The pair have worked together on the track "Beautiful Night", which had been part of Sir Paul's 1997 Flaming Pie album, which is being re-issued this month.

He is releasing a new version of the Beautiful Night music video, as well as a Beautiful Night EP.

"I'd been saying to Ringo for years that it'd be great to do something, because we'd never really done that much work together outside The Beatles," McCartney said.

"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 like the old days. I realised we hadn't done this for so long, but it was really comfortable and it was still there.

"So we did Beautiful Night and we tagged on a fast bit on the end which wasn't there before. And as we were coming away out of the studio into the control room, Ringo's doing like an impression of a doorman ... 'all right then, on your way...', if you listen closely, you can hear we left that in."

Flaming Pie will be re-released as part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection on July 31, including a numbered, limited seven-disc deluxe edition box set including the original album remastered at Abbey Road Studios, 32 bonus audio tracks and a 128-page book containing previously unpublished images by Linda McCartney.

Australian Associated Press