Paul McCartney Receives Kennedy Center Honors

Sir Paul McCartney's career was celebrated by some of rock's biggest names Sunday night as part of the 33rd annual Kennedy Center Honors. Macca was recognized alongside TV giant Oprah Winfrey, country legend Merle Haggard and others by President Obama at the event, which will air on US television on Dec. 28.

McCartney was treated to a rendition of 'Hello, Goodbye' by No Doubt and a duet of 'Maybe I'm Amazed' by Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl and pop singer Norah Jones. Later, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, who was asked to perform by McCartney, did a medley of songs from 'Abbey Road.' James Taylor and Mavis Staples closed out the show with 'Let It Be' and 'Hey Jude.'

"I've done a lot of things and been a lot of places," Tyler told the audience. "But I've never been prouder than I am standing right here at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Abbey Road." As for Obama, he told the crowd he was pleased "to honor a man widely considered to be among the greatest songwriters in history."

Accepting the distinction, McCartney said, "The most important ingredient to making a song work is magic. You've got a melody, you've got words, but on the most successful songs, there's a sort of magic glow that just makes the songs sort of roll out."