Released on this day in 1970, McCartney is the debut solo album by Paul McCartney. A press release in the form of a self-interview, supplied with UK promotional copies of McCartney, led to the announcement of The Beatles breakup a week earlier, on April 10, 1970. McCartney recorded the album in secrecy, mostly using basic home-recording equipment set up at his house. Apart from occasional contributions by his wife, Linda, he performed the entire album by himself, playing every instrument via overdubbing on four-track tape. When it was released, the album received an unfavorable response from the majority of music critics, partly as a result of McCartney's role in officially ending the Beatles' career. Many reviewers criticized the inclusion of half-finished songs and McCartney's reliance on instrumental pieces, although the love song "Maybe I'm Amazed" was consistently singled out for praise. Commercially, McCartney benefited from the publicity surrounding the break-up; it held the number 1 position for three weeks on the US chart and peaked at number 2 in Britain.
Sadly, today also marks the 26th anniversary of the passing of Linda McCartney. She died at the age of 56, after a battle with breast cancer, at the McCartney family ranch in Tucson, Arizona.
Check out Paul's vocal changes on "Maybe I'm Amazed" throughout the last 50 years (above), and see how Entertainment Tonight covered Linda's death in April of 1998, (below).