Ex-Beatle McCartney to Become Sir Paul

Paul McCartney, the former Beatle, is to become Sir Paul.

The announcement of the honor--the first knighthood for an ex-Beatle--came more than three decades after the group took the world by storm, put Britain on the pop music map and revolutionized rock ‘n’ roll.

It came more than two decades after the Beatles’ breakup, in 1970, which was also about the time people here started wondering when McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr would become Sir Paul, Sir John, Sir George and Sir Ringo.

Monday, in a statement issued while vacationing abroad, McCartney, 54, said it is “a fantastic honor and I am very gratefully receiving it on behalf of all the people of Liverpool and the other Beatles, without whom it wouldn’t have been possible.” McCartney will be honored during a ceremony later.

The Beatles received one of the lesser honors in the 1960s: an MBE, or Member, Order of the British Empire.