Household name Paul McCartney has revealed details from his forthcoming, yet-to-be-named album. The collection will include many standards that inspired McCartney throughout his life, as well as two brand new compositions, all due out via Hear Music/Concord Records on February 7.
For this effort, McCartney has called on contributions from Grammy Award-winning producer Tommy LiPuma, who has worked with the likes of Barbara Streisand, Miles Davis, Nat-King Cole.
The album will feature guest appearances from Eric Clapton and Stevie Wonder, and is touted as a journey through standards that draw from highly-personal influences, including songs that McCartney heard his jazz musician father play at home on the piano.
Beatles fans looking for some insight into the legendary Lennon/McCartney composition process will be happy to hear that many songs were selected with Lennon in mind. McCartney says the album will include “the songs me and John based quite a few of our things on.”
“When I kind of got into songwriting, I realized how well structured these songs were and I think I took a lot of my lessons from them,” explains McCartney. “I always thought artists like Fred Astaire were very cool. Writers like Harold Arlen, Cole Porter, all of those guys – I just thought the songs were magical. And then, as I got to be a songwriter I thought it’s beautiful, the way they made those song’.”
The album’s two original pieces, “My Valentine,” and “Only Our Hearts” are both done in the style of the selected standards. Fans who think they know what to expect are assured that the choices will not be predictable.
“It was important for me to keep away from the more obvious song choices so, many of the classic standards will be unfamiliar to some people,” says McCartney. “I hope they are in for a pleasant surprise.”
Stay tuned for a full tracklisting, and look out for the album on February 7.
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