It’s hard to review an album on the spot. But my first impression of Taylor Swift’s “Evermore” is that she wrote a ton of songs last spring, and now here’s the other 15 after “Folklore.”

I kind of like this group better than “Folklore,” despite my love for “Betty” from that album. So far on “Evermore” the songs that seem stronger and standout are the ones with guest vocals. With the Haim sisters she has a really catchy and clever murder mystery called “No Body, No Crime.” I look forward to playing that one again. With Bon Iver she sings the title track, “Evermore.”

There’s also an excellent duet called “Coney Island” with the National’s Aaron Dressner, who co-wrote most of the songs here. All Taylor’s story songs are intriguing and hearken back to the great singer songwriters who were more interested in the lyrics than the hooks. Taylor reminds a lot of Joni Mitchell, Carole King, and Joni Mitchell, which ain’t bad. I remember being so impressed with her lyrics on the “Red” album, and “Evermore” reminds me of that record.

On her new surprise album. Taylor Swift’s second track is called “Champagne Problems.”

Hmmmm… on her new album this summer, Katy Perry also sang a tune she called “Champagne Problems.”

Are these just Champagne problems? What is Taylor up to? Her boyfriend/fiancee Joe Alwyn wrote the lyrics to her song under the name William Bowery.

Katy wrote her own song. But numbers address their respective relationships.

What’s going on? I have no idea. If you do, let me know at showbiz411@gmail.com. These girls used to be in feud. Now they’re each uncorked!

It’s Taylor Swift’s world and we just live in it. At midnight she launches a 2nd album of 2020, “Evermore,” and a single called “Willow.” In the time since Adele’s last album, Taylor has released four albums. Just sayin’…

Yes, yes, we all know Christmas is Mariah Carey’s holiday. Her perennial Phil Spectorish “All I Want for Christmas” is back at the top of the charts. Mariah’s even released a new single, a version of her “Oh Santa,” with Jennifer Hudson and Ariana Grande that’s full of fun and great vocals. Mariah, who can’t sell a record during the rest of the year, has become Mrs. Christmas.

But wait– this year Mariah has some competition. For some reason, Brenda Lee’s perennial hit, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” is back with a vengeance. Recorded and released in 1958 when Brenda was just 13 years old, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” has been around a long time. But it’s never seen action like this.

The single was number two last week on the streaming charts, and made $105,916. It was just a nose behind Mariah’s “All I Want.” Right now it’s the number 1 song on iTunes– on the pop charts!– not just the holiday charts! By comparison, Mariah is at number 5 and 16 with “Oh Santa!” According to Buzz Angle, “Tree” sold 114,000 copies between December 4th and December 8th. Last week, it sold 135,000 copies.

Who is Brenda Lee, you young people are asking? She was the Mariah of 1958-66. So many hits! “I’m Sorry” was the biggest, aside from “Christmas Tree.” But she was a very cool rockabilly-country singer with a timeless sound and instrumentals. She turns 76 tomorrow– December 11th — and lives in Nashville. She’s a national treasure.

So happy birthday, Brenda Lee. What a lasting tribute to her talent!

I love the Bee Gees, and Frank Marshall has done an exceptional job creating an emotional documentary about them. “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?” premieres on HBO on Saturday night. Please, don’t get a fever, if you know what I mean, considering the pandemic.

Barry, Robin, Maurice Gibb moved with their family from England to Australia and immediately became a star act in the making. Their three part harmonies, their ability to write very catchy pop songs with underlying tones of R&B, garnered them local hits as teens, a first number 1 down under, and then a recording contract with Robert Stigwood.

Marshall, the very successful producer of dozens of hit movies including many Spielberg classics, directed this one himself. You can tell it’s a passion project. Barry, the surviving brother, is front and center, but there is plenty of footage and interviews with Maurice and Robin, the younger twins. The brothers were of one mind and voice, making them feel, as Barry says, like triplets.

The Bee Gees saga starts in 1967, when they generate a slew of hits over the next two and a half years. I have a great fondness for that period that includes “To Love Somebody” and “Gotta Get a Message to You.” That period generated a “Bee Gees Gold” greatest hits album that back in the day, everyone had.

