Tune Tuesday – Don’t Get Around Much Anymore

To celebrate the birthday of a living legend, I thought I would choose a song that he’s NOT known for.  Sir Paul McCartney is 82 today and while he is known for his work with the Beatles and Wings, he’s had quite a solo career, too.

It’s amazing that he is still out touring at his age, but he still looks and sounds as great as ever.  Every review I have read about one of his shows says it is fantastic! 

The McCartney song I picked is from an album from 1988 but the song’s roots go back to 1940 and the legendary Duke Ellington.  He wrote Don’t Get Around Much Anymore in 1940. Lyrics were added to the song in 1942 by Bob Russell and it became a hit.

The song has been covered by just about everyone!  Bing Crosby, The Ink Spots, Micheal Buble’, Willie Nelson, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole and so many others have offered up their personal take on the song. McCartney’s version is a rocker with some “oomph” to it.

Back in 1988 Paul released what most call “The Russian Album.”. CHOBA B CCCP was  his seventh solo studio album. It was originally released in October 1988 exclusively in the Soviet Union. The album consists entirely of live-in-studio recordings of covers, mainly of rock and roll oldies.

I was working at WKSG, Kiss-FM when a bootleg of the album began to circulate.  It was pretty big news to have new stuff from McCartney.  We were an oldies station, so when we got our hands on Paul’s version of Kansas City from the album, we played the heck out of it.

I don’t remember if I got a copy of the bootleg or the official worldwide release in 1991 but I really loved this album.  Don’t Get Around Much Anymore really stuck out to me.  Paul must really like it, too, because I’ve seen him do it on talk shows like Letterman.

Give his version a listen and grab the album if you can.  I think you’ll like it. 

Happy birthday, Sir Paul McCartney!!