After months of rumors and speculation, Adele has officially announced the release of her third studio album entitled, "25". Due out on November 20th, the first taste was released on October 23rd with the moving ballad "Hello". The track, co-written and produced by Greg Kurstin (The Bird and The Bee), is classic Adele with a powerful vocal and deeply emotional lyrics.
The music video for the song was released as well and it's directed by one of my favorite film makers, the twenty-six year old, French-Canadian, Xavier Dolan. This is a sweeping cinematic clip that works perfectly with the song and features actor/musician, Tristan Wilds ("The Wire"). You must experience this right now:
Regina Belle is a remarkably flexible vocalist that can easily glide between a smooth jazz ballad, slick pop tune, fiery soul jam or a tear-the-roof-off gospel number with very little effort. While she never became a major player in the business, Belle consistently made wonderful music that delivered inspiration, explored heartbreak, brought you to tears or made you want to fall in love.
Born and raised in Englewood, N.J., Belle found her voice in church as she sang her first solo at the age of eight. She explored all areas of music throughout school and attended the prestigious Manhattan School of Music after graduation.
While trying to make her way with a career in music, Belle met the soul group, The Manhattans, best knownfor the hits "Kiss and Say Goodbye" and "Shining Star", through a friend. She eventually would open for the band on tour and recorded a duet with them called "Where Did We Go Wrong" in 1986. This opened doors for Belle as she was signed to their label, ColumbiaRecords and released her debut, "All By Myself" the following year. The album had three top-twenty hits on the r&b chart with the first single "Show Me The Way" peaking at number two.
More hits followed for Belle with her reaching the top of the r&b chart in 1989 with "Make It Like It Was". She was asked to perform a duet with Peabo Bryson for the animated Disney film, "Aladdin". Not only did the film become one of the biggest hits in 1992 but the love theme, "A Whole New World" became a number-one smash on the U.S. pop chart.
In 2001, Belle signed with Peak-Concord, a jazz label and released two well-received albums, "This Is Regina!" and "Lazy Afternoon" in 2004. Four years later, she recorded her first inspirational album, "Love Forever Shines" which made it to number three on the gospel chart. During this time, it was discovered that Belle had a brain tumor.
After recovering from this serious health issue, she recorded another gospel album, "Higher" in 2012 . Recently, Regina Belle has focused on her family; husband, John Battle, a former NBA player, married since 1991 and together have four children. Listen to two of my favorite songs from this dynamic singer:
Music and fashion comes together in the most fabulous way with Tom Ford presenting his spring/summer 2016 collection in the form of a music video. The designer enlisted the one and only Lady Gaga (who will be displaying glamour and terror in the new season of "American Horror Story" starting on October 7th) and teamed her with producer Nile Rodgers to do a cover of the disco classic "I Want Your Love", a top-ten hit by his band, Chic back in 1979. Directed by Brit photographer, Nick Knight, the clip was inspired by the line dance on "Soul Train" with Gaga and models strutting on the dance floor while showing off the clothes of Ford's next collection. It's the perfect combination and a wild collaboration. Take a look:
For this Number One Flashback, we're going back forty years ago to "Fame" by David Bowie. At the time, the singer was more of a rising cult figure with a rabid following than a major rock star, at least here in the states. That would completely change once this track became a big hit in this country, taking the top spot for two weeks.
During the recording sessions of what would become "Young Americans", an album inspired by Philly soul music, he traveled to New York where he met former Beatle, John Lennon. They hit it off and began jamming together. This lead to Bowie covering the classic Beatles track, "Across The Universe" and creating "Fame" together along with guitarist Carlos Alomar for the album. Bowie has said the idea of the song came from a place of frustration and anger as he was having difficulties with his management company at the time. "Fame" became so popular that Bowie even made an appearance on "Soul Train", making him one of the very few Caucasian artists to perform on the program.
British pop sensation, Sam Smith is the latest singer to perform the theme song for a James Bond film, "Spectre", the upcoming 24th movie in the long-running series. The song is called "Writing's On The Wall" which is co-written by Smith and Jimmy Napes and they produced the track along with Guy and Howard Lawrence of Disclosure.
Smith follows in this tradition of songs created for the 007 films by a varied group of top artists including Shirley Bassey ("Goldfinger", "Diamonds Are Forever" and "Moonraker"), Tom Jones ("Thunderball"), Carly Simon ("Nobody Does It Better" from "The Spy Who Love Me"), Tina Turner ("Goldeneye"), Duran Duran ("A View To a Kill"), Madonna ("Die Another Day"), Sir Paul McCartney ("Live and Let Die") and Adele, who went on to win an Oscar for her contribution to the last Bond film, "Skyfall" in 2012.
And how does Mr. Smith's song rank? Well, the reaction has been decidedly mixed but that may be because the expectation was so high. I think "Writing's On The Wall" is a fine song with dramatic horns and strings at the top and Smith's beautifully, impassioned vocal lifting the track to dreamy heights. But is it one of the more memorable of the 007 theme songs? No, I can't say that it is but there are certainly far worse (Sheryl Crow's "Tomorrow Never Dies" or Lulu's "The Man With The Golden Gun", for example, come to mind). Have a listen and judge for yourself:
The voice of Darlene Love is one of the most recognizable in the rock & roll era. She can be heard on some of most popular songs ever recorded and this was revealed in the Oscar-winning documentary, "20 Feet From Stardom" which put a long overdue spotlight on the singer. Producer Phil Spector (who Love is most closely associated) recognized her amazing gifts and used them frequently on much of his now classic work throughout the 1960's.