But that success ruined them a little bit, and they disappeared for a couple of years. When they returned in 1971, a trio of hits resurrected them– “Run to Me,” “Lonely Days,” and “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?” But after that run, the Bee Gees really drifted. They had to reinvent themselves. Atlantic Records, where they’d been signed to Atco since ’67, sent them to Miami where Eric Clapton had had a massive career resurgence with producer Tom Dowd making “461 Ocean Boulevard” and “I Shot the Sheriff.” Clapton, on screen, happily takes credit for what happened next.

I’m very lucky to have known producer Arif Mardin*, who reset the Bee Gees career in 1975 with a smash hit album and singles like “Jive Talkin'” and “Nights on Broadway.” Barry Gibb discovered his falsetto, Arif  — a genius–  married it to disco-like percussion and lush, swooning strings. Even though they only made the one album together, it set the Bee Gees up for their 70s disco explosion with a dozen hits culminating in “Saturday Night Fever.”

Marshall tells a complicated story very well, delineating the subsidiary rise and fall of the Gibbs’ younger brother, Andy, who skyrocketed to fame and died young. He also traces the rest of the family, the interplay of the three main siblings’ difficulties with fame and fallings-out. Very smartly, he brings in a couple of other brothers– Noel Gallagher of Oasis, Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers– to elucidate the complicated relationships. (Gallagher seems unusually reasoned.)

The film manages to cover almost everything but Marshall omits the Bee Gees’ tremendous failure starring as the Beatles in the “Sgt. Pepper’s Hearts Club Band” movie. At the highest point in their career, the summer of 1978, Stigwood pushed them into this misbegotten project. By ignoring this episode, a key to why the Bee Gees’ suddenly fell into disrepute is missed. It wasn’t just that people suddenly hated disco. The Gibbs looked ridiculous. It was also overkill. “Saturday Night Fever” was still omnipresent, plus they wrote the Frankie Valli sung theme song for the monster Stigwood hit movie. “Grease.” The Beatles project was a disaster that underscored their cultural saturation. The crowd turned against them.

But that’s my quibble. The “Sgt. Pepper” episode, “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?” is an overdue chronicle and salute to the Gibbs family. For people who know nothing about them, the Bee Gees story is now placed in a proper historical perspective. I loved the engineers and producers like Albhy Galuten who show how they helped create the “Saturday Night Fever” sound. And there are some enlightening thoughts from Chris Martin, Justin Timberlake, music producer Mark Ronson, singer Lulu, and record company executive Bill Oakes, among others.

*PS Arif Mardin is still so undervalued in the history of 70s R&B. You can draw a line through the remarkable records he created. Listening to the Bee Gees’ “Fanny (Be Tender with My Love),” you can hear that it’s descended from Arif’s “She’s Gone” with Hall & Oates. His many masterpieces include the Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway album. Arif, we miss you!

One more note: The Gibbs wrote many hits for other artists, and many of their songs have been covered. One song in particular, “To Love Somebody,” is literally a standard in the R&B songbook. Here’s my favorite version, by the late great James Carr.

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, and Charlie Watts have their own music news this morning. They’ve made a deal with BMG to collect the royalties on all of their music going right back to the beginning of the Rolling Stones’ career. This is NOT A record deal. The Stones have been releasing albums on Universal for some time. But in keeping with Bob Dylan and other legacy rockers, the Stones needed to make an announcement of some kind, too, today! We love the Stones, long may they roll!

Here’s the press release:

London – December 10, 2020 – Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood have chosen BMG to collect the royalties due when their recordings are played on TV and radio around the world, so-called neighboring rights. BMG will also continue to represent Jagger and Richards’ music publishing interests.

The deal to represent the four members of The Rolling Stones comes just six months after BMG announced the launch of its boutique neighboring rights service.

It coincides with a new extension of BMG’s long-term deal to represent the music publishing rights of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. BMG also represents much of the recorded catalogue of Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and drummer Charlie Watts.

BMG CEO Hartwig Masuch said, “If you are in the business of selling services to artists and songwriters, these are the kinds of client you dream of attracting. We are immensely grateful to Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ronnie for putting their faith in us.”

