Paul McCartney has revealed a few more details about his upcoming duet with Ringo Starr.
It’s called Home To Us and will be featured on Macca’s new album The Boys Of Dungeon Lane, which arrives at the end of this month. Interestingly, it also features Chrissie Hynde and Sharleen Spiteri of Texas on backing vocals. And it’s out as a single this coming Friday (May 8).
The track was played – along with others from the new album – at a special fan playback event last night (May 5) at Abbey Road. McCartney was there in person and said of Home To Us: “Ringo went round to the studio and drummed a bit. I said to Andrew (Watt, producer), we should make a track and send it to him. So this song is done totally with Ringo in mind.”
“In writing the song, I’m talking about where we came from. In common with a lot of people, you come from nothing and you build yourself up.
"Ringo was from the Dingle, and that was well hard. He said he used to get mugged coming home, because he worked. Even though it was crazy, it was home to us,” he added.
“I made the song around that idea and sent it to Ringo. He sent me back a version where he just added some lines to the chorus, so I thought, maybe he doesn’t like it. I rang him and he said he thought I only wanted him to sing one or two lines, and I said I’d love to hear him sing the whole thing. So we took my first line, Ringo’s second line, and then we had a duet.”
“We’d never done that before. Then we wanted some backing vocals and I had the idea it would be nice to hear girls. Chrissie Hynde said she’d do it, and Sharleen Spiteri, they’re mates. So they did it.”
However, despite what you may read, it is not the first time the two surviving Beatles have duetted on a track before. Hardcore fans will know that back in 2010 they sang together on Walk With You, a rather sweet song on Ringo’s Y Not album. Going further back, Ringo also provided some backing vocals on Beautiful Night, one of the singles from Paul’s 1997 album, Flaming Pie. He appeared in the video too.
Anyway, The Boys Of Dungeon Lane, which McCartney described at the event last night as his “most introspective album to date” is out on May 29.
