Paul McCartney Reportedly Working on Next Album with Producer Mark Ronson

Mary McCartney/MPL Communications Ltd.Word has it Paul McCartney has tapped Mark Ronson to produce his next album. According to NME.com, citing a report in the U.K.'s Sunday Mirror, the Beatles legend and the 36-year-old studio whiz were collaborating on new material this past week in New York City.

A source revealed to the Sunday Mirror that McCartney and Ronson "went to the studio and started knocking about together to see what they can do together."

The source also suggested that Sir Paul was interested in working with Ronson because he wants his next release to be "a classic album with a young hip edge," while adding that "Mark is over the moon to be working with a Beatle."

Ronson won the Producer of the Year Grammy in 2008 for his work with Amy Winehouse, and also has collaborated with such artists as Rufus Wainwright and Duran Duran, among many others.

Ronson's connection to McCartney goes back quite a ways. Not only did Mark serve as DJ at McCartney and Nancy Shevell's wedding reception last year, he credits the rock superstar with saving his life when he was a child.

In a Daily Mail interview back in May, Ronson revealed that his mother used to tell him that McCartney once pulled him from the waters of the Long Island Sound when he apparently was drowning. He added that he recently asked Macca about the incident, and the singer replied that "he vaguely remembered something like that [happening]."