Albums That Should Exist: Various Artists - MusiCares Tribute to Paul McCartney, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 2-10-2012

Saturday, October 11, 2025

Various Artists - MusiCares Tribute to Paul McCartney, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 2-10-2012

Here's another MusiCares tribute show. This one celebrates Paul McCartney's music career. It's a bit short as far as these types of concerts go, but what's here is very good.

The usual format for these kinds of tribute concerts is a series of stars sing covers by the performer being honored, then there's an acceptance speech, and then the performer plays a couple of songs at the end. That's how this one went as well, except Paul McCartney performed two songs at the beginning as well as three at the end.

Actually, he did one more: a cover of "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter" performed as a duet with Diana Krall. However, this is sourced from a DVD, and that wasn't included, so I don't have it here. Also, Katy Perry sang "Hey Jude," and the Foo Fighters sang "Jet," and those aren't here either, for the same reason. If anyone has those missing songs, please let me know and I'll be happy to add them in.

Additionally, Cirque du Soleil started the concert with a medley of "Get Back," "Hello Goodbye," and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." But I edited that out because it was a visual performance done to the record versions.

What's here is pretty great though, which isn't shocking considering McCartney was one of the best and possibly the most commercially successful songwriters of all time. Particularly interesting is the finale, a version of the Beatles medley "Golden Slumbers - Carry That Weight - The End" with McCartney, Joe Walsh, and Dave Grohl dueling on guitars.

As mentioned above, this has been officially released on DVD. However, there have been no audio releases. The sound quality is excellent.

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 talk (emcee)
02 Magical Mystery Tour (Paul McCartney)
03 Junior's Farm (Paul McCartney)
04 talk (emcee)
05 talk (Alicia Keys)
06 Blackbird (Alicia Keys)
07 talk (emcee)
08 No More Lonely Nights (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
09 talk (emcee)
10 And I Love Her (Duane Eddy)
11 talk (emcee)
12 Oh, Darling (Norah Jones)
13 talk (emcee)
14 I Saw Her Standing There (Neil Young)
15 talk (emcee)
16 The Fool on the Hill (Sergio Mendes)
17 We Can Work It Out (Coldplay)
18 Yesterday (James Taylor with Diana Krall)
19 talk (James Taylor)
20 For No One (Diana Krall with James Taylor)
21 talk (emcee)
22 talk (Neil Portnow)
23 talk (Paul McCartney)
24 My Valentine (Paul McCartney, Diana Krall & Joe Walsh)
25 Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five (Paul McCartney)
26 Golden Slumbers - Carry That Weight - The End (Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh & Dave Grohl)
27 talk (Paul McCartney)