''Working Classical'' is

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...

's third full-length release of original

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

as a double LP and as a single CD, and was issued less than a month after '' Run Devil Runs release in 1999.

Background and recording

Following up on 1997's ''

Standing Stone A menhir (; from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large upright rock (geology), stone, emplaced in the ground by humans, typically dating from the Eur ...

'', the concept behind ''Working Classical'' was to place pre-existing (and in some cases, very well known) McCartney songs into an orchestral context. Specially for this project, McCartney also unveiled some new pieces, namely "Haymakers", "Midwife", "Spiral" and "Tuesday". A different performance of " A Leaf" was originally released on 21 April 1995 on a CD single, and is presented here in a new recording. Performing the new arrangements are the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

and the Loma Mar Quartet, with special orchestrations arranged by noted musicians

Richard Rodney Bennett Sir Richard Rodney Bennett (29 March 193624 December 2012) was an English composer and pianist. He was noted for his musical versatility, drawing from such sources as jazz, romanticism, and avant-garde; and for his use of twelve-tone technique ...

Jonathan Tunick Jonathan Tunick is an American orchestrator, musical director, and composer. He is best known for orchestrating the works of Stephen Sondheim, their collaboration starting in 1970 with ''Company'' and continuing until Sondheim's death in 2021. ...

and

Andy Stein Andy Stein is an American saxophone and violin player. He is a member of The Guys All-Star Shoe Band on the radio show ''A Prairie Home Companion'' and the movie. He was a founding member of the country rock band Commander Cody and His Lost Pla ...

.''Working Classical'' album notes
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Album title

The title of this project is a pun on the phrase "working class", in the sense that McCartney, despite his elevated stature, still cherishes his

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

roots and is proud of them. Mirroring this ideology is his pride in his

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

songs and willingness to transfer them into the "elevated" classical music genre.

Release and reception

''Paul McCartney's Working Classical'' was another success in that genre, even though this time it failed to dent the regular US album charts, and was better received critically than his previous effort, ''

''. His subsequent forays into the classical realm are 2006's ''

Ecce Cor Meum ''Ecce Cor Meum'' (Latin for ''Behold My Heart'') is the fourth classical album by Paul McCartney. The album was released on 25 September 2006 by EMI Classics. An oratorio in four movements, it is produced by John Fraser, written in Latin and En ...

'' and 2011's '' Ocean's Kingdom''.

Track listing

All pieces by

. #" Junk" – 2:49 #" A Leaf" – 11:08 #"Haymakers" – 3:33 #"Midwife" – 3:33 #"Spiral" – 10:02 #" Warm and Beautiful" – 2:31 #" My Love" – 3:48 #"

Maybe I'm Amazed "Maybe I'm Amazed" is a song written by the English musician Paul McCartney that was first released on his 1970 debut solo album '' McCartney''. Although the original recording has never been released as a single, a live performance by McCartne ...

" – 2:04 #"

Calico Skies "Calico Skies" is the sixth song on English musician Paul McCartney's 1997 album, ''Flaming Pie''. Overview McCartney had been staying on Long Island when the category-three storm Hurricane Bob that made landfall had hit in August 1991. This mad ...

" – 1:52 #"Golden Earth Girl" – 1:57 #" Somedays" – 3:05 #"Tuesday" – 12:26 #" She's My Baby" – 1:47 #"

The Lovely Linda "The Lovely Linda" is a song by English musician Paul McCartney, released as the opening track of his debut solo album, '' McCartney'', in April 1970. McCartney wrote the song to his first wife, Linda McCartney. History Paul McCartney wrote "The ...

" – 0:54

References

{{Authority control 1999 classical albums Paul McCartney albums