The creator of the classic HBO mob series also addresses controversy over finale: ‘ On some level now, I feel this ending thing has been overblown.’
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wednesday, November 5, 2014, 2:36 PM
Victoria Will/Invision/APDirector and producer David Chase in New York in 2012.
The idea of a prequel to “The Sopranos” intrigues series creator David Chase, but if that were to happen, he envisions it as atypical.
The 69-year old showrunner says he wouldn’t mind exploring the era before the show began.
“Even if I did it, it wouldn’t be ‘The Sopranos’ that was on the air — obviously at least one person is gone that we would need,” he says. “There are a couple of eras that would be interesting for me to talk about, about Newark, N.J. One would be (the) late ‘60s, early ‘70s, about all the racial animosity, or the beginning, the really true beginning of the flood of drugs.”
For now, he is promoting the release of the entire series on Blu-ray.
Chase sat down with The Associated Press to discuss the groundbreaking HBO series, the hype that followed and the finale’s still-debated ending.
AP: How did you deal with the criticism that followed after the show’s initial success?
Craig Blankenhorn /APJames Gandolfini (l.), Steven Van Zandt (c.) and Tony Sirico, members of the cast of the HBO cable television mob drama during its final season in 2007.
Chase: The first season was made, completely shot — written, shot and edited before any of the public ever saw it, so it existed in this little time capsule of its own with no reaction whatsoever. So when that hit the media, it blew up. I tried to retain that attitude that we were just out there in Queens making the show and it didn’t matter. ... After a while when it became very successful, you just start to go ‘... I’m going to do what I want.’ Why not? How often does anyone get this opportunity, so use it. Some people would tell you, ‘They went off on tangents.’ I could have cared less about it.
AP: Was Steven Van Zandt considered to play Tony Soprano?
Chase: Stevie was one of the people that read for it and that would have been a totally different show. Could have been a very good show, too, I think, but funnier and sillier. ... But for all the reasons that I’m sitting here today, a lot of that has to do with Jim (Gandolfini), and his natural abilities and inclinations.
AP: Was there emphasis to treat the violence with shock value, you know, like Ralphie Cifaretto’s head in a bowling bag?
Chase: A lot of it is like a ghastly joke. The things you’re bringing up, the bowling ball bag, that’s not shocking, it’s just ghastly and it’s stupidly funny. ... This was a mob war and it was idiotic the whole reason for it. And I know the other thing about it was that Tony was very happy when it came time to bury the head. And he was enjoying working that tractor, that bucket loader. That’s when I liked best was the absurdity of all that. He was enjoying himself up there.
JILL CONNELLY/APJames Gandolfini and David Chase in 1999.
AP: Did you know in advance the finale’s black ending would create such a controversy?
Chase: Obviously you can’t think about memory before it all happens. I’m really glad I had the creative freedom to do what I wanted to do. I wasn’t even questioned about it by HBO.
AP: Are series finales overhyped?
Chase: Most of my TV career, and still happening now, shows ended because somebody got a phone call saying, ‘You’re canceled,’ and that was that. You had to write an ending and that never even occurred to people. It’s over. ... On some level now, I feel this ending thing has been overblown.
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Hear Billy Joel's Explosive Cover of Paul McCartney's 'Maybe I'm Amazed'
The Piano Man pays tribute to the Beatle for upcoming 'Art of McCartney' tribute compilation
Billy Joel busts out his best howls and growls for his thunderous cover of Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed," which will appear on The Art of Paul McCartney, an upcoming tribute compilation to the legendary songwriter. The Piano Man goes for broke on his performance of the smash hit from McCartney's 1970 solo debut, McCartney, belting the song's devotional lyrics with the vigorous bombast of a young man.
Joel brings that same ferocity to his cover of "Live and Let Die," which he previews in a behind-the-scenes clip, where he also pops a piano string while preparing to record ("It's an occupational hazard with me," he cracks) and talks about his relationship with McCartney's famous James Bond theme.
