Giorgio Moroder is back! His new single– out now on Sony International and RCA — is called “74 is the New 24.” The album, still untitled, comes out next year. All the electronic dance music you love today started with Moroder on Donna Summer’s hits, and Blondie’s “Call Me.” Here’s the first single:
Also Check out Julia Fordham’s new jazz rendition of “Call Me” at www.juliafordham.com
Sorry, I borrowed Nick Lowe’s famous album title from the late 70s. But “Four,” the new One Direction album, comes out this morning. Your teenager has already downloaded it. “Four” should be bigger than Taylor Swift’s “1989.” It’s a real pop album, produced with an adult sound for kids. It was a wise move. Do these guys write the songs or play instruments? It doesn’t matter.They have the right people, and they made a great pop record. I’m enjoying listening to it on Spotify this morning. Good for them!
The songs are short and to the point. They all have different co-writers. Teddy Geiger, who should be aa pop star himself, co wrote what will be a massive hit single called “Where Do Broken Hearts Go?” Ed Sheeran co-wrote “18,” which we’ll be hearing constantly on pop radio. I particular liked “Fools Gold,” written by Maureen McDonald aka MoZella. (I guess Carole King would be called C-King if she were writing today.)
“Four” is produced by Julian Bunetta and John Ryan. They will think of this as their own “All That You Can’t Leave Behind,” the U2 album that sounds like 12 hit singles. even in the song “Night Changes” with what sounds like a little tribute to David Bowie, they made lemonade from what could have been lemons. Crazy but true. Not kidding. Over 40, give it a spin. “Four” is fun.
Whoops! After the success and debacle of the Apple episode with their new album. U2 was all set to stage a huge comeback this week. They were booked for five shows on Jimmy Fallon to promote “Songs of Innocence” in its deluxe package, releasing tomorrow. But this was also the marketing launch of the 2015 super tour. The Tonight show gig was supposed to whet appetites. Me, I was psyched.
But nope: the Fallon gigs are suspended. Bono, unfortunately, took a spill in Central Park on his bicycle. On the U2 website there is this message:
No one is reading David Ritz’s unauthorized biography of Aretha Franklin called “Respect.” It sits in the book sales basement at number 6,000 on amazon.com. Why? The public smells a rat. They’re not shelling out good money for junk.
Franklin has every right to be mad. Fifteen years ago David Ritz helped her write an autobiography called “From these Roots.” Franklin had editorial control. In the end, she excised material she didn’t like from that book. Ritz resented it. He obviously planned his revenge.
Now Ritz has scooped up what was on the cutting room floor and made “Respect.” It’s a betrayal and a total violation of trust. You wonder, how could he do it? Does he have no conscience? As a journalist and a lover of R&B, I am horrified. He’s taken advantage of his former access. No one should ever again trust him to do a memoir with them.
And then there’s a question of attribution. Almost everyone he quotes is dead. He offers no proof that he interviewed them. It’s even more unlikely that they said any of this stuff. For instance, Ritz wrote a whole about Ray Charles. But none of the Ray Charles info in “Respect” was in the Ray book. Suddenly a dead Ray Charles has a whole lot of new quotes about Aretha Franklin.
Aretha did tell a Detroit newspaper she was thinking about suing Ritz. It’s not worth it. In the end, no one is reading his book. It’s trash. She told me the other day: “The book is called Respect. And clearly no respect is intended by David Ritz….it is a twisted and distorted attempt to defame–and character assassinate–me, my father and family!!”
Franklin is concerned about Ritz’s suggestion that she’s jealous of other singers. “He suggests as well I was jealous of Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, and Gladys Knight– which is just plain crazy but consider the source!!!!”
I have to say, I was with Aretha when she and Streisand were together last year. It was a love fest. I have the pictures to prove it. She was equally proud of her sisters Carolyn and Erma, who wrote many of her hits. According to Ritz, there was constant festering jealousy among them. Simply not true.
Aretha is also not happy about Ritz’s descriptions of her father or his church. I don’t blame her. She won’t say it, but I will: it’s racist. It’s that simple.
“After 50 years of [my family] being in the public eye … there is no question people know who we were and what we stand for,” Aretha tells me. “Everyone he quotes is deceased and cannot defend themselves. And there blatant lies gospel luminary James Cleveland….and calling the church a sex circus! He’s horribly vindictive.”
So ignore the book. Dig Aretha Franklin’s new album and her single on “Rolling in the Deep.” The Queen of Soul is a national treasure. On December 12 th she’s getting the Billboard Women in Music Award, the latest in a string of awards and citations. David Ritz will be home, counting his remainders.
