“I first learned Route 66 from The Rolling Stones. So many people have recorded the song, but theirs was the first version I had heard. It was written by Bobby Troup, who was married to the gorgeous and lovely singer Julie London.

“I wanted to do at least one uptempo song on the album, but it couldn’t be out-of-control uptempo; it couldn’t be over the top. So I said, ‘What about Route 66?’ We went on the internet and checked out all the people who had covered the song, and there was Nat King Cole. We watched this black-and-white version of him doing it, and it was piano, bass, guitar and a single conga. When we heard it, we said, ‘What a great idea! We’ve got to put a conga on this.’

“We put regular drums on, too, and we ultimately put old-style lap slide guitar on it, kind of from Texas swing jazzbo days. I’m very happy with what we did. It’s got its own character.”