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Taylor Swift will be crowned Queen of the Charts later today.
Swift’s 10th studio album, “Midnights,” has sold roughly 1.5 million copies in its debut week. More than 1 million of those copies are physical, and more than half of those are vinyl LPs.
Swift and her marketing team came up with a brilliant idea: four different LPs in different colors, all collectible because together they form a clock. The clock can be assembled with a $49 extra purchase on Swift’s website. It’s absolute genius. So divide that 1 million by 4 and you get around 250,000 customers. Add another half million in streaming, and you still get 750,000 customers. Insane.
Swift has outsold Adele, Harry Styles and Drake with the “Midnights” debut. Plus she’s ruled the charts in the three or four years with her “Lover,” “Folklore,” “Evermore,” and re-recorded albums. Success is the best revenge!
No more shakin’ go on: rock and Roll pioneer and wild man, Jerry Lee Lewis, has actually died at age 87.
Jerry Lee’s death was announced a couple of days ago, erroneously. But now he’s most seriously dead.
You do know that Jerry Lee, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Conway Twitty, and Roy Orbison were the creators of rock and roll — not mention Chuck Berry and Little Richard. What Jerry Lee could do on the piano is beyond legendary. Forget about his crazy persona life — because we all know how crazy that was — Jerry Lee’s songs form the foundation of rock and roll. “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin On,” “Great Balls of Fire,” and all the rest of them are where it all begins. I was very lucky to see him play that piano in my lifetime. There’s a reason he was known as The Killer.
Of course, Dennis Quaid memorably played Jerry Lee in the movie “Great Balls of Fire.” And he was featured in dozens of documentaries. In the 2000s late kinda billionaire Steve Bing fell in with Jerry Lee and underwrote albums and tours that formed his renaissance. Bing will always be remembered for this kindness to a legend, and Jerry Lee thought of him as a son (more than Bing’s own family).
And yes, Jerry Lee was infamous for marrying his underage cousin a thousand years ago. It was a different time, and a different planet. His music outlives all that mishegos.
You know that Britney Spears is on the comeback trail. She’s working on a new album, and has a book coming early in 2023 about her conservatorship, parents, and marriages.
No, she is not a great mother. She poses semi-nude on Instagram much to her teen sons’ chagrin.
But Britney has also had a hit all summer and fall with Elton John on “Hold Me Closer.” a rework of Elton’s “Tiny Dancer.”
Now I’m told that there’s a fairly good chance we’ll see Britney on stage with Sir Elton at Dodger Stadium for probably his final show on November 20th. By final I do mean the end of all Elton John touring forever. His “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour has been a smashing success despite breaks for COVID.
Will Britney do any of the preceding shows at Dodger Stadium? My guess is no, just to make that finale extra special. Who would I like to see at the final show? How about Kiki Dee, singing “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.” I’d fly across the country see that. And Dua Lipa– who’s had a massive hit with Elton on “Cold Heart.” And I’ll bet Billie Jean King will be there. There should be lots of guests, but Britney will steal the show!
By the way, credit is being given to David Furnish for coming up with the Elton-Britney duet. You may recall Furnish teased me at the Tony Awards that he had something big in the offing. Their single has been streamed on Spotify over 105 million times!!! Not bad!
Ahmet Ertegun isn’t usually thought of as a songwriter. But the legendary head of Atlantic Records co-wrote a major hit for Aretha Franklin in 1971. It’s called “Don’t Play That Song (You Lied).”
Now Bruce Springsteen has recorded it for his “Only the Strong Survive” album coming November 11th. (By coincidence you can find another cover of “Don’t Play That Song” by Bruce’s collaborator, R&B great Sam Moore, with Wynonna Judd on YouTube, from 2006.) Great song, great cover.
PS I’m waiting for Bruce’s album so everyone can hear his cover of Dobie Gray’s “Soul Days.” Amazing.
Rihanna has dropped her first new music in six years. “Lift Me Up” is an actual song, and it’s the theme from “Wakanda Forever.” Four writers are credited, and the song was recorded in five countries–ridiculous. But it’s an actual song, it’s original, and has a melody. That’s very unique these days. An instant hit, and a definite Best Song nominee for the 2023 Oscars.
The new video from Harry Styles is based on a song that features little singing and a lot of horns.
Harry flounders as a piece of live sushi in “Music from a Sushi Restaurant.” The video will be a hit but radio won’t welcome this as the third single from “Harry’s House.” It’s a weird choice to say the least. But maybe Harry’s counting on fans wanting to watch him this way. Very fishy.
Here’s a lesson for everyone: do not send your kids to wonky private schools created by celebrities.
The London Times reports that Kanye West’s Donda Academy has shut down abruptly. The school is in Los Angeles’s Simi Valley and costs $15,000 a year. The Donda Academy was famous making its students sing praise to Kanye’s dead mother every morning at assembly.
When West’s antisemitism scandal broke two weeks ago the head of the school quit. Since the parents are bound by NDA’s they haven’t spoken, but without administrators and possibly teachers the school had to shut down. The remaining administrator says they’ll be back in September 2023, but I doubt it. By then Kanye will be absolutely broke and this school will be a distant memory.
For the parents, though, this has to be a nightmare– switching schools after two months into the new year. Any parents who want to talk to me in confidence, please email me at showbiz411@gmail.com.
This situation is not unlike how Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s neo-Scientology school, New Village Academy, shut down in 2012. That school actually made it for three or four years before the whole thing collapsed in educational rubble.
