Former Beatle Paul McCartney marries New York heiress Nancy Shevell in a civil ceremony in London on Sunday.
Here are some details of the 69-year-old singer-songwriter's life:
* A LIFE IN MUSIC:
-- Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison first played together in a group called The Quarrymen in the late 1950s. They eventually became The Beatles and recruited Ringo Starr. They played in clubs in northern England and made several tours of West Germany.
-- In 1962, the Beatles recorded "Love Me Do," the first of a string of hits by Lennon and McCartney that included "I Want To Hold Your Hand," "Help!," "Yesterday," "Hey Jude," "Get Back" and "Let It Be."
-- After the Beatles split in 1970, McCartney was still writing songs. "Mull of Kintyre," which he recorded with his group Wings in 1977, topped the British charts for nine weeks. Though he delivered another standard McCartney pop-rock album in 1993, "Off the Ground," McCartney was starting to experiment with other genres.
-- In 1991 he composed the "Liverpool Oratorio," later performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. Other forays into classical music have included "Standing Stone" (1997), "Working Classical" (1999), "Ecce Cor Meum" (2006) and, this year, a ballet score, "Ocean's Kingdom."
-- McCartney continues to tour and perform, sometimes with Ringo Starr.
* LIFE DETAILS:
-- McCartney was born in Liverpool, England, on June 18, 1942. His father was a cotton salesman and part-time leader of a jazz band. His mother, a school health officer, died suddenly when he was 14.
-- Although he qualified for university, McCartney's interest in pop music dictated his future. Together with John Lennon, whom he met at 15, he began learning the guitar.
-- McCartney quickly became a heartthrob. When he married American socialite photographer Linda Eastman in 1969, teenage girls wailed at the wedding.
-- McCartney married Heather Mills in 2002, four years after Linda died of breast cancer. They had a daughter, Beatrice. The couple blamed their split on media intrusion into their private lives. In 2008 McCartney was ordered to pay Mills 24.3 million pounds ($38 million) after an acrimonious divorce battle.
-- This month, McCartney and Ringo Starr joined director Martin Scorsese for the premiere of a documentary "George Harrison: Living in the Material World." Harrison died in 2001.
-- McCartney was knighted by the queen in 1997.
Sources: Reuters/Macca-central.com/beatlesbible.com/thebeatles.com