Paul McCartney's White House Concert
By Jan Mayrhofer on
The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song was awarded this year to Paul McCartney. He felt honored to receive the prize and to have the opportunity to play for President and Mrs. Obama in the East Room at the White House. It was filmed on June 2, 2010, and aired on July 28.
I was happy for the opportunity to see some great musicians honoring Paul McCartney with his own great music right from the comfort of my own living room. Public Television carried the coverage and it was fantastic.
Paul opened the show with Got to Get You Into My Life. After that the parade of celebrities played their tributes to him. Following is a list of artists with the songs they performed.
Stevie Wonder - We Can Work It Out
Jonas Brothers - Baby You Can Drive My Car
Faith Hill The Long and Winding Road
Elvis Costello PennyLane
Herbie Hancock and Corrine Bailey Rae Black Bird
Jerry Seinfeld - Standup Comedy
Lang Lang Celebration
Emmy Lou Harris For No One
David Grohl Band on the Run
Jack White Mother Natures Son/That Would Be Something
Then Stevie and Paul performed Ebony and Ivory and Paul and his band played Michelle , Eleanor Rigby, Let It Be, and Hey Jude. Naturally, Hey Jude became a sing-a-long and everyone had a great time with it.
The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song is awarded by the Librarian of Congress and a board with a wide spectrum of knowledge in the music business. The award is fairly new, with Paul being the third recipient of the prize. Paul Simon was the first and Stevie Wonder the second.
There are many more videos on youtube if you are kicking yourself for missing this concert!
That's a historical concert! Lucky you!
Thanks for the heads up. I love the Performance at the White House concerts and I watched Stevie Wonder perform last year. People can still catch this McCartney concert at PBS.org http://video.pbs.org/video/1554730433/
Thank YOU for the link!
I loved this concert! Watched it the wee hours of one morning. I kept thinking that someone should have sang the song "Michelle", LOL, although I did hear Stevie whisper that in her ear when he personally bent to greet her. I giggled as I thought it was cute and she smiled!
Pam, Paul actually did sing Michelle and told the President he's been dying to sing this song at the White House and hoped he wouldn't be upset with him! It was cute.