In 1969, the rumour that Paul McCartney had died and been secretly replaced with a lookalike Beatle stormed the rock world. It took months to get the story to subside, although its main promoter was nobody more well connected than a minor Detroit DJ. Apparently, people had some reason to believe that the Beatles communicated through secrecy and coded expression, which is something they did less and less as time went by - "Norwegian Wood" and "Eleanor Rigby" are much less direct than, say "Come Together" and "The Long And Winding Road". Anyway, nobody really explained why, if the story was supposed to be true, the Beatles would have left clues around inviting a clever mind to (mis)interpret them.

1. On the cover of the Beatles album Yesterday... And Today, Paul sits in a trunk. Turn it sideways and he seems to be in a 'coffin'.

2. On the cover of Revolver, Paul is turned to the side, as if he doesn't really fit in and his photograph is divided down the centre.

3. Revolver contains many references to death, such as "She Said, She Said".

4. On the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, a hand is held directly over Paul's head. This is a symbol of death.

5. On the inside of Sgt. Pepper's cover, Paul wears a black armband with the letters "OPD", which is an acronym for Officially Pronounced Dead. It actually stands for Ontario Police Department.

6. On the back cover of Sgt. Pepper, Paul's back is turned to the camera. At the time, Paul was in America and so couldn't make the photo shoot. A man named William Campbell was used as a "Paul" substitute for the photo. Obviously his face could not have been photographed.

7. Also on the back cover of Sgt. Pepper, the lyrics "without you" (part of the title "Within You, Without You") bloom from Paul's head.

8. "A Day In The Life" contains the line, "he blew his mind out in a car". This is supposedly the manner in which Paul died.

9. On "Revolution 9" from the White Album, there is a voice that repeats "number nine, number nine". If you play this segment backwards, it becomes "turn me on, dead man". John claimed that at the beginning of each take, an engineer would announce, "This is EMI Studio Number 9." Lennon said that he simply took the end of the phrase and added it to the final mix. According to him, the "turn me on, dead man" revelation was coincidence. Click here.

10. On Lennon's song "Glass Onion" he says, "And here's another clue for you all, the walrus was Paul". In some societies, the walrus is an image of death.

11. Between the end of "I'm So Tired" and the beginning of "Black Bird" on the White Album Lennon utters some nonsense syllables. Played backwards they say, "Paul is dead man, miss him, miss him, miss him". Click here.

12. While George is wailing away at the end of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", he says "Paul, Paul".

13. "Don't Pass Me By" contains the line, "You were in a car crash", the cause of Paul's death.

14. The poster with the White Album contains references to McCartney's death. For example, there is a picture of Paul's head lying back in a bathtub. This resembles what he may have looked like after the car crash.

15. The pictures with the White Album also show a scar on Paul's lip, which supposedly had never been there before. Paul actually got this scar from a horse riding accident.

16. At the end of "Strawberry Fields Forever", Lennon can be heard saying what very much sounds like "I buried Paul". (Lennon claimed that all the Beatles would often say wild and crazy things while in the studio and that what he was really saying was "cranberry sauce".) Click here.

17. On the cover of Magical Mystery Tour, the words of the title are written in stars. If you turn the album upside down, the letters reveal a phone number that some say you could dial to find out details of Paul's death. Some say this number belonged to Billy Shears.

18. Inside the booklet accompanying Magical Mystery Tour, there is a picture of Paul sitting at a desk on which there is a sign that reads "I was you".

19. In the "Your Mother Should Know" sequence of the Magical Mystery Tour film, Paul wears a black carnation. The others wear white ones. (Paul has explained that they ran out of white carnations.)

20. At the end of the Magical Mystery Tour photo book, there is a picture of the Beatles interspersed with shots of many other people. There is a hand directly over Paul's head (a sign for death).

21. On the cover of Abbey Road, Paul is bare foot (corpses are often buried without shoes) and out of step with the other Beatles. His eyes appear to be closed. The other Beatles wear clothing contributing to the motif. John, all in white, is the preacher, Ringo, all in black, is the pallbearer and George, all in denim, is the gravedigger. There is also a Volkswagen with the registration number 28IF, symbolising that McCartney would have been twenty-eight years old if he had lived.

22. On the back cover of Abbey Road immediatley after the words "Abbey Road", a skull-like drawing can be discerned.

23. In "Come Together", Lennon sings, "One and one and one is three". Three Beatles. What about Paul?

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