Kisses on the Bottom

Recording took place at the Capitol Records Building

A year prior to recording the album, jazz producer Tommy LiPuma and an unnamed keyboardist tried out some ideas for five days with Paul McCartney at McCartney's home studio in East Sussex.[4] Featuring just vocals and piano, the trio "put about 15-20 songs on tape", to see what tracks would work.[4] Around this time, an unknown McCartney original was recorded, with the help of engineer Geoff Emerick.[5] The songs that McCartney would work on were voted upon democratically; McCartney commented, "I pulled up some [songs] from my memories, when I was a kid and we had family sing-songs, which was the original inspiration for the whole idea, I said to Tom, 'Let's look at these ones. This is the kind of era I want to look at.' Tommy himself suggested some; a girl in my office; [...] Diana [Krall] suggested some. Then I played Tommy a couple that I'd written, and he said, 'Whoa, that's a great idea,' so we selected a couple of those. [...] We all made suggestions, and we took all those suggestions to the studio."[4]

An alternate musical arrangement of "My Valentine" was recorded, along with remakes of earlier McCartney songs: "Baby's Request" and "Goodnight Princess".[6] The version of "My Valentine" recorded during the album sessions, as well as the original 1983 vocal version, remain unreleased.[6] "My Valentine" was arranged by Alan Broadbent, who recalled his work with McCartney in the book Paul McCartney: Recording Sessions (1969–2013), speaking about the ideas McCartney offered him for the arrangement.[7] Some songs were from McCartney's childhood, in which his father, Jim, would often be playing on the family piano.[4] Most of the songs were played based on the sheet music, with LiPuma commenting that "We'd have somebody write out a chord sheet for us, and then we went in and figured it out on the date".[2] LiPuma added that McCartney wasn't unfamiliar with the group's way of recording, and related that McCartney said, "I love this. It reminds me of the way we used to do the Beatles. John [Lennon] and I would write a song, we'd have a date booked at Abbey Road, and neither George Martin, George Harrison or Ringo [Starr] knew what the songs were about. They'd work it out right there in the room".[2]

The album was recorded during March 2010 at Capitol Studios[2][3] and Avatar Studios.[8] The album's title comes from the lead track "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter", originally a hit for Fats Waller in 1935.[3][4] In the liner notes for the album, McCartney commented, "I worked with Diana Krall, and great jazz musicians like John Clayton. This is an album very tender, very intimate. This is an album you listen to at home after work, with a glass of wine or a cup of tea."[9] The disc was helmed by LiPuma, who had previously worked with Miles Davis and Barbra Streisand, among others.[10][11] The album is mostly standards, with two originals written in the same style ("My Valentine" and "Only Our Hearts").[4] The first song released from the album was "My Valentine", composed by McCartney and featuring Eric Clapton on guitar.[4] Stevie Wonder plays harmonica on "Only Our Hearts".[4][12][13] McCartney plays acoustic guitar on "Get Yourself Another Fool" and "The Inch Worm", but otherwise contributes only vocals.[14]

External video
"My Valentine" Music video – from McCartney's official account on YouTube

Kisses on the Bottom was released in the UK on 6 February 2012, and a day later in the US, on LP[nb 1][nb 2] and CD. The CD version was originally released in two editions: a standard 14-track edition,[nb 3][nb 4] and a 16-track "Deluxe" edition.[nb 5]

A streaming free live performance was hosted by iTunes on 9 February 2012. McCartney performed live from Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, where much of the album was recorded. People tuned into the show by accessing iTunes on their PCs or Macintosh computers.[19] The live performance was later released as Paul McCartney's Live Kisses, directed by Jonas Åkerlund, airing on PBS' Great Performances in September 2012.[20] The performance was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 13 November 2012.[21] In an interview with Billboard, McCartney said that he did not rule out the possibility of a tour for the album with the musicians who played on it: "We haven't really talked about it yet. People have plenty of ideas and suggestions. I'd like to see how it goes live, just how much we enjoy it. If we all enjoy it, then we've got to think about taking it out."[2]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	62/100[27]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[28]
The A.V. Club	C+[29]
Chicago Tribune	[30]
The Daily Telegraph	[31]
The Guardian	[32]
The Independent	[33]
Mojo	[34]
PopMatters	[1]
Rolling Stone	[35]
Spin	3/10[36]

Kisses on the Bottom rates 62/100—meaning a "generally favorable" reception—at Metacritic, who compiled data from 26 professional reviews, sixteen of which were "mixed".[27]

According to Rolling Stone, "like Rock 'n' Roll, John Lennon's 1975 album of primal rock gems, Kisses on the Bottom is the sound of a musician joyfully tapping his roots; and like his former song writing partner, McCartney is better transforming influences than mirroring them. But it's fun, and touching, to hear him crooning his way through the great American songbook."[35] In a review of the album for BBC Music, writer Patrick Humphries referred to the collection as "an album of neglected dishes from the great banquet of American popular music", before concluding that "what McCartney accomplishes here, in the best possible sense, is an album ideally made for Easy Listening".[37]

AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine said McCartney "cut faithful, loving versions of songs he's always sung", and deemed his two original compositions—"My Valentine" and "Only Our Hearts"—to be "quite good".[28] Of McCartney's originals, Neil McCormick, reviewing the album for The Daily Telegraph, noted that it is "impossible to pick them out as contemporary songs amongst the standards" and added that, whilst "Only Our Hearts" is "unremarkable", the album's other original, "My Valentine", "has the ring of a classic".[31] Greg Kot said the slow version of "Bye Bye Blackbird" "nearly stalls".[30]

Kisses on the Bottom peaked at number 3 on the UK Albums Chart,[39] and number 5 on the US Billboard 200.[40] It also debuted at number 17 on Billboard's Jazz Albums listings, before climbing to number 1 the following week.[41] In addition, it hit number 2 on the Billboard Tastemaker Albums chart,[42] just behind Van Halen's A Different Kind of Truth, and number 5 on the magazine's Digital Albums chart.[43]

Personnel per standard edition booklet.[8]

Performance

• Paul McCartney – vocals, acoustic guitar on "Get Yourself Another Fool", "The Inch Worm"; whistling on "My Very Good Friend the Milkman"[4]
• Diana Krall – piano & rhythm arrangements, except on "Only Our Hearts"
• Tamir Hendelman – piano on "Only Our Hearts"
• Stevie Wonder – harmonica on "Only Our Hearts"
• John Pizzarelli – guitar
• Anthony Wilson – guitar on "The Glory of Love", "My Very Good Friend the Milkman"; rhythm guitar on "Get Yourself Another Fool"
• Eric Clapton – guitar on "My Valentine", "Get Yourself Another Fool"
• Bucky Pizzarelli – guitar on "It's Only a Paper Moon", "We Three (My Echo, My Shadow and Me)"
• John Chiodini – guitar on "Only Our Hearts"
• Robert Hurst – double bass on 1–4, 6–9, 11, 13
• John Clayton – double bass on "The Glory of Love", "My Very Good Friend the Milkman"
• Christian McBride – double bass on "Get Yourself Another Fool"
• Chuck Berghofer – double bass on "Only Our Hearts"
• Vinnie Colaiuta – drums on "Only Our Hearts"
• Karriem Riggins – drums
• Jeff Hamilton – drums on "The Glory of Love", "My Very Good Friend the Milkman"
• Mike Mainieri – vibraphone on "Home (When Shadows Fall)", "More I Cannot Wish You", "The Glory of Love", "We Three (My Echo, My Shadow And Me)"
• London Symphony Orchestra
  • Alan Broadbent – orchestra conductor, orchestra arrangement
  • Roman Simovic – concertmaster
• Andy Stein – violin on "It's Only a Paper Moon"
• Eddie Karam – orchestra conductor
• Assa Drori – concertmaster
• Johnny Mandel – orchestra arrangement, orchestra conductor, rhythm arrangement
• Ira Nepus – trombone
• Chloe Arzy – children's choir
• Evyn Johnson – children's choir
• Makiah Johnson – children's choir
• Michael Johnson – children's choir
• Delany Meyer – children's choir
• Ilsey Moon – children's choir
• Sabrina Walden – children's choir
• Sasha Walden – children's choir
• Scottie Haskell – children's choir conductor

Production

• Tommy LiPuma – producer
• Paul Du Noyer – interviewer
• Al Schmitt – engineer, mixing
• Elliot Scheiner – engineer
• Brian Montgomery– engineer, pro-tools
• Steve Genewick – engineer, pro-tools
• Fernando Lodeiro – assistant engineer
• Marcus Johnson – assistant engineer
• Sam Okell – assistant engineer
• Kris Burton – assistant engineer
• Gordon Davidson – assistant engineer
• Paul Pritchard – assistant engineer
• Eddie Klein – assistant engineer
• Keith Smith – assistant engineer
• Jamie Kirkham – assistant engineer
• Doug Sax – mastering
• Sanwook "Sunny" Nam – mastering
• Shari Sutcliffe – music contractor, project coordinator
• Mary McCartney – cover photo
• MJ Kim – additional photographer
• John Hammel – images
• Jonathan Schofield – art conception
• Matthew Cooper – design
• Nancy Jeffries – A&R
• Scott Rodger – project manager
• MPL Production Team:
  • Lisa Power
  • Ruth Birch
  • Claudia Schmid
  • Rebecca Church
  • Billie Temple
  • Toby McColl
  • Kat Holder
  • Richard Miller
  • Jess Whiteley

Footnotes

Citations

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kisses on the Bottom.