Paul McCartney is set to release a new album based on pre-rock and roll standards.
Common wisdom has it that the success of The Beatles demolished Tin Pan Alley – the established group of industry employed songwriters whose saccharine output has grown increasingly pales.
Yet in some ways, The Beatles helped rejuvenate this tradition. Now in a new move, Paul McCartney is set to doff his cap towards some of the classic songwriters who under-pinned his early output.
Currently without a title, the new album will be released on February 6th and draws on the pre-rock and roll songbook. Working with Grammy Award-winning producer Tommy LiPuma as well as Diana Krall and her band, the album features guest appearances from Eric Clapton and Stevie Wonder.
Speaking recently, Paul McCartney explained that the album has been some 20 years in the planning. “In the end it was ‘Look, if I don’t do it now, I’ll never do it,” he said.
“When I kind of got into songwriting, I realised how well structured these songs were and I think I took a lot of my lessons from them,” he continued. “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’.”
For the recording sessions, Paul McCartney chose to record his vocals for the first time alone in the booth without an instrument. “It was very spontaneous, kind of organic, which then reminded me of the way we’d work with The Beatles. We’d bring a song in, kick it around, when we found a way to do it we’d say ‘Okay, let’s do a take now’ and by the time everyone kind of had an idea of what they were doing, we’d learnt the song. So that’s what we did, we did the take live in the studio.”
“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. I hope they are in for a pleasant surprise.”
Containing classic standards and two new tracks, full details of the new album are set to emerge shortly.
Paul McCartney will release his new album on February 6th.
