On June 18, 1942, James Paul McCartney was born at Walton General Hospital in Liverpool. His family moved a few times, and when he was 13 they moved to 20 Forthlin Road in Allerton, a little over one mile away from where John lived with his Aunt Mimi.
Music was always a part of the McCartney household. Paul's father was a cotton salesman during the day, and a jazz musician with Jim Mac's Jazz Band by night. Both Paul and his brother received piano lessons. The antithesis of John Lennon as a school boy, Paul did very well in school.
When Lonnie Donnegan appeared in Liverpool and the Skiffle craze hit, Jim McCartney scraped together £15 for a guitar for Paul. Paul's friend Ivan Vaughan invited Paul to Woolton to see the Quarrymen play in Woolton on July 6, 1957. Later in the afternoon, after hearing the Quarrymen play, Paul borrowed a guitar and impressed the boys with all the chords and the words to "Twenty Flight Rock". Paul's first impression of John was that he was drunk. But Paul wrote down the words for "Twenty Flight Rock" and "Be Bop a Lula" for him so that John could learn them. A few days later Pete Shotten told Paul the others wanted him to join the band.
Paul switched to the bass when the Beatles' bass player Stu Sutcliffe left the group in 1961.
