EVERYBODY needs good neighbours. And so it seems that Roberta Flack’s nextdoor neighbours in the 1970s were Mr & Mrs Lennon.

The remaining former residents of NYC’s Dakota Building are still bessie mates apparently and this project of Roberta Flack covering The Beatles is fully endorsed by Yoko Ono. On paper the marriage of Lennon and McCartney’s best loved tunes and Roberta Flack sounds irresistible.

The very model of understatement and precise perfection, Roberta Flack’s albums are usually products of beauty and serenity. However, for some unfathomable reason, the arrangements of some of the most iconic tunes of the past 50 years have been messed around with.

In particular, I Should Have Known Better, We Can Work It Out and Let It Be have been savaged. This is a terrible example of gilding the lily – and an album to tarnish Roberta Flack’s otherwise impeccable reputation.