The two living Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, are playing a cover of their famous Let It Be on the next album by American country star Dolly Parton, the 77-year-old musician announced on Friday.
The singer will release her 49th disc, Rockstar, on November 17, consisting of nine original tracks and 21 covers of rock and pop songs, including Let It Be, according to a press release on her official website which offers a preview of the streaming recording of the famous composition taken from the Beatles.
“What could be better than singing Let It Be with Paul McCartney who not only wrote it but also played it on the piano?! Even better when Ringo Starr joined on drums, Peter Frampton on guitar and Mick Fleetwood on percussion,” Dolly Parton rejoiced on her site, after specialist media Billboard and Variety revealed the information on Friday.
“Seriously: how to do better? Thank you guys!” added Parton, also greeting Briton Mick Fleetwood, 76, drummer and co-founder of the rock band Fleetwood Mac and American-British Peter Frampton, 73. According to Billboard, bringing together Paul McCartney, 81, and Ringo Starr, 83, for a lively cover of a title from their legendary group is a feat. The two former Beatles indeed rarely meet: in 2020 on a piece of Starr and in 2019 during a McCartney concert.
The song Let It Be is taken from the eponymous album of May 1970, the last opus of the “four boys in the wind” who had announced their separation on April 10 of the same year. The ten-year common career of Paul McCartney, John Lennon (murdered in December 1980 at age 40), George Harrison (died in November 2001 at age 58) and Ringo Starr changed the history of music, with a dozen best-selling albums selling close to a billion units and several films.
The Rockstar disc, with its thirty original titles and covers by Dolly Parton, marks, according to Billboard, the entry into rock of this “national treasure” of country music, born in a poor environment in Tennessee. With 3,000 titles and 100 million records sold, she entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in November, the American pantheon of rock and popular music.
On Rockstar, Parton invited among others Elton John, Sting, John Fogerty, Pat Benatar, Lizzo, Steven Tyler from Aerosmith or Simon LeBon from Duran Duran. She has also already previewed Queen covers (We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions) on her site.