"Paul stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park," Joel says. "I love the song; it's kind of a whacked song. We used to do it at sound check; matter of fact we still do it at sound check. It's just fun to play because it's so over-the-top." (Also be sure not to miss Joel's fantastic, impromptu rendition of the Goldfinger theme.)
Joel's version of "Maybe I'm Amazed" kicks off the massive Art of McCartney compilation, which sees release on November 18th. The rest of the roster is filled out by big names like Bob Dylan ("Things We Said Today"), Brian Wilson ("Wanderlust"), Barry Gibb ("When I'm 64"), B.B. King ("On the Way"), Chrissie Hynde ("Let It Be"), Smokey Robinson ("So Bad"), Heart ("Letting Go") and many more. McCartney's own son James appears on the album as well, recording a version of the Beatles' "Hello Goodybe" with the Cure, which Rolling Stone exclusively premiered in September.
The Art of McCartney is the brainchild of onetime McCartney producer Ralph Sall, who first dreamt up the project in 2003. After getting the OK from McCartney, Sall set about recording songs with the musician's backing band, then began to approach other performers to lay down vocals. The compilation will be available in a variety of formats including a 42-track deluxe set with hardbound books, a DVD documentary about the making of the comp and more.
Corinne Bailey Rae - Bluebird
Stephen Hawking Film Depicts Courageous Battle with Disease
by Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer | November 05, 2014 09:28am ET
In the film, actor Eddie Redmayne portrays Hawking's physical decline due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Credit: Liam Daniel/Focus Features
For most people, the name Stephen Hawking calls to mind the brilliant, wheel chair-bound physicist and his renowned theories about space-time and black holes. But a new film depicts a different side of Hawking: his relationship with his first wife, and his battle with a brutal disease.
"The Theory of Everything" tells the story of Stephen Hawking's life with Jane Hawking, and his struggle with motor neuron disease, or ALS. The movie reveals how the couple's bond allowed Hawking to persist in the face of increasing disability, and develop the theories that made him so famous.
The movie is not a biopic of Hawking's life — it's a portrait of a relationship, said director James Marsh.
Of course, Hawking's illness plays a huge part in that relationship, Marsh told Live Science. "It's like a bomb that goes off in a family — it resonates across all the people that have contact with that family." ['Theory of Everything': T...ne Hawking]
Based on Jane Hawking's memoir "Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen" (Alma Books, 2008), the film weaves together the story of Stephen and Jane's marriage, with that of his illness and his pursuit of a "theory of everything."
A brutal disease
The film begins when Hawking is a graduate student in physics at Cambridge University in England, where he meets and falls in love with Jane. But the couple's dreams are shattered when Hawking finds out he has motor neuron disease (also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), a progressive neurological disorder that attacks the neurons that control the muscles.
Actor Eddie Redmayne gives a convincing performance as Hawking, an able-bodied and rakish young man who, as the film goes on, undergoes a steady physical decline, losing the ability to walk, feed himself and ultimately even speak.
"When I got the part, the stakes felt pretty high," Redmayne told reporters at a press event. "Firstly, you're depicting a living human being who is also an icon, and telling his family story. And secondly, you're representing a brutal disease," he said.
To prepare for the part, Redmayne spent four months visiting patients at an ALS clinic in London. He also studied photographs and a video of Hawking in zero gravity.
It was a lot of "trying to work out what [Hawking's] decline would have been, and working with a dancer to access muscles that I haven’t used before to try and put that in my body," Redmayne said. "And then, just a lot of time in front of a mirror by myself."
The actor even put together a chart of the disease's progression, to refer to while filming each scene.
To show Hawking's weight loss over the course of the disease, Redmayne wears tight costumes in the beginning of the film, and looser ones as the film goes on. An oversized wheelchair and clever camera angles also help to produce the appearance of physical frailty.
Redmayne worked with a vocal coach to reproduce Hawking's garbled speech, and the actor seems to have mastered the use of his eyebrows and a few other facial muscles to communicate the way Hawking does later on in his illness.
Lover and Caregiver
The film is just as much about Jane Hawking as it is about Stephen.
