"Did you like that guy?" a dad asked his daughter on Thursday in New York City's Times Square. The "guy" was Sir Paul McCartney. The young child — born at least six decades after the 71-year-old English musician — nodded her beanie-covered head in approval.
McCartney had just finished a 15-minute surprise concert to promote his upcoming 16th solo album, New, which he first teased in August via an Instagram video.
See also: 35 Ways Musicians and Music Brands Are Using Twitter's Vine App
The former Beatles rocker used Twitter and Facebook an hour before the show to give New Yorkers time to commute to the impromptu concert, where McCartney performed inside the back of a tractor-trailer. Fans old and young alike showed up.
"Not bad for a lunch break," one businesswoman said.
New, McCartney's first album with new material since 2007's Memory Almost Full, will arrive Oct. 14 in the UK and Oct. 15 in the United States.
Several people seemingly watched the entire concert through the screens on their phones, holding the devices above their heads to capture McCartney's every move for the world to see on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Vine.
Watching @PaulMcCartney in time square NYC #paulmccartney #new pic.twitter.com/7INqTHDCHg
— roland (@rolandos99) October 10, 2013


McCartney's career began in the late 1950s before he exploded with the Beatles in the '60s. On Thursday, McCartney jokingly described his 15-minute set as his "15 minutes of fame."
Earlier this week, McCartney performed for a much younger teenage crowd at the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens, in what the New York Times dubbed as an "unusual high-school assembly."
BONUS: The 10 Most Epic Celebrity Twitter Fights
Looking for a way to amp up the drama, Amanda Bynes took her Twitter sass to a whole new level in May with a seemingly unwarranted attack on pop star Rihanna and Chrissy Teigen of Sports Illustrated fame, calling both stars ugly. In one particularly notable moment, the former child star suggested Chris Brown's 2009 abuse of Rihanna was a result of her being "not pretty enough." Ms. Bynes, that is a new low.
Alec Baldwin quit Twitter again this summer following an article by journalist George Stark of the Daily Mail. The piece falsely accused Baldwin's pregnant wife, Hilaria Thomas, of tweeting during the funeral of James Gandolfini. The rant is still causing a stir for the 30 Rock star, as conservative activists demand that Capital One drop him as a spokesperson due to the homophobic nature of his tweets. Baldwin has since apologized for his language but not for defending his wife.
Hell hath no fury like a fandom scorned. British GQ got a taste of that hell when the magazine released its One Direction covers in July. The tagline under Harry Styles' cover, "He's up all night to get lucky," evoked such rage from Directioners that GQ's servers couldn't handle the influx of hate tweets.
It was only a matter of time before these two butted heads. After Hilton posted a photo from an alleged eyewitness who spotted Bynes jumping on a trampoline, Bynes replied with her usual onslaught of "ugly" tweets. Eventually, Bynes insisted Hilton commit suicide. No stranger to death threats, Hilton expressed his concern for Bynes and his hope that she receive treatment.
On May 31, Bynes eventually retracted her statements about the blogger, saying, "you're not ugly! I was lying because we haven't talked in person in a long time. Please stop being mean on twitter! Thx!"
How nice.
In one of the most famous Twitter feuds of all time, Perez Hilton ended up with a black eye after calling will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas a "f***cking f*ggot." While it's unclear who exactly gave Hilton the shiner, will.i.am posted a vlog insisting it was not him. Regardless who actually threw the punch, Hilton took to Twitter to seek help from the police. You know, because 911 is too old school.
In a more recent Twitter feud, Hilton found himself on the wrong side of Lady Gaga's little monsters when he was seen in the lobby of Gaga's apartment building in New York. Gaga accused Hilton of stalking her, despite his insistence it was nothing more than innocent house-hunting. Gaga's fans also let their claws out, voicing death threats and derogatory comments about Hilton's six-month-old son.
Hilton, who was once friends with the pop star, insisted that the "real" Lady Gaga was different than her public persona, calling her "cruel" and insisting he was "still healing, removing your knife from my heart" after the two's apparent fallout.
Plenty of celebs take to tweeting after a breakup, but it's hard to beat a Kardashian when it comes to drama. Rob K took to the Twittersphere to bash ex Rita Ora, saying she cheated on him with no less than 20 other men. While Ora remained mostly silent on the subject, one errant tweet did surface before it was quickly erased: "Rob’s d--k was wack, I had to go get it somewhere else."
Kardashian didn't take kindly to the insult, hinting he had gotten Ora pregnant. That exchanged remained on the site only briefly before it was taken down.
One party who did remain positive throughout the feud? Rob's sister Khloe, who offered some advice: "Cheaters never prosper @RobKardashian ill be home today... Try and smile little brother."
While Chris Brown was no one's favorite person after the abuse scandal surrounding girlfriend Rihanna, one comedienne in particular, Texas-based writer Jenny Johnson, wanted to let the R&B singer know just how she felt about him. A little bit of harassment went a long way, and it didn't take too long for Brown to delete his account, but not before he tweeted: "Just ask Rihanna if she mad??????"
Brown's account has since been reactivated.
Now that Brown has returned to Twitter, fans can follow his breakup drama with on-again, off-again girlfriend Rihanna. The tumultuous trainwreck that is the Rihanna/Chris Brown relationship just won't go away, with the breakup feud continuing through August.
RiRi tweeted an image bearing the words "If I drop all my hoes for you and we still don't work out you owe me some hoes." While the sentiment seems pretty clear, Brown's "She's not mine if she's everybody else's" tweet definitely left no room for doubt about the reason for the pair's latest breakup.
After the acid-tongued Handler jabbed Cannon's comedy tour, saying: "I just heard nick cannon is starting a comedy tour. Who’s going to do the comedy?" Cannon was clearly a little peeved at the tweet, but didn't really let loose until Handler posted a TwitPic of grape soda with the tweet "pls drink this before you tweet me again." It was at this point that Cannon wilded out (sorry not sorry for that one), letting loose the slew of angry tweets (plus a few more) that you see above.
Leave it to Internet favorite Patton Oswalt to create one of the punniest feuds on this list. When radio host John Tesh sent out a request for new hashtag ideas, Patton Oswalt gave a couple of suggestions, none of which seemed up to Tesh's high standards. Read the full conversation here.
Image: Kevin Mazur/WireImage