Go Inside Making of Third Man Records’ ‘333’ Edition of ‘McCartney III’ in Mini-Doc

Paul McCartney and Jack White’s Third Man Records detail the story behind their ultra-rare “333” edition of McCartney III in a new mini-documentary released Wednesday.

The five-minute short features interviews with Third Man employees as well as Rolling Stone’s Rob Sheffield, who speaks about the significance and brilliance of McCartney III.

Released back in December 2020, Third Man Records only pressed 333 copies of quarantine-recorded McCartney III, with their vinyl created in part by crushing and melting down copies of the Beatles legend’s previous last name-titled LPs, McCartney and McCartney II.

“When I started discussing this with Paul’s manager, he said ‘Let’s destroy the old to make the new,’” Third Man co-founder Ben Swank says in the mini-doc.

“For McCartney III to be this principle of creative destruction, it very much brings the whole project full circle,” Sheffield adds. “Who else in history would be capable of stringing those three albums over 50 years. What artist in any medium?”

While copies of the “333” edition have long sold out (and are now very valuable), Third Man Records once again repressed McCartney III in a “3333” edition — or 3,333 copies — for indie record stores, with that pressing also quickly selling out upon its release last month.

“We concentrate very much on the number ‘3.’ It’s his third [McCartney] album. We are Third Man,” Blank said. “Could it be more perfect than that?”

“In many ways, McCartney I, II and III, they are really three pillars that fill his goals artistically, musically, creatively, culturally,” Sheffield says. “They are Paul McCartney responding to what the moment demands of him.”