Asking Paul McCartney about his favourite records gave me one of my favourite interviews. I think it was a pleasure for him, too, making a change from trawling through the oft-told tales once more. The article was done for Mojo Collections magazine, Spring 2001.

One Spring afternoon we ask Sir Macca to nominate some platters that matter in his collection. “Oh, it’s a bitch, this,” he winces, pained by the prospect of leaving anything out. “I never remember. I should really write them down as I listen to them and go, God, that’s a killer record.”
    Within a minute, though, he’s in full flow. Anyone passing the window of his London office this day will hear impressions of Yarwoodesque accuracy (Louis Armstrong and Fred Astaire are specialities of the house). He imitates his faves with the fluency that he demonstrated on Eddie Cochran’s Twenty Flight Rock. His audience then, a local Ted called Lennon, was so impressed that he signed him up to his band.
    “My record collection now is very varied,” McCartney considers. I’m not really on the scene, I just use music. It’s functional for me, rather than being like the Nick Hornby thing, a definitive collection. I just carry a lot of CDs in my bag. Things like Frank Sinatra: I never used to listen to Frank, but [adopts Hoboken croon] “This is a lovely way / To spend an evening…” You know, when you’ve got the candles going, and you’re having dinner with your bird – as I am currently – with a glass of wine, there’s no finer record.”
Well yes indeed. And we set the controls to Maximum Smooch for Selection Number One…

Nat King Cole: When I Fall In Love
I love Nat King Cole. I’ve taken to playing him a lot now. I loved him when I was a kid. I remember being in the kitchen of Forthlin Road, listening to him on the radio: ‘When I fall in love…” thinking, he’s a good singer, that’s a good song. Now I just think he’s the best. I love his stuff and I love that era of songs.

Fred Astaire: Cheek To Cheek
I’ve always liked Fred Astaire, and Cheek To Cheek has always been one of my favourites. As a songwriter, particularly as you do more of it, you find yourself looking at the craftsmanship. It’s like if you were a chairmaker and you turn the Chippendale upside down. You go, The joinery in that! Looking at Cheek To Cheek it comes back on itself: “I’m in heaven [sings entire song to illustrate the repetition of “heaven” in the verse structure]…” That is so neat, the way the writer did that, and the way he sings it.

Duke Ellington & Louis Armstrong: Duke’s Place
I’m listening to a lot more jazz than I ever listened to. Miles Davis, Chet Baker, I love those guys. We weren’t great jazzers in The Beatles, but I love that now. I heard this Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong record the other day, called Duke’s Place. It’s like one note: “Down-to-Duke’s-Place.” Louis is singing, and he goes “Take it away, Duke!” Duke’s on the piano, and the cheek of him, he goes “dn-dn-dn-dn,” like one finger. Next verse comes around you expect him to go [mimes flourish of triplets], but it’s just “dn-dn-dn-dn.” It’s almost embarrassing, except it’s just so ballsy.

Whitney Houston: If I Told You That (off My Love Is Your Love)
I really like Whitney Houston’s last album. I thought If I Told You That is a killer track, the piano opening, a killer song. People make fun of her but I think she’s [upper class accent] an awf’ly good singer, a jolly good singer… Well, [in Liverpudlian] fer a taart, like…

Rodgers & Hammerstein: The King And I
Oh, the game is up, here. The King And I: damned good record! Yul Bryner. Rodgers & Hammerstein, their writing is great I mean, talk about men and women’s relationships: “He will not always say, what you would have him say / But now and then, he’ll say Something Wonderful.” I go for that.

Elvis Presley: Louisiana Hayride
Elvis in ’55, which is just unbelievable, the sound on it. It was recorded live at the Louisiana Hayride, and it’s got all his stuff, like I Was The One. It’s got him doing comedy, being funny, which I remember Elvis being. It all got deadly serious later. Well, in people’s minds it did. I don’t think he ever took it seriously.

Julian Bream: Rodrigo’s Guitar Concerto / Benjamin Britten’s The Courtly Dances from Gloriana
It’s an old record, it’s been deleted now, but he does Rodrigo’s Guitar Concerto and Benjamin Britten’s The Courtly Dances from Gloriana, which I always thought was cool.

Fela Kuti & Africa 70: Shakara / African Woman
Around the time of Band On The Run somebody had just given me his old Africa 70 record, and that’s really cool. Shakara Woman is a great track. He had an unbelievable band, 30 topless wives singing back up. He got busted coming into England with a suitcase full of dope. Only Fela could do that! God bless him.