Played by actor Felicity Jones, Jane is not only Hawking's lover and wife, and the mother of their children, but she also takes on the role of his caregiver. To inhabit the role, Jones read Jane's book and met with Jane herself.
"What I loved about her was the combination of this quite petite woman who's very ladylike, who's very well-spoken, but within her was this formidable, Grecian strength," Jones told reporters.
Jones and Redmayne worked hard to recreate the dynamic between Jane and Stephen.
"When Stephen is in the electric wheelchair, Jane becomes his body… when Stephen has a tracheotomy and can no longer speak, Jane's almost having to read his mind," Jones said.
The film reveals how much responsibility Jane took on in caring for Hawking, while raising their three children and pursuing her own career. It's she who pushes Hawking to go on, even if it means he will lose the ability to speak on his own.
But caring for Hawking took a toll on Jane, and Hawking developed an interest in his nurse, Elaine Mason. The couple got divorced in 1995, though they remain friends. The film depicts the divorce and Hawking's remarriage to Mason, and Jane's remarriage to Jonathan Hellyer Jones, a friend and helper to the family. But it doesn't include Hawking's divorce from Mason in 2006.
Despite the tragic circumstances the Hawkings face, the film's overriding message is one optimism. After all, as Hawking himself said, "However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there's life, there is hope."
The film will be released in the U.S. on Friday, Nov. 7.
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AFM: Rachael Leigh Cook to Star in Sci-Fi Film 'Mindgate'
7:50 AM PST 11/06/2014 by Pamela Rolfe
Getty Images
The love story is the first feature for Madrid-based Rebel Films
Rachael Leigh Cook, best known for her lead in She’s All That, has signed on to star as a brilliant neuropsychologist in Mindgate, the first production of Madrid-based production-distribution company Rebel Movies.
The sci-fi love story is in pre-production and based on a script by Spanish science-fiction novelist Juan Miguel Aguilera, who will also direct his first feature film with Mindgate.
Mindgate tells of a scientific project designed to create a mental connection between healthy volunteers and quadriplegic patients so that the patients can experience full and satisfying sexual relationships despite a lack of feeling in most of their bodies.
Rebel, which is also looking to pick up international distribution on third=party films, expects to announce more cast while at AFM, where it is also looking to sign distribution of international territories.
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Netflix Sets Premiere for 'Madagascar' Spinoff Series
11:22 AM PST 11/3/2014 by Natalie Jarvey
'All Hail King Julien' is the latest project from the streamer's DreamWorks Animation pact
Netflix
'All Hail King Julien'
Madagascar lemur king Julien is getting his own story on Netflix beginning in December.
The first five episodes of original series All Hail King Julien are set to premiere on the streamer on Dec. 19 with additional 22-minute episodes debuting throughout 2015.
The Madagascar spinoff is the third project to result from Netflix's original programming pact with DWA. The first, Turbo Fast, premiered in 2013 and 10 additional projects — including Dinotrux, Puss in Boots and Veggie Tales in the House — are expected to roll out by the end of 2016.
"The combination of comedy, original music and stories of simple lemur life turned upside-down and fabulous by King Julien makes this series unique," said Margie Cohn, head of television for DreamWorks Animation. "All Hail King Julien is really a showcase for our talented artists to bring the Netflix audience the great storytelling, compelling characters and fantastic design that is the hallmark of DreamWorks Animation."
King Julien serves as a prequel to DreamWorks Animation's Madagascar as the lemur king holds court over a cast of familiar and new jungle characters. The series stars Henry Winkler as Julien's predecessor, Danny Jacobs as Julien, Andy Richter as Mort, Kevin Michael Richardson as Maurice and India de Beaufort as Clover.
"We are excited to add a series focused on one of the most beloved characters from Madagascar to our growing line-up from DreamWorks Animation," said Netflix original content vp Cindy Holland. "King Julien knows how to throw a great party and we expect families around the world will enjoy spending their holidays with him."