Meantime, West — instead of apologizing or demonstrating contrition, has been mocking his critics over the last several hours on social media. Also, he tried to visit the Skechers headquarters yesterday to try and replace Adidas after they bailed on him. They very publicly kicked him out. Kanye is in a free fall now, having lost most of his income in one day.
It was a throwback night of celebration in New York tonight as Lincoln Center opened its stunning new David Geffen Hall with an A list party and performance.
First– most importantly — the former Avery Fisher Hall is a total success. The sound in the theater is finally acoustically perfect, a dramatic change since the original Philharmonic Hall opened in 1962. Leonard Bernstein is cheering in heaven at the sleek new design of blonde Scandinavian wood. You feel like you’re on the most expensive Norwegian cruise of all time now that hundreds of seats have been removed. Geffen Hall is now an intimate experience for a massive crowd. The sound imaging is sheer perfection.
We learned that right from the start as conductor Jaap van Zweden led the Philharmonic through two opening pieces that showed the depth and breadth of the new room. For classic enthusiasts the room burst with color and emotion. For people who’ve become accustomed to ear buds, this will literally blow their minds. It’s heaven.
Sting’s long time conductor, Emmy winner and Tony and Grammy nominated Rob Mathes, took over at that point as a parade of New York’s finest artists took the stage. (I was only sorry that Tony Bennett couldn’t be there. This would have been his personal Super Bowl.) Alicia Keys surprised the well-heeled audience of celebs and donors, opening the show with her “Empire State of Mind,” sending shivers through the room. As the evening progressed, Bernadette Peters, Sara Bareilles and Brandon Victor Dixon, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Vanessa Williams, Renee Fleming, and Tony winner Joaquina Kalukango wowed the crowd with cheers and ovations as they covered Broadway, jazz, the American songbook, their superb voices rising over Mathes’s bravura conducting of the symphony.
In the audience was none other than Mayor Eric Adams in a purplish maroon suit, as well as Senator Chuck Schumer, Jamie Bernstein (daughter of the great composer/conductor Leonard), Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg (very cute holding hands), CAA co-chief Bryan Lourd (whose daughter Billie steals “Ticket to Paradise”) and Bruce Bozzi, Martha Stewart, actress Kate Burton, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft with his new wife Dr. Dana Blumberg), famed music attorney Allen Grubman and his superstar realtor wife Deborah, philanthropist Mercedes Bass and movie PR maven Peggy Siegal, film producer Jon Kamen — his company, Radical Media, made the opening film with Nathan Lane (directed by Alex Horwitz)– and of course, David Geffen himself.
Geffen had asked that no one make a fuss over him, but when the famed music producer/Broadway producer/film producer was introduced the place went wild. He’s literally dragged the NY Phil into the 21st century and couldn’t have done a better job. Stephen Colbert, also making a surprise appearance, joked from the stage that since Geffen had also been a founder of Dreamworks Films, some of the money Geffen donated came from one of their animated films, “Captain Underpants.” I don’t know if Geffen liked that. After all, Dreamworks also gave us “Saving Private Ryan,” “American Beauty,” and “A Brilliant Mind.”
And yes, the new Geffen Hall’s main entrance is a glistening glass garage door. The whole lobby has been updated along with all the levels leading into the theater. If you want a grand old theater, we still have Carnegie Hall and two dozen or more Broadway houses covered in gold paint. But Geffen Hall is a signature for the future. It’s modern but undeniably warm. And it’s opened two years earlier than expected, under budget. As the Philharmonic Chorus sang to open the evening, “Hallelujah!”
PS I hope they taped the evening. Among my favorite moments were Bareilles and Dixon’s duet on “I Can Do Anything Better than You,” and Fleming and Stokes Mitchell taking on “Make Our Garden Grow” from “Candide.”
You know, I love Rihanna’s voice. So the amusing facts of her first single in six years I won’t make fun of.
But still: it took at least four people to write “Lift Me Up” for the “Wakanda Forever” soundtrack. The press release says it was recorded in no less than FIVE countries. Come on. Was one of those countries Wakanda itself?
Anyway the song is coming tomorrow night at midnight. The people getting publishing credits are Tems, Oscar winner Ludwig Göransson, Rihanna and “wakanda Forever” director Ryan Coogler. The song is a tribute to Chadwick Boseman, who tragically died two years ago. His T’Challa character is killed off in the movie.
Who is Tems? She’s a Nigerian born singer songwriter named Temilade Openiyi. She actually wrote the song, I guess. Everyone else jumped on. I like her: we share a birthday. Go, Tems!
Kanye West losing his recording contract and other businesses is bringing out comments from his associates. I told you in my last post that NFL linebacker Antonio Brown is sticking with West as the head of his moot Donda Sports.
Kanye has a lot of musicians, engineers, and producers who work for him assembling his albums. Presumably, their business is shot now. So how are they taking it?
One long time producer, Andrew Dawson, is a mensch. He wrote on social media that he’s making donations to the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, and other civil rights organizations.
Mike Dean, another of West’s long time producers, the guy who actually writes the “music” that shows up in Kanye constructions, has a different view. He’s worried that he’s going to lose his income stream.
Dean reponded to Dawson with this observation:
“Careful tho. Those royalties will shrink. Sucks. He’s hurting all his collaborators too”
Good to see everyone has their priorities straight!
