On Wednesday, 9 November 1966 at 5am Paul McCartney during a recording session for the Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Paul stormed out of the studio after an argument with the other Beatles and drove off in his car which he then crashed into a lamp post and died.
Paul McCartney was replaced with the winner of a Paul McCartney lookalike contest. The name of this lookalike has been recorded Billy Shears, the name of the fabricated leader of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Billy looked a lot like McCartney but there were a small number of differences. Amongst them the top lip had to be fattened up a little, but there was a doctor’s error which left a scar. At the end, the new McCartney was pretty much impossible to tell apart from the real McCartney.
After the release of the Beatles’ Abbey Road the rumour swept across America concerning the death of Paul McCartney. While this rumour was very popular on among fans respected news publications like the New York Times, Time Magazine, and Life Magazine also covered the story.
The cover of Abbey Road shows the Beatles walking across Abbey Road. John is dressed in white, as the preacher. George is dressed like the grave digger. Ringo is dressed as pallbearer, Paul, who is out of step, barefoot, and the only one holding a cigarette in his right hand when he is left handed, is obviously a corpse. George is dressed like the grave digger. A Volkswagen with the license plate is in the background that says “28 if” followed by “LMW.” Paul would have been 28 if he were alive LMV is said to stand for Linda McCartney Weeps.
According to several internet sites clues were left by the Beatles in the lyrics of several songs. The most common story includes the following pieces of evidence:
"He didn't notice that the lights had changed" ("A Day in the Life") because he was busy watching the pretty girl on the pavement (the eponymous meter maid of "Lovely Rita") after narrowly missing her dressed in blue (she's said to be the blur on the back of Abbey Road) jaywalking ("Blue Jay Way"). He then crashed into a lamp-post (a car crash sound is heard in "Revolution 9" and "A Day in the Life"). He was pronounced dead on a "Wednesday morning at 5 o'clock as the day begins" ("She's Leaving Home"), and nobody found out this because the news was withheld: "Wednesday morning papers didn’t come" ("Lady Madonna"). A funeral procession was held days later (as supposedly implied in the Abbey Road album cover). Adding fuel to the legend is the ending of "Strawberry Fields Forever." Some believed John said "I buried Paul" in a slow deep voice over the final refrain.
In the end the new McCartney could have fooled anyone, and eventually he did fool billions of us!
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