Paul McCartney’s new album is the album he always wanted to make with the Beatles, he has revealed. After bonding with John Lennon over 30s pop songs, McCartney said he dreamed of putting together a collection of old favourites. “I never got round to it because we were writing Sgt Pepper [or] The White Album,” he explained.

Kisses on the Bottom, due in February, is McCartney’s first pop album in almost five years. Comprising 12 covers and two originals, it was inspired by the soundtrack of his childhood – songs such as Bye Bye Blackbird and It’s Only a Paper Moon, his father’s favourite. “My dad was a piano player,” McCartney said in a webcast on Thursday. Like Lennon, McCartney grew up attending Liverpool sing-songs; this music, he said, “drew us together”. “We’d be referencing those [classic] songs as we wrote the new songs,” McCartney said.

“I wanted to do [music like this] in the Beatles,” he continued. But the Fab Four had too many projects, and after the band split, McCartney had too much competition. “Every time I came to this album someone else would do it,” he explained, pointing to Ringo Starr’s 1970 record, Sentimental Journey. “I kept saying, ‘Well I can’t do it now, it’ll look like I’m jumping on the bandwagon.’ But then I [decided] I’d just do it and not worry about the market.”

The key to the new record, McCartney said, was “channelling Fred Astaire”. With help from producer Tommy LiPuma, the 69-year-old experimented with a “littler voice”. “We’d say, what song do you want to do? We’d pull up chords and lyrics … Kick it around and record it.” Unlike most producers, LiPuma sat in the tracking room with McCartney. “It became more intimate.” But they were also able to play and experiment – slowing down Bye Bye Blackbird, for example. “I think that’s why I had so much fun doing it. It was just made up on the spot. No preconceived ideas.”

Something much more staged is in store if McCartney wants to participate in this year’s Olympic Games. “If there is something they want me to do, they’ll tend to dictate it rather than me,” he said. The singer was due to meet a London 2012 official on Friday. McCartney could also “easily” be involved in the celebration of the Queen’s diamond jubilee, in June. “[I’m] a big fan of the Queen,” he said. “She does a great job.” McCartney was one of the performers at the golden jubilee in 2002.