Test your knowledge of Paul McCartney's biggest hits, deep cuts and iconic moments.
Three McCartney signatures are unmistakable from a short clip: the Wings anthem 'Band on the Run', the Bond theme 'Live and Let Die' and the solo ballad 'Maybe I'm Amazed'. Most players place these at once.
Behind the songs sit the facts a quiz loves: the most covered tune in popular music, a chart-topping Bond theme, and a debut album McCartney played almost single-handed. Small credits separate the sharpest players.
The trick with McCartney is which project a song came from. His four catalogs, Beatles, Wings, solo and duets, share one voice, so the sections below sort them by the credit that trips players up.
Some McCartney songs land at once: the Wings anthem 'Band on the Run', the Bond theme 'Live and Let Die', the solo ballad 'Maybe I'm Amazed' and the Beatles singalong 'Hey Jude'. Nearly everyone knows these on sight, so they are the gimmes early in the round.
Here is the real game. The same voice and melodic touch run through four catalogs, so the question is rarely what the song is, it is which project it belongs to. 'Penny Lane' is the Beatles, 'Jet' is Wings, 'Coming Up' is solo, and telling them apart is what a McCartney quiz really tests.
On the 1970 album McCartney and again on McCartney III in 2020, he played nearly every instrument himself. These home-made solo records sound different from the full-band Wings tracks, and hearing that thinner, hand-built arrangement is a shortcut to placing a solo cut.
Away from his own bands, McCartney sang with the era's biggest stars: 'Ebony and Ivory' with Stevie Wonder, 'Say Say Say' and 'The Girl Is Mine' with Michael Jackson. Catching who sings alongside him is the difference at the very top.
The hits are easy, but McCartney wrote across four catalogs with the same voice, so the real challenge is attribution. Telling a Wings track from a solo record or a Beatles song is what separates the scores.
Expect his signatures, 'Band on the Run', 'Live and Let Die', 'Maybe I'm Amazed', 'Jet' and 'Silly Love Songs', plus duets like 'Ebony and Ivory' and deeper cuts that decide the top scores.
Wings tracks are full-band and often built around Linda McCartney and Denny Laine, while his solo records, like the 1970 debut, are hand-made with McCartney on nearly every instrument. The arrangement is the tell.
Yes. McCartney's Beatles work like 'Hey Jude' and 'Yesterday' sits alongside his Wings and solo material, which is exactly why placing each song in the right era is the real test.
His full name is Sir James Paul McCartney, born in Liverpool, England, in 1942. He co-founded the Beatles, later led Wings, and was knighted in 1997.
Yes. Every Paul McCartney quiz on Songtrivia is free, with no signup and no Spotify account needed. Pick one and play. You can also guess the song with friends in a multiplayer round.
Wikipedia · AllMusic · Pitchfork · Billboard · Songtrivia editorial team.
Each topic is curated by a Quiz Master with category expertise. Selection crosses cultural impact, chart performance, recognition potential and era variety.