Sir Paul Receives the Highest Honor in American Popular Music

image via PBS.org

On Tuesday, June 2nd, 2010, President Obama honored Sir Paul McCartney with the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Music. The evening was broadcast on PBS tonight and I was able to take a break from prepping for a very important baking project in order to watch it in its entirety. I would expect that the program will be rebroadcast as well as available on PBS.org shortly.

The evening started with various artists covering McCartney penned hits including (but not limited to) Elvis Costello doing "Penny Lane", Corinne Bailey Rae and Herbie Hancock's version of "Blackbird" and a surprisingly spirited rendition of "Baby you can drive my car" by none other than the Jonas Brothers. I also enjoyed Dave Grohl's turn on "Band on the Run", I saw him in concert with the Foo Fighters a few years back and I think he was a formidable rock star to be chosen for that role.

After a brief speech in which the President referenced the difficult times facing Americans, specifically those in the Gulf, Sir Paul was presented with the award and proceeded to play several of his biggest hits. Sir Paul's performance throughout the whole night begs the question: Could Paul McCartney be any more charming?

He answered this with a concise "no" when he opted to play "Michelle" in dedication to the first lady as his first song after receiving the award. While the night might have been a little too saccharine for some, I feel I'm not alone in thinking, isn't it nice to see people getting along?

Here is a behind the scenes video the White House produced of a bit of behind the scenes of the show including the Jonas Brothers' performance (starting around the 3:30 mark):