Classic rock stars have been trying their hands at standards for a while now—Rod Stewart, notably, released a trilogy of albums devoted to the American songbook. Now Paul McCartney has released “Kisses on the Bottom.” The puckish title is taken from the first song, Fats Waller’s “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter”; elsewhere, McCartney signs tasteful versions of songs by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer (“Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive”), Tommy Dorsey (“We Three [My Echo, My Shadow and Me]”), and others. It’s tempting to trace the choices back to McCartney’s own work, both with the Beatles and as a solo artist (did Ray Henderson and Mort Dixon’s “Bye Bye Blackbird” lead directly or indirectly to “Blackbird”?), and also to try to set the album’s two ultra-romantic new compositions—“My Valentine,” a love song for McCartney’s new wife, Nancy Shevell, complete with guitar by Eric Clapton, and “Only Our Hearts,” featuring Stevie Wonder—into this context.
