge influence on the Beatles. It was not just what Domino played, it was how he played it. The rolling piano rhythms, the warm, inviting voice, the sense of joy that radiated from every performance.
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The Beatles met Domino in New Orleans in 1964, and McCartney remembered that Domino was wearing a huge star spangled diamond watch. It was their first encounter with what we now call bling, that unapologetic celebration of success that would later become standard in popular music. But the influence went deeper than style.
When McCartney sat down to write Lady Madonna in 1968, Paul McCartney has described Lady Madonna as a tribute to strong women and mothers. He started singing a fats domino impression and the Boogie Woogie piano style took his voice to a very odd place, creating one of the Beatles’s most distinctive late period tracks. Domino later covered the song himself, making it his last charting single.
The circle of influence had completed itself. The student had created something that the teacher embraced as his own. Number seven, Smokeoky Robinson. At number seven is Smokeoky Robinson, the Mottown legend that McCartney once described in terms that border on religious reverence. McCartney said Robinson was like God in the Beatles’s eyes.
This is one of the highest compliments McCartney ever gave another artist. Not a genius, not a legend, God. Robinson’s smooth vocals and brilliant songwriting with the miracles deeply touched all four Beatles members. So, I write all the time and I do have a bunch of songs that I’m very anxious to record.
Uh, the band showed their love by covering Robinson’s song You Really Got a Hold on Me for their album with the Beatles, but the influence spread beyond covers. John Lennon wrote, “Not a second time, specifically trying to sound like Smokeoky Robinson.” George Harrison later released a solo song called Pure Smokey as his tribute to the singer.
Robinson had permeated every corner of the Beatles’s creative consciousness. Robinson met the Beatles before they became famous when they were still playing in a Liverpool club. He was flattered that John Lennon knew so much about his music and was already asking detailed questions about Miracle songs. Robinson later said he loved that the Beatles were the first really popular white band who came right out and said they grew up influenced by black music and Mottown.
There was no pretense and no attempt to hide their sources. The Beatles acknowledged their debts openly and that honesty created a lasting friendship built on mutual respect. Number six, Carl Perkins. Number six is Carl Perkins, the king of rockabilly, who wrote the classic Blue Suede Shoes. The first Rockabilly record to be recorded was uh by Elvis and it was a Bill Monroe.
McCartney once made a statement about Perkins that reveals just how foundational this Tennessee musician was to the Beatles. He said that if there were no Carl Perkins, there would be no Beatles. Not that the Beatles would have been different, that they would not have existed at all. The Beatles covered several Perkins songs in their early years, including Matchbox, Honey Don’t, and Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby.
McCartney himself used to perform Lend Me Your Home during the early Beatles days. When the Beatles toured Britain with Chuck Barry in 1964, they spent the last night of the tour sitting on the floor with Perkins, sharing stories, playing guitars, and singing songs together. McCartney said Carl was still the guy who wrote Blue Suede Shoes and could never do any wrong.
The reverence never faded. The respect never diminished. In 1981, McCartney invited Perkins to record the song Get It for his album Tug of War. Years later, in 1993, Perkins showed up at McCartney’s backstage door after a concert in Memphis with his guitar in hand. The two spent an hour playing all the rockabilly songs they both loved.
It was not a professional collaboration. It was two musicians sharing their passion, honoring the music that connected them across decades and circumstances. McCartney’s company still owns the publishing rights to Perkins’s songs today, and the student became the steward of the teacher’s legacy. Number five, Roy Orbison.
At number five is Roy Orbison, the man with the powerful voice and dark sunglasses who became one of the Beatles’s greatest idols and most intimidating competitors. When Brian Epstein first asked Orbison to tour England with the Beatles in 1963, I think you first came into prominence uh on the famous Beatle tour when what 1960 63 63.
