Mary Hopkin is best known as one of the first artists to sign with the Beatles' Apple label and for her hit Those Were The Days, but she has stayed very active in music over the years, especially over the last ten years. Hopkin will release her sixth album in the last eight years in early-2014, Painting By Numbers. The set features "stripped down and bare arrangements of Mary's own songs." The majority of the songs were written by Mary while two were co-written with Brian Willoughby, who has worked with The Strawbs and Nanci Griffith, and Benny Gallagher of Gallagher and Lyle.