Kisses on the Bottom (2012)

 
1. I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter 2. Home (When Shaddows Fall) 3. It's Only a Paper Moon 4. More Than I Can Wish You 5. The Glory of Love 6. We Three (My Echo, My Shadow, and Me) 7. Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive 8. My Valentine 9. Always 10.My Very Good Friend the Milkman 11.Bye Bye Blackbird 12.Get Yourself Another Fool 13.The Inch Worm 14.Only Our Hearts

 

When Paul McCartney first started to become known, around 1963, he was barely 21 years old. I doubt if anyone figured he'd still be rocking 50 years later when the guy was in his seventies. Heck, even Mac himself had a pretty tame, boring idea of how he would look "When I'm Sixty Four".

For whatever reason, though, on this album, Paul decided he would….er….um…."act his age". Although what that last sentence means can be debatable by today's standards. Put it another way: If you would have asked Paul back when he was in his early twenties the kind of music he'd be playing when he was old enough to collect social security, this is definitely the type of record that he, and others, would imagine.

This is Paul at his "Easy Listening" best. He's rivaling the styles of Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and Dean Martin. This really shouldn't be a surprise, though. After all, Paul was always the romantic one of the bunch and there were even many who wished that many of his tunes weren't quite so syrupy. So this was the perfect project for a man such as McCartney, and he does a beautiful job on these songs – most of them covers, many widely familiar. Not coincidentally, this was released right around Valentine's Day in 2012. The one curious inclusion is the song The Inch Worm. Not sure how this classifies as a love song. I thought this was a song that kid's used when they were learning how to multiply whilst at school. Anyway….

Strangely, his only other surviving band mate, Ringo Starr, made a record very similar to this one for his first solo effort back in 1970. That one didn't endear nearly as much as this one. Partly because Ringo was barely 30 years old, but more obviously, he just didn't have the voice for such an effort. For, Paul, however, this is right up his alley. Then again, just about everything Paul ever did was "right up his alley". The man is simply a musical genius.

You could be tempted to say that this is an album that even your grandmother would like. Then again, there's a good chance that Grandma is, herself, a lot younger than McCartney….

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