Video: 'Paul McCartney Interview with Geraldo Riviera October 24, 1979' (starts repeating at 7:19)

(Wednesday, October 24, 1979) — Former Beatle Paul McCartney was honored today by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most successful composer and music performer of all time.

At a special ceremony at the Les Ambassadors Club in Hamilton Place, London, McCartney was presented with a “Rhodium Record,” made of one the world’s rarest metals.

The 1980 edition of the Guinness record book lists McCartney in three categories — as “the most successful composer of all time,” as “the world’s most successful recording artist,” and as the hold of the “record number of gold discs.”

Video: 'Paul McCartney 1979 Interview' (Oct. 24, 1979)

Guinness credited McCartney with writing 43 songs that sold more than 1 million copies each between 1962 and 1978. He also was listed as having sold 200 million albums and singles and having performed on 60 gold records 42 with the Beatles, 17 with his group “Wings” and one with Billy Preston.

“Since, in the field of recorded music, gold and platinum discs are standard presentations by recording companies, we felt we should make a fittingly superlative presentation of the first-ever rhodium disc with a special label listing his three achievements,” said Norris McWhirter, editor of The Guinness Book of World Records.

Immediately following the ceremony, McCartney was interviewed at the hotel by Geraldo Rivera for Nov. 1, 1979, edition of the American television newsmagazine 20/20 on ABC.