The Most Famous Death Hoax in History: Paul McCartney
Many people love and cherish The Beatles music still to this day, and they are idolized and recognized as one of the best bands in history. In 1969 a rumor spread the nation that Paul McCartney, singer and bassist for the Beatles, died in a car crash on his way home from the EMI recording studios. Alex Boese, an author for the website “Museum of Hoaxes”, wrote this article explaining the following rumors. Supposedly the surviving band members feared how Paul’s death might affect their careers in the future, that they replaced him with a double who won a Paul McCartney lookalike contest, named William Campbell. Another twist to this rumor, is that the band members also planted clues in their later albums to let fans know the “truth”, that Paul was dead. Beatles fans spent countless hours searching for hidden clues in the albums, eventually finding hundreds of them. A few of the clues included: playing The Beatles records backward to hear hidden messages, small hidden symbolic images embedded into their album covers, and also, song lyrics with double meanings. The Beatles themselves were well-known for their mischievous sense of humor, but the question remains: was the rumor of Paul’s death a deliberate hoax? And if it was, did Capital records create this elaborate hoax or did the Beatles themselves?
The Clues (Click on pictures for more explanation)
It repeats the phrase: "Turn me on dead man" over and over.
Whether it was a mistake or a deliberate plan, Paul McCartney let his guard down and admitted that the “Paul is dead” clues found in several Beatles albums were in fact deliberately planted and part of a complex scheme dating back to the summer of 1966. “The idea was that we would plant clues in our songs and album covers that one of us had died in a car wreck. If after a few albums, our records weren’t selling well, we’d leak out word about the clues and let our fans and the press take over. People would buy albums to see and hear the clues” said Paul McCartney. The Beatles decided that Paul would be the one to fake die because he was the second most popular with the fans and no one would suspect Paul’s calm demeanor to rig his own death. Paul hid away at his farm in Scotland to further fuel the hoax, and for thirty years the Beatles inner circle kept the clue caper a secret. Not only do we know that the Beatles planted the clues deliberately, but we also know that is was part of a brilliant marketing scheme. This will be known as the most persistent and elaborate false death rumor in history.
In an edition of Life magazine dated 7 November 1969, McCartney reassured fans that “Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated,” paraphrasing Mark Twain. “However,” he continued, “if I was dead, I’m sure I’d be the last to know.”