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Paul McCartney Will Top Olympics Opening Ceremony

Beatle will perform as part of celebration of British culture

Paul McCartney performs at the Diamond Jubilee at Buckingham Palace in London.
David Parker - WPA Pool/Getty Images
June 5, 2012 8:40 AM ET

Paul McCartney will perform at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in London on July 27th, the BBC reports. McCartney confirmed the booking in an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live yesterday, adding that he will be "closing the opening" of the sporting event.

The full lineup of the opening ceremony of the London Olympics has not yet been announced, but a total cast of 15,000 will take part in the opening and closing ceremonies. The event is intended to be a celebration of the host nation's culture, hence the inclusion of the surviving Beatles icon.

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Song Stories

“Helen Wheels”

Paul McCartney | 1973

A rollicking good-time hard rocker, "Helen Wheels" was not about a woman but about Paul McCartney's Land Rover, the anthemic chorus voicing the vehicle's reckless joy as "she" took to the road. The song was added to the U.S. version of Band on the Run but was issued only as a single in McCartney's native U.K. "I like that because it's a British road song and there's not many of those around," said McCartney. "It's always Route 66. But Carlisle? How many songs have got Carlisle in them?"

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