News

Paul McCartney is set to release an album of standards plus two new compositions on 7 February (coincidentally, the date The Beatles arrived in America in 1964) on Hear Music / Concord Records. Paul teamed up with Eric Clapton on one of the new tunes – "My Valentine". Stevie Wonder joined him for the other, "Only Our Hearts." Both were written with the spirit of the standards in mind for the yet untitled album. "My Valentine" is currently streaming for 24 hours on paulmccartney.com for the site’s premium members (from 14:00 on 19 December).

 

In a press release posted on his website, McCartney said, he "believes it is about time the songs me and John based quite a few of our things on” received the recognition they deserve. He continued, “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. 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 also marks a major milestone for McCartney. It’s the first time in his career that he only sings on an album. He’s accompanied by Diana Krall and her band. It was produced by Tommy LiPuma.