Orbison responded by asking what a Beatle was. He had no idea how popular they were becoming. He was about to find out. The tour created a friendly competition between the two acts that pushed the Beatles to new heights. McCartney remembered how Orbison would sit at the back of the tour bus writing songs like Pretty Woman and it would make the Beatles jealous.
McCartney said they would tell him the song was great. But inside they would be thinking they needed to write something just as good. And this competitive pressure inspired McCartney to write classics like All My Loving on that same tour bus. The Beatles were literally creating masterpieces in response to watching Orbison work.
The Orbison influence shaped the Beatles in ways most fans never realize. John Lennon originally wrote Please Me as a slow, dreary song that sounded like Roy Orbison. Producer George Martin made them speed it up and it became their first real hit. But the Orbison DNA remained in the song’s emotional intensity. McCartney later called their time touring with Orbison a historic moment.
The Beatles were scared to perform after him because he was so powerful on stage, standing completely still like marble while hitting incredible high notes that seemed physically impossible. Orbison taught them that power did not require movement. Presence was enough. Number four, The Beach Boys. Number four brings us to the Beach Boys, specifically the genius of Brian Wilson, whose album Pet Sounds changed everything for the Beatles and pushed them toward their greatest achievements.
Um, this is a early8s, I think 1980 copy of Pet Sounds. When McCartney first heard Pet Sounds in 1966, he thought it was the album of all time. He wondered what the hell the Beatles were going to do next. He said the album blew him out of the water. This was not polite admiration. This was creative panic.
The Beach Boys had raised the bar so high that McCartney genuinely did not know how to respond. McCartney was so impressed that he bought copies of Pet Sounds for each of his children, calling it essential education for life. He believed nobody was truly educated musically until they heard that album.
The baselines on Pet Sounds particularly inspired McCartney to write more melodic bass parts for the Beatles, transforming his instrument from rhythm support to melodic voice. McCartney called God Only Knows the greatest song ever written and his favorite Beach Boys track. It inspired him to write here, There, and Everywhere using Beach Boy style harmonies in the introduction.
The friendly rivalry between the two bands pushed both to greatness in ways neither could have achieved alone. The Beatles Rubber Soul inspired Pet Sounds. Pet Sounds then inspired Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The albums were conversations across the ocean. Each band responding to the others innovations with innovations of their own.
When McCartney performed God Only Knows with Brian Wilson years later, he broke down crying during soundcheck because the song was so emotional. He loved Wilson and was privileged to be around his bright shining light. Number three, Elvis Presley. Taking the number three spot is Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll who changed everything for young Paul McCartney and set him on the path that would lead to the Beatles.
When McCartney first heard Heartbreak Hotel in 1956, he had to go to a record shop in Liverpool and listen to it through headphones in a booth. There was no other way to hear it. Records were expensive. Access was limited. But that moment in the booth was magical. It was the beginning of an era. Paul McCartney honored Elvis Presley on his first trip to Graceand.
The Beatles were inspired by and in awe of Elvis. McCartney said Elvis was so hot and they were all so in love with him. McCartney started seeing pictures of Elvis and that visual impact pulled him away from his academic path at school. See, he described tingles going up and down his spine.
The academic things were forgotten. A future accountant or teacher or civil servant d.i.ed in that record shop booth and a musician was born. McCartney admitted he doubted very much if the Beatles would have happened if it was not for Elvis. The king did not just influence the Beatles, he made them possible. Beatles, listen, I saw your video.
I’m in Brooklyn now. I’m in New York. I finally got here. The Beatles finally met Elvis at his home in Los Angeles in 1965. McCartney remembered that Elvis was into the bass, which gave them a great conversation piece. Elvis was talkative, friendly, and a little bit shy.
The king of rock and roll was human after all. Years later, in 2013, McCartney visited Graceand for the first time and placed a guitar pick on Elvis’s grave so he could play in heaven. At McCartney even bought the original bass that Elvis’s basist, Bill Black, used on Heartbreak Hotel. The instrument that started everything now belongs to the man it helped create.