Nov. 4, 5:51 p.m. Updated with additional information about DreamWorks Animation projects
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'Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me': Film Review
3:15 PM PDT 10/23/2014 by Frank Scheck
Courtesy of PCH Films
The Bottom Line
This simultaneously heartbreaking and joyful doc provides a fitting capstone to an extraordinary musical career
Opens
Oct. 24 (Area 23a)
Director
James Keach
James Keach's documentary chronicles the singer's final tour even as he was fighting the ravaging effects of Alzheimer's disease
Legendary singer Glen Campbell's valiant struggle with Alzheimer's disease is heartbreakingly chronicled in James Keach's documentary which serves to not only put a very human face on this horrific condition but also as a triumphant valedictory of Campbell's poignant farewell tour. As one commentator in Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me points out, the singer's legacy will include not only his formidable musical achievements but also his bravery in soldiering on and bringing attention to the ravaging effects of Alzheimer's.
The film begins movingly with a scene featuring the singer and his fourth wife Kim watching old movies, with Campbell often unable to recognize either himself or his children. He's then seen in a doctor's office at the Mayo Clinic, not knowing the answers to such questions as who was the country's first president.
"I can play guitar," Campbell finally says after failing to respond to various gentle queries. And can he ever, with the doctors amazed that his musical abilities remained miraculously intact even as his mental faculties continued to deteriorate. We see him nervously preparing for an appearance on The TonightShow after his condition has been made public, and after getting through his number he can be heard triumphantly shouting, "I got through it!"
The ensuing tour to promote his magnificent 2011 album Ghost on the Canvas eventually amassed 151 shows, with Campbell joined onstage by three of his musician children and closely watched over by his attentive spouse. Although his difficulties are at times clearly evident and he's ever reliant on Teleprompters to remember the lyrics, his singing and virtuosic guitar playing were right on target, as evidenced by a clip of him and his banjo playing daughter Ashley dueting on a rollicking "Dueling Banjos."
In between performance footage of shows from all across the country, including such key cities as New York and Los Angeles, there are numerous scenes of Campbell interacting with his loved ones. He's consistently upbeat and joking; when his wife gently explains for the umpteenth time that he's losing his memory, he tellingly replies "I've been trying to get rid of it for the last forty years." One of the more amusing moments stems from his doctor's upping his dose of the medication Aricept only to have it produce Viagra-like effects.
"I guess there's an upside to Alzheimer's," Kim bemusedly comments.
A gallery of famous faces testifies to his enduring musical legacy, including his frequent collaborator Jimmy Webb, Brad Paisley, Vince Gill, U2's The Edge, Bruce Springsteen and Bill Clinton. Steve Martin, who early in his career worked as a writer for the singer's television variety show The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, affectionately reminisces about his former boss' generosity and good spirits.
As the tour continues, Campbell's condition continued to deteriorate, as evidenced by footage from his final date in Napa, California which he was barely able to get through. Sadly--or perhaps not, depending on one's perspective--he didn't even know it was his last-ever show.
The film doesn't ignore the disease's emotional toll, with scenes of Campbell angrily reacting to various situations. A scene in which his daughter tearfully testifies before Congress urging more funding for Alzheimer's research as her father looks on with a vague expression is almost unbearably moving.
It ends, appropriately, on a simultaneously poignant and triumphant note, with footage of Campbell reuniting with his fellow former players of The Wrecking Crew, one of Los Angeles' all-time great session bands, to record his final record, "I'm Not Gonna Miss You." That touching song and this powerfully personal documentary provide the final grace notes of this musical icon's life and career.
Production: PCH Films Director: James Keach Producers: Trevor Albert, James Keach Executive producers: Scott Borchetta, Susan Disney Lord, Julian Raymond, Stanley Schneider, Jane Seymour Director of photography: Alex Exline Editor: Elisa Bonora
It’s been eight years since the world first met Katharine McPhee on American Idol, and now she’s taking on her first major non-singing television role on CBS’s Scorpion. With the musical drama Smash behind her, she’s more determined than ever to prove herself. posted on Oct. 3, 2014, at 2:38 p.m.
