Ringo Starr grabbed a little help from his friends for his new album Y Not, due January 12th, 2010. The Beatles drummer will be joined by his Fab Four bandmate Paul McCartney on a couple of tracks, including first single "Walk With You,” which finds Macca and Starr sharing vocals. Other guests and songwriters on Y Not, Ringo’s first album since 2008’s Liverpool 8, include Joe Walsh, Joss Stone, Van Dyke Parks, Ben Harper and Richard Marx.

Talking about working with his old Beatles mate, Starr said in a press release, "Paul was doing the Grammys, so he came over to the house and was playing bass on ‘Peace Dream.’ So I played him this other track and Paul said, ‘Give me the headphones. Give me a pair of cans.’ And he went to the mike and he just invented that part where he follows on my vocal. That was all Paul McCartney, and there could be nothing better.”

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"He makes it bigger and he makes it fuller,” Starr said of McCartney’s work on "Walk With You,” which was co-written by Starr and Parks. "It makes the song like a conversation between us, and that was Paul’s idea to do his part one beat behind me. That’s why he’s a gen-i-us and an incredible bass player.” Macca last appeared on a Starr album over a decade ago, on 1998’s Vertical Man. The pair also reunited earlier this year at a benefit concert at Radio City Music Hall.

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Y Not also marks Starr’s first major foray into producing. "I was the least involved in the production of the Beatle records. And then with my solo records, ” Starr said. "Then suddenly, it’s another point in your life, and you say, ‘I’m going do this now.’ So I’ll be producing anything I make from now on. That’s the good news. It’s a confidence thing, I suppose. And Y Not is really another way of me saying, ‘Yes, I can.’ ” Y Not also includes the autobiographical "The Other Side of Liverpool” and opening track "Fill in the Blanks,” which features Starr’s brother-in-law, guitarist Joe Walsh.