UlTImATE SUccESS GUIdEdead man.” Others swore that, as the end of “Strawberry Fields For-
ever” faded away, another voice clearly said, “I buried Paul.”^1
Suddenly, Derek Taylor, the Beatles’ press rep back in London, was
inundated by calls – was Paul in fact deceased? He denied that he was.
Because...well, he wasn’t.
But then, the rumor made its way to Detroit – where another college
newspaper made fun of the gossip by writing a satirical article detailing
the “clues” that proved that McCartney was no longer living. Unfortu-
nately, the story was picked up as fact by newspapers across the U.S.
- and soon the subject was burning up the radio airwaves in New York
City, among other major cities.
The “real story” was revealed as this: McCartney had died in that Lon-
don car crash a few years ago. The Beatles, desperate to continue their
success, had replaced him with a guy named William Campbell, the
winner of a Paul McCartney look-alike contest, who coincidentally
enough, evidently sounded just like him and had the same incredible
musical talent. Huh?
Three songs were written and released by other rockers about the “death”
of Paul. A television special was produced and syndicated nationally, in
which a courtroom “trial” was held to decide if Paul was, in fact, dead;
F. Lee Bailey, a leading celebrity lawyer at the time, cross-examined
“witnesses.” The verdict? Well, that was left in the hands of the viewers.
And finally, Paul McCartney decided to rise from the dead - and give an
interview to Life magazine declaring he was alive and well – and just
enjoying being “not famous” for the first time in many years.
Now, we will grant you, there have been plenty of movies about look-
alikes taking over for famous people (starting with about eighty ver-
sions of Prisoner of Zenda over the years). But, as far as we know,
there’s never been an example of this actually happening in real life – let
alone it happening with a worldwide superstar subject to intense media
scrutiny who continued to publicly perform and create new music.
So...how could anyone swallow this story???
How could anyone believe that someone could quickly and easily take
1 John Lennon later revealed, the voice was saying “Cranberry sauce.”