Paul McCartney has released the Beautiful Night EP ahead of the reissue of his 1997 album Flaming Pie.
The EP features three versions of the song: the original album track with Ringo Starr, Jeff Lynne and Linda McCartney, a demo, and a studio run through – in which you can hear Macca and Ringo talking before the track kicks in.
The EP also features the eight-minute Oobu Joobu Pt. 5.
Beautiful Night was one of the first collaborations between the two Beatles since the band split and reflecting on how they came together, McCartney says: “I’d been saying to Ringo for years that it would be great to do something, because we’d never really done that much work together outside the Beatles.
“One night, Jeff Lynne suggested, ‘Why don’t you get Ringo in?’ and I said, ‘OK!’ It just sort of happened.
“I had this song Beautiful Night which I’d written quite a few years ago. I’d always liked it but I felt I didn’t quite have the right version of it. So I got this song out for when Ringo was coming in, and right away it was just like the old days.”
A newly remastered video for Beautiful Night will premiere tonight (July 17) at 5pm BST.
The Flaming Pie reissue will be released on July 31 on 2CD,2LP, 3LP, a 5CD/2DVD Deluxe Edition and a 5CD/2DVD/4LP Collector’s Edition.
All the tracks were remastered at Abbey Road Studios, with the Collector’s Edition limited to just 3000 copies. Each will be numbered and also feature a marbled art print portfolio of six silkscreened Linda McCartney art prints, and a vinyl version of the album cut at half speed across 2LPs in an gatefold sleeve.
It will also include an LP of home recordings, The Ballad Of The Skeletons – McCartney’s collaboration with Allen Ginsberg from 1996 and also featuring Philip Glass and Lenny Kaye.
In addition, the Flaming Pie reissue will feature a plectrum, handwritten lyrics, a John Hammel studio notebook, a Club Sandwich Magazine, recipes, new interviews with McCartney, Starr, Lynne and Steve Miller, and a 128-page book containing previously unpublished images by Linda McCartney.