Number two, James Brown. James Brown. How did all of this trouble begin? Living in America. At number two is James Brown, the godfather of soul, who McCartney called so damn fantastic that even the Beatles could not compete. In a 2003 interview, McCartney admitted something remarkable. He said that if you stack the Beatles up against James Brown record for record, Brown was definitely hotter because he was James Brown.
This is Paul McCartney, one of the most celebrated musicians in history. Acknowledging that someone else was simply better. Brown’s influence on McCartney’s bass playing was enormous. McCartney absorbed elements from Brown’s songs like Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag, which helped him develop more spontaneous and melodic baselines.
The American soul music coming from artists like Brown fascinated McCartney and the Beatles throughout the mid 1960s, pushing them toward new rhythmic territories they would never have explored otherwise. Bands, many of which were featured on your favorite. He is the author of Hey Grand Dude. Paul McCartney’s here.
McCartney even used Brown as inspiration during recording sessions. When working on songs in the studio, he would sometimes think to himself that he would sing it like James Brown might. He had little mental images of Brown during takes, channeling that energy into his own performances. McCartney said there was something about Brown’s showmanship and soul that was impossible to match.
The raw power, the physical intensity, the complete commitment to every single moment on stage. While the Beatles did different things than Brown, An McCartney never stopped admiring the pure energy that Brown brought to every performance. He represented everything great about soul music. And McCartney was honest enough to acknowledge that some things cannot be surpassed. They can only be admired.
Number one, Little Richard. Coming in at number one is Little Richard. little Richard that he hasn’t already said better himself. I am the architect of rock and roll. I’m the originator. I’m the emancipator. The screaming pioneer of rock and roll who taught McCartney everything he knows. Those are not my words.
Those are McCartney’s words and Little Richard’s words and the truth. When Little Richard came screaming into McCartney’s life as a teenager with songs like Tutti Frutti, Long Tall Sally, and Good Golly Miss Molly, everything changed. This was not music McCartney had heard before. This was controlled chaos.
This was pure energy given vocal form. The screams, the shouts, the abandon, the complete surrender to the moment. McCartney said he owed a lot of what he does to Little Richard and his style. And Richard knew it. Little Richard would tell anyone who listened that he taught Paul everything he knows. McCartney never argued.
He admitted Richard was right. In the early days of the Beatles, they played with Little Richard in Hamburg and got to know him personally. Richard would let them hang out in his dressing room and they witnessed his pre-show rituals. McCartney watched him put his head under a towel over steaming hot water, then suddenly lift his head to the mirror and announced that he could not help it because he was so beautiful.
And he was the confidence, the self-belief, the absolute certainty that he was the greatest thing on any stage. McCartney absorbed all of it. I Little Richard taught McCartney his distinctive vocalizations and showed him how to scream with power and emotion without destroying his voice. That screaming style became one of McCartney’s signatures, appearing on Beatles tracks throughout their career.
McCartney even adopted Richard’s pre-show ritual of steaming his face before performances, a practice he continued for decades. The technical influence was matched by the spiritual influence. Richard showed McCartney that performance was not about holding back. It was about giving everything. When Little Richard d.i.ed in 2020, Little Richard, a founding father of rock and roll with an unforgettable flare, he has d.i.ed.
McCartney thanked him publicly for all he taught and for the kindness he showed by letting McCartney be his friend. It was not a statement from one legend to another. It was a student honoring his teacher. A musician acknowledging the source of his power. And everything McCartney became started with a screaming man from Georgia who refused to be ignored.
Every note McCartney played carries a story. Every harmony echoes a teacher. Every song is a conversation across generations. The music we celebrate as revolutionary was in truth built on decades of inspiration, study and devotion. The question is not who influenced Paul McCartney, but how far back does the chain of influence stretch? How many voices, longforgotten or unheard, shaped the sound that changed the world? The story of genius is never a solo act.
It is a relay passed hand to hand across time. And the music is still listening.
