McCartney’s Best Not Back in the U.S.A.

How ironic: Paul McCartney, whose last album barely cracked the Top 30 in the States, has made one of the most entertaining LPs of his career, but you can’t buy it in this country--at least not officially.

“Back in the U.S.S.R.”--featuring playful McCartney treatments of songs associated with some of his own rock heroes, including Elvis Presley and Fats Domino--was intended to be released only in the Soviet Union; a sort of good-will gesture in the age of glasnost.

But in a switch on the days when Beatles albums were only commercially available in the West and had to be smuggled into the Soviet Union, a few hundred copies of the album have been showing up in specialty record stores, especially in New York and London.

As enthusiasm over the quality of “Back in the U.S.S.R” has spread, however, tapes of the album have begun circulating among Beatles collectors around the country. Record shops in Southern California known to deal in imports or collectors’ items report numerous calls asking if the album is in stock.

The obvious question: Will the response lead McCartney and his U.S. record company, Capitol, to make the album commercially available here?

He and his advisers may be worried that the “oldies” album would distract attention from a collection of new McCartney expected this summer in connection with a possible tour. Then again, however, the album could whet appetites for the album and the tour.

The answer Wednesday from both a McCartney spokesman in New York and the president of Capitol Records in Los Angeles: No U.S. release at this time.

“Everyone connected with the album is delighted at the enthusiastic response we’ve been receiving, but there are absolutely no plans to release it in this country,” Joe Dera, the former Beatle’s U.S. publicist, said in a phone interview.

Added Capitol President David Berman, “I don’t think it would be appropriate to release the album now, because we want to focus all our attention on the new McCartney album, which should be ready by May or June.

“I’ve heard four tracks from (the upcoming McCartney album) and it sounds brilliant, but it is in a contemporary vein--not the sort of ‘Basement Tapes’-style of this album.”

Berman said it might make sense at some future point, however, to release the album or a similar “McCartney plays the Rock Classics”-type album. John Lennon released a similar “oldies” package in 1975. Titled “Rock ‘n’ Roll,” the album peaked at No. 6 on the U.S. sales charts.

“Back in the U.S.S.R” is a wonderfully refreshing collection for anyone with a love for early rock or, especially, the early Beatles.

The tracks--reportedly recorded during a two-day session in 1987 in London--recall the innocence and enthusiasm that made the Beatles such a joyful force in the early ‘60s. The music is ragged in spots and the band doesn’t always seem sure of the arrangements, but the spirit is delightful. Above all, it’s disarming to hear McCartney, 46, having such a good time in the studio.

The album kicks off with McCartney’s version of “Kansas City,” the Leiber-Stoller tune that was also featured on one of the Beatles’ early albums. The new collection then moves through an energetic treatment of Eddie Cochran’s “Twenty Flight Rock” and on to a gutsy rendition of “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” that more closely recalls Elvis Presley’s late ‘50s cover of the song than the original Lloyd Price hit.

Indeed, Presley is the rock figure most often saluted in “Back in the U.S.S.R.” McCartney not only includes three songs identified with Presley (the others are the blues-rocker “That’s Alright, Mama” and the country novelty “Just Because”), but he sticks fairly close to Presley’s vocal arrangement on the tracks. On most of the other songs, however, McCartney slips in his own, often playful vocal twists.

Among the other artists saluted: Little Richard (“Lucille”), Fats Domino (“Ain’t That a Shame”), Bo Diddley (“Crackin’ Up”) and Sam Cooke (“Bring It on Home to Me”).

The biggest surprise is a remake of “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” a Duke Ellington-Bob Russell collaboration that was originally a hit in the ‘40s for the Ink Spots and the Ellington orchestra. The song was revived in the rock era by “Tab Hunter and the Belmonts.”

McCartney seems to have the most fun on “Just Because,” an old country tune that appeared on Presley’s first solo album. You can almost imagine the ex-Beatle slipping into a pair of blue suede shoes before he stepped to the microphone to sing the colorful lyrics:

Well, you know you make me spend all my money, honey

You laugh and call me ol’ Santa Claus.

Ooh, I’m tellin’ you, baby, I’m through with you.

Because . . . well, well, just because.

This is music made for fun, free from the concern over being measured or judged. The added irony is that fun alone in rock ‘n’ roll is often quite enough.