Kisses On The Bottom

At 69, McCartney set aside the roar and sang almost in a whisper, reaching back to the parlor standards his father played long before there was a Beatle in the house.

Diana Krall's trio and Tommy LiPuma's unhurried production give him room to sing quietly rather than belt, and on "My Very Good Friend the Milkman" you can hear him grinning at the corny wordplay instead of selling it. The two originals justify the whole exercise: "My Valentine" proves he can still write a melody that sits comfortably beside Irving Berlin's "Always," and the Live from Capitol Studios versions strip away even the studio polish to show the voice cracking gently at the edges. It's a small record on purpose, a man singing to his childhood rather than to a stadium. That intimacy is the point, and it turns a covers project into something closer to a memoir.