'That was one Dame hard job'

The singer reveals he never stretches beyond the two-hour mark when composing a tune for TAKE THAT.

However, he found the task of contributing a track to the Welsh diva's upcoming new album a much tougher challenge.

Gary talks about his collaboration with Dame Shirley in the video below.

He said: "Most of my best songs have written themselves really quickly - 20, 30 minutes, an hour, two hours.

"The song I've written for Shirley took me three months. I kept going back to it and thinking, 'No, that bit's not good enough. I'm going to change it again.'"

And Gary admits he'll never forget the moment he first performed the song, called This Time, for Dame Shirley

He added: "I went up to Air Studios and I met the producer, DAVID ARNOLD, and Shirley.

"Then I sang her the song. I was quite nervous actually. She loved it straight away and was singing it within about two minutes.

"I just can't wait to hear the finished record."

Dame Shirley Bassey's new album The Performance is released on November 9.

video making the performance

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/2698654/Gary-Barlow-I-cant-wait-to-hear-Shirley-singing-my-song.html#ixzz0UyaqB2GL