One is possibly the coolest Jew on the planet - the other is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

In one of modern music's most unexpected collaborations, it emerged this week that super-producer Mark Ronson asked Jewish novelist Michael Chabon to write the lyrics for his new funk album, Uptown Special.

Mr Ronson, best known for producing Amy Winehouse's hit album Back to Black, has long admired Mr Chabon's work, and in an interview with the Guardian this week said that Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay was one of his favourite books to give as a present.

"It was the first book that I can say I didn't want to ever end and when it did I was in tears," said Mr Ronson.

He decided to approach Mr Chabon because he wanted lyrics that were "more ambitious, that were about more than heartache or the dancefloor and actually told stories".

US author Mr Chabon, 51, said the request was a "bolt from the blue. It was something I had never, ever remotely imagined having the opportunity to do at all, even though I am a huge music fan and have been obsessing over lyrics and writing lyrics for my whole life," he said.

The collaboration was welcomed by the JC's chief fiction reviewer, David Herman. He said: "Michael Chabon clearly has tremendous knowledge of music. His last big novel, Telegraph Avenue, was set in the musical world of 1960s San Francisco. He is clever and smart but also writes very clear, lively prose. He is superbly cut out to be a lyricist."

Music journalist Paul Lester said: "I was very surprised, but it was a good sort of surprise. The partnership between a musician and an author is a natural one, but there have only been a handful. It is interesting and brave of Mark Ronson because it is not the most obvious way to have a hit record."

Uptown Special will be out on January 26.