Flowers In The Dirt

Mixing technology with traditional instruments such as brass, strings and organ, Flowers In The Dirt featured several tracks composed with fellow musician Elvis Costello. The album – seen by many as a strong return to form – also featured musicians that Paul would come to use regularly like Hamish Stuart, Robbie McIntosh and Chris Whitten, and production from the likes of Trevor Horn, Mitchell Froom and Steve Lipson.

The album crashed into the UK charts at Number 1 in June 1989 and spent nearly a year in the US charts. Specifically recorded with a view to live performance (the huge Paul McCartney World Tour started in September of that year), the album has a strongly cohesive feel to it. But it was a personal album, too, with the single ‘Put It There’ inspired by Paul's father. “'Put it there’ was an expression my dad used to say when we were kids. He used to hold his hand out and say, ‘Put it there if it weighs a ton.’ My dad died a long time ago now, but you remember those things with affection. And so I wrote a song about that, which I think will become one of my favourites.”

Producers: Paul McCartney, Mitchell Froom, Neil Dorfsman, Trevor Horn, Steve Lipson, Elvis Costello, David Foster, Chris Hughes, Ross Cullum, Phil Ramone
Engineers: Neil Dorfsman, Steve Lipson, Geoff Emerick, Arne Frager, Jon Kelly, Jon Jacobs, Peter Henderson, Tchad Blake, Ross Cullum, Jon Jacobs, Steve Lyon, Matt Butler, Steve Rinkoff, Dave O'Donnell
Assistant Engineers: Heff Moraes, Matt Butler, Lance Phillips, Eddie Klein, Richard Moakes
Tracks 4, 8 mixed by: Neil Dorfsman
End Orchestration on Track 3: Richard Niles
Orchestration on Track 4: Clare Fischer
Orchestration on Track 6: George Martin, Paul McCartney
Tracks 1, 3, 9, 10 published by MPL Communications Ltd / Plangent Visions Music Ltd
Tracks 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13 published by MPL Communications Ltd