BMG’s neighboring rights service will collect royalties due for the performance of legendary recordings such as ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’, ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ and ‘Start Me Up’. The arrangement includes recordings ranging from their very first single, 1963’s ‘Come On’, to their widely acclaimed 2020 worldwide hit ‘Living In A Ghost Town’.

Alistair Norbury, BMG President Repertoire & Marketing UK, said, “At a time when streaming is further highlighting the value of iconic music rights, our objective is to offer the best possible service to artists and songwriters. We are delighted for the opportunity to further demonstrate the value we can add for four of the greatest names in rock with our neighboring rights service.”

The extension of BMG’s long-running publishing relationship with Jagger and Richards covers all of the works written by the iconic duo dating back more than 50 years.

BMG will continue to be directly responsible for publishing all of the songs written by The Rolling Stones songwriting team since 1983. Additionally, it will be responsible for handling Jagger and Richards’s shares of their pre-1983 copyrights which are represented by ABKCO (1963-1971) and EMI Music Publishing (1971-1983).

Songs directly published by BMG span the albums Dirty Work (1986), Steel Wheels (1989), Voodoo Lounge (1994), Bridges To Babylon (1997) and A Bigger Bang (2005) as well as future compositions. They include classic Stones tracks such as ‘Mixed Emotions’, ‘Love Is Strong’, ‘You Got Me Rocking’ and ‘Doom And Gloom’. BMG will also administer Jagger and Richards’s interests in all of their Rolling Stones hits dating back to 1963 including ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’, ‘Brown Sugar’ and ‘Angie’.

The new expanded relationship precedes the celebration of The Rolling Stones’ 60th anniversary in 2022.

Earlier this year, The Rolling Stones released their newest single ‘Living In A Ghost Town’. Their first new music in eight years, ‘Living In A Ghost Town’ is the first original song they have released since ‘Doom and Gloom’ and ‘One More Shot’ which were featured on their greatest hits album Grrr!, released in 2012. In 2016, the band released Blue & Lonesome comprising covers of some of the greatest blues artists who inspired them including Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Magic Sam, Jimmy Reed, and Willie Dixon.

With the release tonight of “Evermore,” her ninth album, Taylor Swift will set sales records like crazy.

So far this year, Swift has sold 4.4 million records including CDs, downloads, and streaming. A solid 1.3 million of that is pure sales.

Half of that number — 2 million — is from “Folklore,” her surprise album from last spring. And half of that, 1.1 million, is from CDs and downloading.

With “Evermore,” Swift will exceed 5 million in sales for 2020. According to Buzz Angle, her 2019 album, “Lover,” has sold 3 million copies since its release in August 2019.

These are numbers from the recording industry from a decade or more ago. No one is selling anything like this now, or releasing so much consistent quality music.

Taylor’s top track right now from “Folklore” is called “Exile.”

Taylor Swift has a surprise for everyone: a new album called “Evermore,” the follow up to her massive summer hit, “Folklore.” It’s coming out tonight at midnight.

She writes on Twitter: “I’m elated to tell you that my 9th studio album, and folklore’s sister record, will be out tonight at midnight eastern. It’s called evermore.”

She continues: “Ever since I was 13, I’ve been excited about turning 31 because it’s my lucky number backwards, which is why I wanted to surprise you with this now. You’ve all been so caring, supportive and thoughtful on my birthdays and so this time I thought I would give you something!”

Swift turns 31 on Sunday. She’s already had the top selling album of the year with “Folklore,” now nominated for several Grammy Awards including Album of the Year. “Evermore” solidifies her position as Overachiever of her generation!

She writes: “To put it plainly, we just couldn’t stop writing songs. To try and put it more poetically, it feels like we were standing on the edge of the folklorian woods and had a choice: to turn and go back or to travel further into the forest of this music. We chose to wander deeper in.I’ve never done this before. In the past I’ve always treated albums as one-off eras and moved onto planning the next one after an album was released. There was something different with folklore. In making it, I felt less like I was departing and more like I was returning.”

Just think of it: when touring resumes late next year, Swift has enough material to clone herself and send out two different tours simultaneously. “Evermore” is also her third album in two years counting “Lover,” which was already a smash hit. Extraordinary.