Watch The Beatles’ Paul McCartney Play Beatles Hit For The First Time In Decades, McCartney’s First Time Performing Song As A Solo Artist [Video]

Years after The Beatles have broken up, Paul McCartney still remains one of the more visible faces of the band. “Macca,” as he’s sometimes referred to, has been featured on songs with artists as diverse as Rihanna, Kanye West, and Dave Grohl. Now, McCartney can be seen performing the Beatles hit “Hard Day’s Night,” live, for the first time in years. McCartney whipped the hit out as part of his “One On One” tour, which RollingStone.com discovered had its opening show at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California, this past Wednesday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH2DNbt7RkE

Interestingly enough, this is also the first time Macca performed the hit song as a solo artist after The Beatles broke up in 1970. It was McCartney who dissolved The Beatles in April of that year, making this concert almost 46 years to the month that The Beatles ceased to exist.

Since that fateful day, McCartney and fellow band member Ringo Starr have had relatively successful careers as solo artists. Though McCartney and John Lennon wrote most of the hits The Beatles are known for, including “I Want To Hold Your Hand” and “Hey Jude,” the rights to much of the Beatles’ catalog was snapped up by Michael Jackson after the band’s breakup.

During the concert, McCartney’s stage was constantly lit with super bright white lights, and there were plenty of fans in attendance. The L.A. Timesnoted that the video screen behind McCartney played scenes from the Beatles movie “Hard Day’s Night” as well as images from McCartney’s life as the rock icon performed. The “One On One” tourwill continue through June, and will include locations in North America as well as across the pond in Denmark. McCartney also appeared at the Coachella Music Festival in California last year.

Thank you Fresno and great to meet you Jude, Jet, Amanda & Lisa! #oneonone pic.twitter.com/wh6scztFH7

— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) April 14, 2016

As for the future, McCartney is set to release Pure McCartney in June. The album, which McCartney calls “career-spanning,” will be a collection of former Beatles masterpieces, starting with his first solo album in 1970 and going all the way through his remix of Say Say Say in 2016. The album will encompass 67 tracks that have helped to define McCartney’s career with and without The Beatles.

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“A Hard Day’s Night” was written by John Lennon, but credited to Lennon-McCartney due to an agreement the two had to credit all their individually-written songs to both artists. The song was also on their 1964 album by the same name. In that year, The Beatles were just rising to fame in the U.S. after being discovered thanks to an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

EW.comnoted that Sir Pauldidn’t just play the one Beatles’ hit, and also delved into other, more obscure songs like “The Fool On The Hill” from Magical Mystery Tourand “You Won’t See Me” ( Rubber Soul). These songs haven’t been belted out since 2003 and 2004 in that order, which makes the concert an even rarer event. It’s not uncommon to see Paul or Ringo jamming out a Beatles hit now and then, but “A Hard Day’s Night” has been a rarity over the years, and a live performance of the song is even rarer.

[Image Via Fiona/Wikipedia.org/CC-BY SA 2.0 ]