The Quarry Men: That’ll Be The Day/In Spite Of All The Danger
I have that locked away, cos it’s so vintage and such a one-off. I had copies made for mates: I sent one to John, I think, and anyone to do with it. So I had very faithful copies made. The original shellac is in the vaults somewhere. You know the story, it got passed around. I think it was five quid and there were five of us: me, George, John, Colin [Hanton] and Duff [John Lowe]. So we all put a quid in and the idea was we’d each get it for a week. So I had it for a week, George had it for a week, John had it for a week, Colin had it for a week – and Duff had it for 23 years! And in the end he wrote to me and said, I’ve got it, you know. I went, OK, what’s the rest? He says, I’ll sell it to you. At slightly more than a fiver. But it was still worth it, he was a good guy, I went to school with him. He wasn’t really in the band, but that was OK.

Albert Ayler: The Marseillaise (aka Spirits Rejoice) (off Spirits Rejoice)
I like a record by Albert Ayler, the jazz sax player. The main track, I remember using it on some of my home movies I used to make, was The Marseillaise, the French national anthem, but he plays it like he’s on drugs. Or he plays it like someone who can’t play the sax [mimes an asthmatic kazoo noise]. And the bass goes [manic plunking] and the drums [frantic percussion sound]. So it’s just mad. I had this little film of a gendarme trying to stop the traffic and it’s all going through him. I lost it years ago, but that used to work great on it, this mad Marseillaise. Albert Ayler. Barry Miles turned me on to him.

Sting: Fields Of Gold (off Ten Summoner’s Tales) 
Eva Cassidy: Fields Of Gold and Over The Rainbow (off Songbird)
I really like Fields Of Gold. People always used to say to me, Is there a song you wish you’d written? And I always used to say Billy Joel, Don’t Go Changing, cos I thought that was nifty when it came out. But Fields Of Gold is a great song, man, it’s now become The One That I Wish I’d Written. And Eva Cassidy does a really cool version of it. [Is told it was released by ex-Apple assistant Tony Bramwell] Good luck to him! It’s such a soulful story, that whole Eva Cassidy thing. And it just so happens that I like Over The Rainbow a lot. It’s such a song of hope, of belief. After all the cynicism, it’s still there. I’ll make it one day! Hope is always out there somewhere. It’s really soppy and possibly a bit of a fantasy, but I don’t mind that. So it’s reappeared in her version.

Eminem: Stan (off The Marshall Mathers LP)
I kinda like Stan. I liked it that Elton did it with him at that Grammys thing, cos he was suspected to be homophobic. So I guess that put that down. Which is good, because it is only showbiz. Even Eminem is only showbiz. It’s good to remember that, otherwise you start thinking, What the fuck’s happening in the world, man? It’s like, my son was the first in our family to get into rap, and he’d go through these lyrics like, “Slap my bitch,” denigrating women, and I’d have to say, Er, are you sure about this? And he says, It’s only a song, Dad. It reminded you that we had all of that with rock’n’roll: Elvis isn’t trying to shag anyone, he’s just moving his hips! Whereas all our parents went: Oh! The *state* of him! We never saw it until they said it. I think it’s all the same again. But if anyone takes it too seriously, it’s not too cool.

Marvin Gaye: Yesterday (off That’s The Way Love Is)
Marvin Gaye! Man, I’m major league into Marvin. Yesterday won one of these MTV things and Geoff [Baker, press agent] says to me, You know who’s recorded it? Sinatra. Elvis Presley. Marvin Gaye. Ray Charles. So I said, Get me them. And Marvin’s version of Yesterday is my favourite ever, even beyond mine. Just so cool. And the flakiest version is Elvis. Cos he doesn’t know the words. I love Elvis to death but it’s flaky, it’s a live version and the pianist is trying to intro him, and Elvis is … (silence)… then the drugs give him a moment’s relief and he comes to. [Mimes Elvis as drunken pub singer] “Yezzurday, love was such an easy game to play / Now it looks as though they’re here to stay…” Which doesn’t actually make sense! But I love him. I think it’s an American trait, but the other thing all these guys do, is none of them do what I do. I own up in the song and say “Why she had to go I don’t know… I did something wrong.” I own up. But they all go, “I must have done something wrong,” like they’re putting a little disclaimer in there. They all do it!