Paul McCartney performs I Want to Hold Your Hand for first time in 60 years at Taylor Swift wedding | Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney performed the Beatles’ No. 1 hit I Want to Hold Your Hand for the first time in 60 years at Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding.
McCartney performed the number at a star-studded reception at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Friday. People magazine reported. The track was the Beatles’ first No. 1 hit in America; It sparked Beatlemania in the US and sparked a wave of success by British bands nicknamed the “British invasion”.
The Beatles last performed the song in September 1964 at the Paramount theater in New York. McCartney has never performed this publicly since.
“After the ceremony, Taylor’s mother, Andrea, invited everyone to the reception room where the stage was set up,” an anonymous source told People. and former Fleetwood Mac vocalist Stevie Nicks also performed, he added.
McCartney, 84, and Swift, 36, appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone together in 2020 and have since expressed their admiration for each other. McCartney attended one of Swift’s Eras Tour concerts at Wembley Stadium in June 2024 and was greeted by fans.
Two years later, Swift attended McCartney’s intimate concert at the Fonda Theater in Los Angeles. She recently shared an Instagram post about McCartney’s new solo album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, hailing him as a “forever extraordinary artist” from whom he has “never been inspired.”
Days ago, during an interview, McCartney was asked if he would give Swift any advice on achieving global fame. “You see the parallel, you know the fame and the amount of fame,” he told BBC Sounds. “Taylor Swift has a global reputation and we have it too, but to tell you the truth, I don’t think she needs any advice.”
McCartney said he would “absolutely” do so if Swift asked him for advice. “I am like the older brother of that generation, or rather like its grandfather,” he said.
He said he met Swift and other young artists, including Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter, at parties hosted by his wife Nancy Shevell and daughter Stella. “They are really great people, very nice,” he said. “I like their sound. If they need advice I’ll be happy to give it, but I don’t think they do.”
The Beatles released I Want to Hold Your Hand in 1963 and it became the band’s best-selling single worldwide, selling more than 12 million copies. The song would have gone straight to the top of the UK record charts on the day of its release had it not been blocked by the Beatles’ first million-selling single, She Loves You.
But I Want to Hold Your Hand quickly rose to the top of the charts, staying at No. 1 for five weeks, including Christmas, and remaining in the UK top 50 for 21 weeks.