PS I will tell you that despite the idiosyncrasies of being one of the most famous performers in the world, Aretha Franklin is loyal to her friends and family and vice versa. Her annual New York birthday party goes on for hours every March. Aretha throws it herself, and for her friends. It’s become like a national holiday for her inner circle. After a close read of “Respect,” I’m sorry that Ritz wasted so much time on negativity. There would have been so much to be gained by telling the real story of Aretha’s extraordinary struggle, literally, from her roots.
During the 85 minute bore of a play called “The River,” I thought about a lot of things. None of them was “The River.” For $175 you can see Hugh Jackman close up for nearly an hour and a half. He wears a tight a dark red t shirt the whole time. I realized something. He’s worked out so much that he has double triceps on each arm. I didn’t even know that was physically possible.
This obviously impressed Ben Brantly, who was so mesmerized by Jackman that he missed the fact “The River” is not a play. During the 85 minutes you get to watch Jackman clean and fillet a trout for dinner. He chops up lots of different things, like an onion and maybe celery. It’s like a segment from the Food Network. He also pouts glasses of wine, sets a table and takes off boaters (high water rubber pants). He also cleans his hands and the table with lemon, to get out the fish smell.
Not much happens in “The River.” There are two dull monologues about fish and fishing. You learn the difference between trout and sea trout. (“There isn’t one.”) There are two actresses, they alternate, you’re not sure for a while if they’re playing the same character. They disappear, another comes in at the end. Someone next to me said, “She must have killed the first two.” If only.
Jackman plays a loner called The Man who brings lots of women to his cabin on the river but won’t commit to them. He actually frightens them. Since he doesn’t have A Name, all he does is talk about and prepare fish. Frankly, you could this at Citarella for free.
There were celebrities in the audience: Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld, Ellen Burstyn, Harvey Keitel and his wife Daphna, and so on. Cindy Adams usually leaves at the intermission but she couldn’t last night because there was no intermission. This was wise. Otherwise people would have fled.
You know a show is bad when the publicist tells you “The producers don’t want press at the party.” This is code for: “They don’t want you asking questions while the reviews are being read.” (To be fair, they did do press in the lobby of theater after the show, I am told.)
Hugh Jackman has nothing to prove to us about being a “serious” actor. We all know he’s incredibly talented. But pick a real play, for god’s sake. “The River” could have easily been titled “Fish in the Dark.” Oh, but that’s taken. Let’s just call it “Les Miserables.”
LOL. Nile Rodgers is working on his new Chic album for spring 2015. Maybe that’s when he’ll be inducted into the RockHall. Also guess what? He’s using some tapes to add the late great Luther Vandross on background vocals.
Here’s the deal: Like Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes is from Canada. Unlike Bieber, Mendes is tall (6’1″), good looking, very well spoken, and a pretty competent guitar player. He’s got a great pop voice that falls more on the Ed Sheeran side than on “American Idol.”
Shawn Mendes writes catchy songs, lots of them, and he’s genuine in his disposition. Last night he made his first ever premiere live on stage at the Best Buy Theater in Times Square in front about 1,000 screaming girls and their parents. Shawn took the bare stage with just his guitar, no band, no dancers, just him. He wore a flannel shirt and jeans.
The room was once a grand movie theater where I watched “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Indiana Jones” and “Superman” on a 70 mm screen in the 1970s. On Saturday night it was seething with young girls standing packed like proverbial sardines from the lip of the stage to the back of the room. They often swayed in waves before Mendes came out, chanting his songs.
But get this: Mendes does not have an album out yet. The girls found him on Vine, not even YouTube. He posted six-second snippets of himself singing. The teen world exploded like Krypton just before Superman was shipped out in swaddling clothes. Shawn’s parents are not musical, and had no idea what was happening when fame beckoned. Now he’s signed to Island Records and its guru, David Massey. He’s getting packets of schoolwork from his undoubtedly furious instructors.
His songs are simple and melodic, with hooks. Everyone can sing along, and they do. There’s no yodeling or rap. There’s no Auto Tune or fakery. His voice has already changed, so unlike Bieber he doesn’t sound like Ann Murray. He has a nice full adult throat. He does need a mentor, like John Mayer, or James Taylor’s son Ben Taylor. That would help. He says his influences are Ed Sheeran and Justin Timberlake. But they’re not. They’re really Neil Young and James Taylor. He just has to hear their records.
Well, the girls keep screaming. But Shawn remains at the mic, and calms them down by talking to them. He was so afraid before going on, Massey says. he nearly became ill. You couldn’t see it on stage.
Mendes’ biggest break comes next summer. He will open for ubiquitous man eater Taylor Swift. Let’s hope he can keep his balance. But something tells me by June there will tabloid stories galore. Please god, no.
