That’s Sir Walrus To You Paul Mccartney To Be Knighted Despite Friendship With Musicians

Paul McCartney, the former Beatle, is to become Sir Paul McCartney.

The announcement of the honor - the first knighthood for an ex-Beatle - came nearly four decades after the group took the world by storm, put Britain on the pop music map, revolutionized rock-and-roll and became one of the nation’s leading exports.

It came roughly three decades after the Beatles’ breakup, in 1970, which was also about the time people here started wondering when John, Paul, George or Ringo would become Sir John, Sir Paul, Sir George or Sir Ringo.

McCartney, 54, said Monday it was “a fantastic honor.”

McCartney and John Lennon, who was murdered in New York in 1980, were the Beatles’ most prolific songwriters. Many of those songs are still topping the charts today. Record and video sales along with TV rights are estimated to total $780 million this year.

Entertainers have been prominent recipients of knighthoods - Richard Burton, Alec Guinness, Laurence Olivier. But such honors have generally gone to those considered serious stars of the theater or film rather than to rock-and-rollers.

In the past few years, however, Liverpool boosters, as well as some members of Parliament, have campaigned to honor the surviving Beatles.

McCartney’s highly publicized philanthropy - he contributed more than $1.5 million for a performing arts school in Liverpool - undoubtedly helped make him the first honored among the Beatles.

The Beatles had received one of the lower honors in the 1960s (an MBE Member, Order of the British Empire). But John Lennon publicly returned his in 1969 as a protest, in part against British support of the United States in the Vietnam War - which, conceivably, is a reason no Beatle has been honored until now.

Another reason could be Lennon’s later claim the Beatles were “stoned” when they received the MBE at Buckingham Palace.

Yet another might be the group’s performance before the queen in 1963 when Lennon, before introducing “Twist and Shout,” asked the audience for help:

“The people in the cheaper seats, clap your hands,” he said. Then, glancing toward the royal box, he added, “And the rest of you, just rattle your jewelry.”