When Kenny Loggins went to record Feist's smash '1, 2, 3, 4' for his new album of children's music, 'All Join In,' the singer was sure it was a fit. Until he sang it.

"'1, 2, 3, 4' seems like a lighthearted song, but it's very dark lyrically," Loggins tells Spinner. "And if you really drop into the lyrics, it just didn't feel appropriate to have an 11-year-old singing. It's more of a grown woman talking about the condition of her life at this moment."

So, as he had to do with a couple of other songs, including the Beatles' 'All Together Now,' Loggins set about making some lyrical changes, which requires the permission from the artists. "I ended up dealing directly with Feist because my son knows her and thinks she's a sweetheart," he says.

Though Loggins calls it "a much more extensive lyric change than anything on the album," Feist has given him a big thumbs up on the new rendition. "Once she heard it she said, 'I really love what you've done with it,'" he says.

While Loggins was able to go directly to the source to rewrite Feist, it was a tougher road to reach Sir Paul McCartney, though he did eventually get the approval to make a slight change to 'All Together Now.' "My lawyers went to the publishing company and then had to work their way up to the president because no one in the company had the balls to begin to try to say, 'Oh yeah, you can change Paul McCartney's lyrics,'" Loggins says. "They all treated it, and appropriately so, as if it came down on the tablets."

'All Join In' is due July 21.