No one watched the Hollywood Film Awards last night, least of all young people. The show took 4.14 million total viewers. A half million of them were between 18 and 49 years old. All the stars who came weren’t enough of a draw. Not even Johnny Depp, drunk and making a fool of himself on national TV. People just weren’t interested in seeing a three hour commercial for Hollywood, with everyone up everyone else’s ass, heaping praise. Was the 12 person selection committee even invited? Who knows?
The Awards were the 7th highest rated show of the evening. They were beaten even by a show I’ve never heard of, called “Cristela.” Blimey.
A friend of mine who’s a TV expert says: “The numbers are awful……but even CBS will rationalize something, take another crack at this next year (unless there is a business scandal with the management of the show), fix it creatively, and see if year #2 is better creatively and on a rating basis.”
The expert continues:
“In terms of total viewers, CBS gets about 7 million viewers with The Amazing Race from 8-9PM. Hawaii 5-0 gets close to 10 million viewers from 9-10PM and Blue Bloods gets 12 million viewers…….all before the integration of the DVR and delayed viewing numbers. CBS wins Friday consistently in terms of total viewers/eyeballs. They do no sell demos on Friday nights. If the media is looking just at the demos, they are misunderstanding this project and its longer term value by looking purely at 18-49 demos. Just wrong in this context as the awards show generally have older appeal by nature (it is not the MTV awards, the AMA’s or the Grammys).”
Paul McCartney, now 72 and spry as ever, still looked wiped out when he arrived at Alice Tully Hall on Thursday night. He’d flown overnight from Brazil, where he’s been on a stadium tour, so he could be at the Lincoln Center tribute to his successful and lovely daughter Stella McCartney.
Paul and wife Nancy were supposed to do the red carpet with Stella. But as they were literally coming from South America, the couple took their seats just as the lights went down and the program began. Whoever cut together the clips of Stella’s life and career used Paul’s song “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five” as the background music. When Paul himself took the stage to help Jerry Seinfeld give Stella her award, the producers used “Band on the Run.” As Paul spoke, he actually started to break up. Very emotional. Wow.
Seinfeld had given Stella such a hard time on stage with nutty questions that McCartney quipped: “We used to like the Seinfeld family!”
The evening was a rare one. For one thing, it’s quite amazing how Yoko Ono has become an almost beloved sort of grandmother in the extended Beatles group. After decades of fighting, she and Paul seem quite at ease now. What was especially poignant was a moment I witnessed among the women– Nancy Shevell McCartney and Olivia Harrison were just lovely with Yoko, hugging her and having intimate chats. Nancy put her hand on Yoko’s back in a very affectionate way while they were talking.
There is a rich closeness now as the Beatles family has aged. Stella had her mother’s family present, the Eastmans– uncle John and aunt Louise, her mother Linda’s brother and sister. Dhani Harrison– I still can’t get over how he called Stella his “big sister” and played her favorite Everly Brothers song as well as her dad’s “Live and Let Die.” Dhani, by the way, has married a beautiful and smart, funny girl named Sola Karadottir, now Sola Harrison, who’s launched a line of popular evening wear called GalvanLondon. It looks like a very happy match.
Dhani, by the way, has his own group– The New No.2–and he’s got a great career scoring movies. His father would be very proud, and of course his mother is– Olivia Harrison is one the gentlest souls, and she’s done a miraculous job keep George’s legacy alive. She’s just released a box set of George’s most famous albums, all remastered.
Meantime, as far as Stella McCartney goes– she’s always in the newspaper, and her best pals are Liv Tyler and Gwyneth Paltrow. But she’s also the mother of 4 kids under the age of 9. She has a terrific husband named Alistair whom Seinfeld envies for being impeccably dressed at all times. Stella is as down to Earth as her late and wonderful mother Linda. You can see why she’s engendered so many loyal friends. Even the legendary Doris Day, who rarely speaks in public, sent an audio message to be played to the audience. Doris Day! (She and Paul are old friends.) That’s saying something.
PS Paul McCartney, you know, her father– has just reissued two of his gigantic albums from the 70s– Wings at the Speed of Sound, and Venus and Mars– in collector’s editions on Concord. They join McCartney, Ram, and Band on the Run in McCartney’s Archives collection. They’re beautifully done. I hope we get Red Rose Speedway, Wings Wild Life, and Flowers in the Dirt soon. There’s also a big McCartney tribute package for Christmas, with dozens of artists performing Paul’s songs. McCartney told me at the event: “To listen to Bob Dylan do one of my songs…” McCartney said, literally wide eyed. I’m telling you, he’s impressed.
all photos c2014Showbiz411.com
Johnny Depp appeared to be quite drunk and unable to speak or stand properly on CBS’s Hollywood Film Awards. Depp was giving an award for best documentary to Mike Myers for his film about Hollywood manager Shep Gordon. The film is called “Supermensch.” Depp was not that in the least. Keep refreshing…