Paul McCartney Stevie Wonder Ebony and Ivory Most Expensive Bass Ever

Paul McCartney played his Yamaha BB-1200 bass guitar during the filming of Ebony and Ivory (remixed 2015), the 1982 music video with Stevie Wonder. His primary instrument from the late 1970s to the early ’80s recently went up as part of a charity auction organized by U2’s The Edge and producer Bob Ezrin to benefit their charity Music Rising. The bass fetched $496,100, which broke the record for most expense bass ever actioned, previously held by Bill Wyman’s 1969 Fender Mustang which sold for $384,000 at an auction in 2020.

Obviously, the Yamaha is not the bass most commonly associated with McCartney. The Hofner bass during The Beatles era is more famous. It’s not even the bass most associated with McCartney during the Wings era, as that honor goes to the Rickenbacker 4001S, which McCartney used from Rubber Soul on. McCartney stripped the finish and famously used the guitar on the ‘Wings over the World’ tour, immortalized in the Rockshow concert film. Source: Far Out Magazine UK December 15, 2021.

The "Ebony and Ivory" single was released on March 29, 1982, in both the UK and the United States. It marked the first time in McCartney's solo career that he had sung a duet with another major star. In this, McCartney and Wonder fitted a trend as duetting artists became commonplace throughout the 1980s, particularly in mainstream British pop.

The single spent seven weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US and it was the fourth-biggest hit there of 1982. Its commercial success was aided by the music video, with MTV having been launched the year before. The song was also number one in the UK.

In the US, the single's run atop the chart was the longest of any of McCartney's post-Beatles works, and second-longest career-wise (behind the Beatles' "Hey Jude"). For Wonder, it was his longest-running chart-topper and made him the first solo artist to achieve a number-one single in the US over three consecutive decades. It marked the first time that any single released by any member of the Beatles was placed on the Billboard R&B chart. It was McCartney's record 28th song to hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2008, "Ebony and Ivory" was ranked at number 59 on Billboard's Hot 100 songs of all time. Source: Wikipedia