McCartney in one-off return to EMI

But now he has inadvertently found his latest single is being released through the music giant from whom he parted company in 2007.

The track, (I Want To) Come Home, was recorded for the soundtrack of the movie Everybody's Fine and is due to be released on March 1.

Sir Paul recorded the track after being asked by director Kirk Jones then seeing an early screening of the film starring Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore and Kate Beckinsale.

The track comes out on Walt Disney Records, along with the rest of the soundtrack album. But in the UK and Europe, it will be issued by EMI, the label he quit after 45 years of Beatles and solo releases.

After leaving the company to sign up with Starbucks' label Hear Music, he bemoaned the bureaucracy of the EMI culture and said he "dreaded going to see them".

"Everybody at EMI had become part of the furniture – I'd be a couch; Coldplay are an armchair," he said.

Sir Paul's most recent album, Good Evening New York City, was released by Mercury Records in the UK.

A source close to Sir Paul said that it was "just for the album soundtrack" and not a return to EMI.

He has already played the track live during his recent European tour and sell-out show at the O2 Arena in London. The track was shortlisted in the Best Original Song category at this year's Golden Globe awards.