Steven Van Zandt of the E Street Band also recognized her great talent. He had encouraged Love to try New York when she was attempting a comeback in the early '80's after falling in to obscurity during the late '70's. This move lead to her joining the Broadway jukebox musical, "Leader of The Pack" and revitalizing her career. Now, Van Zandt is back lending a helping hand. He has produced Love's first studio album in thirty years and it's appropriately titled "Introducing Darlene Love". This wonderful collection puts the seventy-four year old singer front and center after spending most of her career performing background vocals for other singers. The songs range from pop, rock, gospel and Phil Spector. Love does a cover of "River Deep, Mountain High", a song she provided back-up on the original Spector production performed by Tina Turner.
Take a look at this cute video for the first single, "Forbidden Nights". It features cameos by some of the rock legends that contributed songs for the new album including Joan Jett, Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen. Be on the lookout for a few other famous faces here:
KEITH RICHARDS
Keith Richards has spent over fifty years as a member of "the greatest rock & roll band on Earth", The Rolling Stones. Although he would perform the occasional lead vocal on tracks throughout the years on Stones albums, the focus for Richards was songwriting and playing guitar while leaving the rock-star stuff to Mick Jagger.
It wasn't until a tense falling out with Jagger in 1986 over putting his solo career ahead of the Stones that he decided to work on his own music. Richards formed a band, the X-Pensive Winos and released his critically acclaimed solo debut, "Talk Is Cheap" in 1988 which he co-wrote and produced with Steve Jordan. These two long-time friends obviously kissed and made up as the Rolling Stones continue to rock this very day. But now, twenty-three years after his second album, "Main Offender", Richards has just released another solo recording, "Crosseyed Heart" before the Stones hit the road next year. The seventy-one year old, back with his band and co-producer Jordan, isn't worried about commercial appeal. He's covering music that he loves like country, reggae and the blues that you won't hear often on your average Rolling Stones record.
Rumor has it that Richards may try to squeeze in a few concert dates this year to promote the album so be on the lookout. In the meantime, listen to one of the highlights from the album. It's a blues ballad that Richards performs as a scorching duet with another singer we haven't heard from in quite a while; Norah Jones:
They say that timing is everything and when Talking Heads first came together, the furious beat of punk and new-wave was just beginning to gain some traction in popular music. The band fit perfectly in this movement however, their particular sound didn't easily fall in to either of those categories. They were one of the first bands to merge different genres together to create their own version of world music. Lead by David Byrne's melodic, droning voice and offbeat vision, Talking Heads would forge their own unique path and become one of the most innovative and influential musical groups in pop history.
David Byrne and Chris Frantz met while attending an art college in Rhode Island. They formed a band together called The Artistics in 1974. Frantz's girlfriend, Tina Weymouth, who also graduated from the school, would help out by driving them around to local gigs. The three decided to move to New York to try their luck. The band needed a bass player, so they encouraged Weymouth to learn how to play. The trio renamed the band, "Talking Heads" and made their first performance in the city opening for The Ramones at CBGB in 1975. Talking Heads developed a cult following and soon record labels came calling. After adding keyboardist, Jerry Harrison to the band in 1977, they signed with Sire Records and released their debut, "Talking Heads: 77". The single, "Psycho Killer" was not a major hit but brought attention to the band.
For their follow-up album, "More Songs About Buildings and Food", Talking Heads teamed up with experimental rock producer, Brian Eno. This was a perfect match of unconventional style and sensibility and the band blended elements of country, reggae and funk in to their sound. Their cover of Al Green's "Take Me To The River" became their first to hit the top-forty on the U.S. pop chart. Eno produced their next two releases, "Fear of Music" (1979) and "Remain in Light" (1980) with Talking Heads exploring further with disco and African rhythms. During this time, they released memorable singles such as "Once In A Lifetime" and "Life During Wartime" which featured the famous lyric "This Ain't No Party, This Ain't No Disco, This Ain't No Foolin' Around"
When the time came to work on their next album, Talking Heads decided to change direction in more ways than one. David Byrne had been the lead vocalist and head writer from the beginning which eventually left the rest of the members feeling frustrated and nothing more than a back-up band. They had begun working on their music as a group and with "Speaking in Tongues", Talking Heads also produced the record together. This became one of their most commercially successful albums with the song, "Burning Down The House" reaching the top-ten on the pop chart. Director Jonathan Demme filmed the band during the L.A. stop of their tour to promote this album which became the popular 1984 concert film, "Stop Making Sense" with a live soundtrack album also released.
Talking Heads would release three more albums but tension between Byrne and the other members continued to escalate. After "Naked" in 1988, the band decided to take a break before officially announcing the end of Talking Heads in 1991. They all would go on to work on solo projects with the most notable being Frantz and Weymouth (who married in 1977 and remain together to this day) who formed Tom Tom Club in 1980 and had a hit with "Genius of Love" which has been heavily sampled over the years. Talking Heads were inducted in to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
Enjoy two of my favorites songs from Talking Heads:
