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Inspired by his new wife, Paul McCartney takes on the Great American Songbook. The result? VINTAGE MACCA

By Adrian Thrills

Verdict: A class tribute act

Rating: 4 Star Rating

There's nothing an old Beatle likes more than the warm glow of nostalgia.

When he toured the UK before Christmas, Paul McCartney played no fewer than 26 Fab Four songs in a three-hour show that was a magical celebration of shared memories.

This collection from Sir Paul goes back even further. An intensely personal trip through U.S. classics of the Thirties, Forties and Fifties, it is his first account of what he calls ‘the songs that inspired the songs’.

Before he hooked up with John, George and Ringo, a young McCartney was exposed to American greats such as Harold Arlen and Irving Berlin by his father Jim, a trumpeter who fronted his own jazz combo.

‘My dad used to play the piano at home, so I heard all these songs from him,’ says Sir Paul.

‘On New Year’s Eve, they’d roll back the carpet and all the ladies would sit around, sipping rum and blackcurrant. After half-an-hour, they’d all start singing, so I associate these songs with good times.

‘Later, when I got into songwriting, I realised how well structured the songs were, and I learnt a lot from that. I loved all the beautiful little tricks. John and I based a few songs on them.’

McCartney has been thinking of dipping into The Great American Songbook for at least 20 years. ‘In the end, it was now or never,’ he says.

In a twist, however, he’s added two original numbers written in the style of the old standards. As you would expect, the new songs, My Valentine and Only Our Hearts, are not out of place.

Kisses On The Bottom — its title lifted from Macca’s version of Fats Waller’s 1953 hit I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter — benefits from a strong support cast.

Recorded with veteran producer Tommy LiPuma, it features virtuoso pianist (and wife of Elvis Costello) Diana Krall and her band of high-quality jazz players. There are also mouth-watering cameos from Eric Clapton and Stevie Wonder.

As much as the album is a tribute to McCartney’s father, it also comes across as a love letter to new wife Nancy Shevell. It is easy to envisage the old charmer crooning these tunes to his American heiress in one of the couple’s luxury homes.

On a superb new ballad, My Valentine, that is certainly true, with Clapton supplying acoustic riffs as McCartney croons: ‘I’d tell myself that I was waiting for a sign / Then she appeared, a love so fine / My Valentine / And I will love her for life.’

But not every track is an ode to late-life contentment. The beautiful Home (When Shadows Fall) is tinged with wistful regret. Even Bye Bye Blackbird is not as innocent as it sounds — the song is widely thought to be about a prostitute.

Some moments are languid (Irving Berlin’s Always is soporific). But these are exceptions.

The album ends with a pair of gems. McCartney offers a lesson in elementary arithmetic on Frank Loesser’s The Inch Worm before joining forces with Wonder for the first time since 1992’s Ebony And Ivory on the yearning ballad Only Our Hearts.

Covers albums can be the last resort of the creatively bankrupt. This is nothing of the sort — it is the work of a man at the top of his game.

jamestkirk wrote:Thanks for this...hadn't heard of it but Sir Paul has released some inspired music if late!

jamestkirk wrote:LIVe stream, yes...at 10 PM EST..live video stream on your computer or TV...go to iTunes for "how to get it".

I love the new album...I have an advance copy.

But then I love my Sinatra and Tony Bennett and Fred Astaire albums. Macca does a superb job of paying homage to the music he grew up on!

A 15 minute interview and some clips
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2CAuZbKtKg

Encuentro wrote:

jamestkirk wrote:LIVe stream, yes...at 10 PM EST..live video stream on your computer or TV...go to iTunes for "how to get it".

I love the new album...I have an advance copy.

But then I love my Sinatra and Tony Bennett and Fred Astaire albums. Macca does a superb job of paying homage to the music he grew up on!

A 15 minute interview and some clips
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2CAuZbKtKg

I'm glad you like it. I haven't purchased it yet. I'll watch the show tonight. I love what Paul is doing. Is there any musical genre he hasn't touched, perhaps hip hop and opera. I can't picture Paul rapping.

Encuentro wrote:What did he say? I watched that part twice and couldn't make it out. He was rapping?

jamestkirk wrote:

Encuentro wrote:What did he say? I watched that part twice and couldn't make it out. He was rapping?

Yeah..he was "rapping"...guess he thinks very little of rapping as music (and I agree)...he was just mumbling along in good humor & with a twinkle in his eye--

MACCA mocking rapping!

Say THAT 3 times really fast!

Encuentro wrote:

jamestkirk wrote:

Encuentro wrote:What did he say? I watched that part twice and couldn't make it out. He was rapping?

Yeah..he was "rapping"...guess he thinks very little of rapping as music (and I agree)...he was just mumbling along in good humor & with a twinkle in his eye--

MACCA mocking rapping!

Say THAT 3 times really fast!

I'm not a rap fan either. I like singers who actually SING.

Aside from Paul's extraordinary talent, he's an incredibly funny guy.

jamestkirk wrote:

Encuentro wrote:

jamestkirk wrote:Yeah..he was "rapping"...guess he thinks very little of rapping as music (and I agree)...he was just mumbling along in good humor & with a twinkle in his eye--

MACCA mocking rapping!

Say THAT 3 times really fast!

I'm not a rap fan either. I like singers who actually SING.

Aside from Paul's extraordinary talent, he's an incredibly funny guy.

Paul has always had that great sense of humor--I agree.

Funny (literally) that all four Beatles were able to pull off quite a lot of humor, naturally. I remember all those interviews with the press in the 60's, and one of them always had a great line, off-the-cuff, for the press....John or Paul especially. John's humor was always more sarcastic but no less funny!