Graham Reid | | <1 min read
For the past many years on this day (February 14), it has been Elsewhere's habit to post the lovely Valentine by Nils Lofgren (with help from Bruce Springsteen) but this time . . .
Paul McCartney's 2012 album Kisses on the Bottom was a classy, beautifully produced album of (mostly) covers from the Great American Songbook and beyond.
Yes, it was slightly patchy . . . but for songs like Bye Bye Blackbird, McCartney went back to the original versions which often had a small intro verse left out of the most popular versions. The boy had done his homework.
He also wrote this understated love letter -- to his new wife Nancy, at a guess -- and despite that slow drag in his voice which has long been noticeable when he speaks, it is a Valentine's Day song in the tradition of those ballads on the album.
The guitar is by Eric Clapton, the quartet is pianist Diana Krall and her band and that would be the London Symphony Orchestra there too, conducted and arranged by expat New Zealander and multiple Grammy winner Alan Broadbent.
Quite an implosion of talent which could overwhelm, but this remains a delightful, thoughtful and rather superior song for this day.
One to be savoured slowly.
Happy Valentine's Day darling.
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For more oddities, one-offs or songs with an interesting backstory check the massive back-catalogue at From the Vaults.
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