Paul McCartney - Linda McCartney - WINGS - 1973

Credit: Far Out / Alamy

How did Paul and Linda McCartney first meet?

Tue 14 October 2025 18:12, UK

As a self-confessed Paul McCartney fan, I have been asked what I think is his greatest love song. Really, I have two answers that can be separated into two camps. One guilty, the other not so much. Or perhaps it would be better to label it as, one post-Linda and one pre-Linda.

The latter is of course ‘Here There and Everywhere’ from The Beatles’ 1966 record Revolver. Tender, ethereal and flooded with harmonies, it is to me the ultimate love song. The former, however, is the result of my guilty pleasure. Far less nuanced than ‘Here There and Everywhere’ but twice as joyful, it is ‘Silly Love Songs’ from Wings’ 1976 record Wings At The Speed Of Sound. Joined by his wife Linda McCartney in the vocal harmonies, it’s McCartney at his corny and warm-hearted best.

While John Lennon was, of course, the musical partner that fate had decided should be by his side for the most important parts of his career, Linda brought a sense of balance not quite present in his previous work. Devoid of competitive tension, she represented what a partner meant for McCartney in the truest sense of the word. Both in terms of life and in music.

Perhaps then, it was a case of divine intervention, for Linda filled the void that was slowly beginning to surface in the late 1960s. By the time the decade ended, and the great unknown of this new Beatle-less decade awaited Paul, Linda was there to provide clarity in what could have otherwise been a time of personal and creative uncertainty.

So, when did the pair actually meet?

One year after the release of my first favourite Macca love song, in 1967, Paul and Linda first met. Then named Eastman, Linda was a budding photographer in New York’s growing creative scene, and she was offered an opportunity at Brian Epstein’s office, after making her ambitions in London well known.

“When I came to London in 1967, The Beatles and Stevie Winwood were the two acts I was determined to photograph. Having already taken the first pictures of Traffic in Berkshire, that left only The Beatles,” she explained in her book Linda McCartney’s Sixties.

While waiting for Epstein to approve the work of her portfolio, Linda decided to Bag O’Nails on Kingly Street, where she would skip the process offered to her by Epstein and eventually meet Paul.

“I can still recall our first meeting,” Paul sentimentally recalled in an interview with The Sunday Times. “It was at a London club, the Bag O’ Nails, when Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames were playing one night. Across a crowded room, as they say, our eyes met and the violins started playing – but they were drowned out by, of all people, Georgie Fame. Another northerner”.

He added, “There was an immediate attraction between us. As she was leaving – she was with the group the Animals, whom she’d been photographing – I saw an obvious opportunity. I said: ‘My name’s Paul. What’s yours?’ I think she probably recognised me.”