What Was the First No. 1 Hit for Each of The Beatles' Solo Careers?

Tuesday, February 17, 2026

When The Beatles broke up in 1969 (although it wasn’t announced until 1970), the four men made a point of moving forward into solo forays pretty quickly. They also inherently understood that their work on their own would always be compared to what they’d done within the Fab Four, especially when it came to the charts.

Eventually, each man found their way to No. 1 in the US, a spot where they’d perched so often with their former group. Here are the songs that did it for them. “My Sweet Lord” by George Harrison

It makes sense that George Harrison was the first Beatle to reach the top of the US pop charts. After all, he had amassed a large quantity of songs that he’d written for the Fab Four that were either refused by the band or just didn’t quite muscle onto an album. Also, remember that Harrison’s songs stood tallest on Abbey Road, the last album The Beatles recorded. Harrison was able to release a triple album (All Things Must Pass) in 1970 with everything he had in his backlog. The first single, “My Sweet Lord”, immediately topped the charts. Down the road, the song caused Harrison quite a few headaches when a court decided he had unconsciously plagiarized The Chiffons’ hit “He’s So Fine”. “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” by Paul McCartney

We tend to think of the early part of Paul McCartney’s solo career as being characterized by misfires. Yet the success of “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey”, a US No. 1 single released barely a year after the announcement of the Beatles’ breakup, flies in the face of that. Paul’s solo debut album (McCartney) in 1970 featured him keeping things as adornment-free as possible. But on the Ram album in 1971, Macca indulged himself in ornate, richly produced tracks. This song features a George Martin-arranged orchestral score, plentiful sound effects, and layered backing vocals prominently featuring Linda McCartney. It’s also a song suite reminiscent of what McCartney helped to spearhead on Side Two of Abbey Road. “Photograph” by Ringo Starr

Source: Jim Beviglia/americansongwriter.com