Joe Cocker, Jarvis Cocker, Dave Berry, ABC, Paul Carrack, the Human League and Arctic Monkeys: Sheffield is great at producing talent but nobody here shouts about it, unlike Manchester and Liverpool.
Before my first success with Is This the Way to Amarillo in 1971 I cut my teeth singing in the clubs around Sheffield. It was a hot scene - it always has been. But the idea to make an album of songs written by Sheffield artists and recorded in Sheffield only came about after a chance remark I made to my son when I heard Richard Hawley's Coles Corner on the radio.
I said that's the kind of thing I should be doing so we went to see Richard play and met him backstage. He said he'd like to do an album with me on the spot. It was a great feeling to return to the city where I had spent some of the best years of my life, even though a lot of the landmarks are obscured by new buildings.
I'm singing and Richard is on backing vocals and guitars, backed by his band. We've put a big string section on some of the songs and it sounds very lush when it needs to. We do a sad ballad version of Louise by the Human League, and Jarvis has written a couple of songs for the album. One is an epic five and a half minutes, which he originally wrote with Richard for the film Notting Hill, but didn't finish in time.
I'll be curious to know what Alex Turner thinks of our version of Arctic Monkeys' Only Ones I Know. I thought the original was great but it sounded as if Alex was making it up as he went along. We've dissected it and given it some form. It now sounds like it was recorded by Tony Bennett in the 1960s.
In a way this album is a love letter to Sheffield but it's not introspective. There's only one song that alludes to Sheffield in its lyrics by mentioning Paradise Square, a beautiful Georgian corner of the city.
Richard and I are jumping around. We keep ringing each other up after a day working in the studio saying how excited we are. I think it's the best thing I've done.
· Made in Sheffield will be released in November.
