Bob Dylan, Alice Cooper, Brian Wilson cover Beatles tunes on ‘Art of McCartney’

TORONTO – After a decade of chiselling away at “The Art of McCartney,” producer Ralph Sall understandably thinks his epic set rises above the typical tribute album.

“The central idea was to get legends to do the material,” said Sall of the 42-song collection of Paul McCartney covers, out this Tuesday. “It’s rare enough to find a tribute album where the artists who are performing are in the same ballpark as the artist (being interpreted).

“I’ve made several — it’s much more common when you see records that don’t have the calibre of artists they’re singing about. I really wanted to make a record that you could listen to 20 years from now and still know who the artists were, and make it timeless that way.

“That’s why I think about half of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is represented on the record.”

Yes, there’s Billy Joel crooning “Maybe I’m Amazed,” Brian Wilson exploring the obscure “Wanderlust,” and B.B. King twirling “On the Way.” Willie Nelson (“Yesterday”), Yusuf Islam (“The Long and Winding Road”), Kiss (“Venus and Mars/Rock Show”), Chrissie Hynde (“Let it Be”), Alice Cooper (“Eleanor Rigby”), Smokey Robinson (“So Bad”) and Heart (“Band on the Run”) also make appearances.

So does Bob Dylan, growling through his own rendition of the strident “Things We Said Today,” from 1964’s “A Hard Day’s Night.” Where most of the artists featured on the record performed a song of Sall’s choosing, Dylan chose that tune himself.

“I think that having Bob Dylan sing a Beatles song is kind of a great musical moment in the world,” Sall said.

Sall is a longtime industry vet who has produced tracks for the Ramones, Stone Temple Pilots, Aerosmith, Jane’s Addiction, and McCartney himself, who first gave Sall permission to execute the idea in 2003 when they were collaborating.

Back then, Sall — who also acted as music supervisor on dozens of films, including “Mean Girls,” “Three Kings” and “Speed” — probably didn’t anticipate that pursuing the artists he wanted would consume a full decade of his life.

It helps that most of those who appear on the album are, like Sall, Beatles buffs.

“People like Ann and Nancy Wilson, Joe Elliott (of Def Leppard), (The Cure’s) Robert Smith,” Sall explained. “They’re scholarly in their knowledge of music.”

For roughly half of the songs, Sall worked with McCartney’s backing band: guitarists Brian Ray and Rusty Anderson, keyboardist Paul Wickens and drummer Abe Laboriel, Jr.

As a result, it’s not surprising that the covers hew closely to the originals.

“There’s not much radical reinterpretation going on,” Sall explained. “I still listen to Paul in my car. If I’m not sick of him by now, I think his songs stand up pretty well.”

— Follow @CP_Patch on Twitter.