The Beatles’ lineup was defined from the beginning by the members, who accepted their individual limitations and brought in players who could compensate for them.
When Stuart Sutcliffe left the group in July 1961 to continue his art studies, it fell to Paul McCartney to take over bass guitar duties.
But perhaps most crucial to that decision was McCartney’s ill-fated attempt at a guitar solo on his first gig with Lennon. It not only put him off playing lead guitar — it also led directly to George Harrison being hired as the group’s lead guitar. And it all happened one fateful night in January 1958.
It’s not that McCartney lacked the talent to grow into the role. One of John Lennon’s first observations when he met his future bandmate on July 6, 1957, was his skill as a guitarist. McCartney showed his strengths by spontaneously performing Eddie Cochran’s “Twenty Flight Rock” for Lennon and his group, the Quarrymen, nailing both the lyrics and, more importantly, its twanging electric guitar riff. It was precisely why Lennon invited him to join the Quarrymen in 1957.
McCartney’s big solo was a piece called “Guitar Boogie,” by Arthur Smith and His Cracker-Jacks.
Smith wrote and recorded “Guitar Boogie” in 1945, and the song went on to sell three million copies, earning him a Gold disc at the time and making him famous as Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith. The song was so popular that, the year after the Quarrymen were performing it, a U.S. group called the Virtues worked up a rock and roll version that became an international hit.
As McCartney explained in the Beatles’ Anthology book, the song and its solo were well within his adolescent grasp.
He recalled: “I could play it easily in rehearsal. So they elected that I should do it as my solo. Things were going fine, but when the moment came in the performance I got sticky fingers; I thought, What am I doing here?”