Katharine McPhee plays Paige Dineen alongside Elyes Gabel as Walter O’Brien on CBS’s Scorpion. CBS
Katharine McPhee has a cold.
“I’m a little under the weather, I’m sorry,” she confesses after her third or fourth cough one September morning. “My voice is low, like three octaves lower than normal.” At the suggestion that she could somehow use her unusually husky tones in her performance, McPhee laughs politely before adding, “I sound like a 50-year-old smoker today.”
In truth, that voice would not be out of place in these surroundings: the dingy, dimly lit Hustler Casino in Gardena, California, just west of Compton. But on this day, the Hustler Casino is standing in for a somewhat ritzier Vegas casino for an upcoming episode of CBS’s Scorpion involving an excursion to Sin City.
While the usual patrons rarely glance up from the blackjack tables, Scorpion’s cast and crew is buzzing back and forth between the filming location and the holding area, where an impressive array of background performers fidget during breaks.
Despite her cold and the rushed schedule, however, McPhee maintains her composure. It helps that Scorpion was something that came about in the eleventh hour.
“It’s been crazy,” she says, sitting down in a rare break between takes. “It all just happened so quickly. I was going out for pilot season but I wasn’t sure if I would actually end up getting something. I was open to it but wanted it to be something different than what I’d done. And this came at the very end, the tail end of pilot season.”
McPhee was fresh from NBC’s musical drama Smash when she was cast on Scorpion, which blends action and procedural elements with character drama. Prior to that, she was best known as runner-up to Taylor Hicks on Season 5 of American Idol.
While Smash, which had plenty of naysayers throughout its two-season run, may not have convinced all detractors of McPhee’s range, Scorpion is already working toward giving her a complex, fully realized character to work with. Playing Paige Dineen, a waitress and single mother who finds herself enmeshed with a team of problem-solving geniuses led by the brilliant but socially awkward Walter O’Brien (Elyes Gabel), presents a unique set of challenges for McPhee.
“Listen, I honestly don’t pay a lot of attention to whether or not people are betting on whether I’ll work again,” she says. “Do I feel more established? No, I feel like I’m always going to be trying. Every scene I do, I’m more relaxed, but I’m always trying to prove myself because those are the standards I set for myself.”
With Jadyn Wong in the Vegas-set episode “Shorthanded.”
Sonja Flemming / CBS
Making a run for it in the episode “Plutonium Is Forever.”
Adam Taylor / CBS
In the Scorpion pilot, which aired on Sept. 22, Paige had both heavy emotional moments, as she lamented her ability to connect with her largely silent son Ralph (Riley B. Smith), and a big action set piece, in which Paige stood up in a Ferrari while Walter sped up to keep pace with a landing plane.
“That’s probably the hardest thing that I’ve had to do as an actor,” McPhee says. “It’s pure make-believe. The car’s not moving. All you have is wind blowing in your hair from a huge fan, and that’s it. And just screaming at the top of your lungs. It took a lot of trusting the director [Justin Lin] to say, ‘Are you sure you want me to scream this loud? This feels really unnatural.’ But him having done all the Fast and Furious movies, you have to at some point go, OK, I’m gonna trust what he’s guiding me to do.”
While Scorpion’s filming schedule has been tightly packed, the pace of network television is nothing new to McPhee, whose two-season run on Smash ended in 2013. She played Broadway hopeful Karen Cartwright, whose dreams of starring in the Marilyn Monroe musical Bombshell were hindered by competitive co-star Ivy Lynn (Megan Hilty) and domineering director Derek Wills (Jack Davenport).
McPhee had already proven her musical chops when she was a contestant on Idol in 2007, but aside from a guest spot on Community and a small role in 2008’s The House Bunny, Smash was her first opportunity to show off her acting abilities — and to establish herself as a triple threat. Like Scorpion, but for very different reasons, Smash was a particularly challenging show to film, with multiple big production numbers in nearly every episode.
“[On Smash], you were running from doing a scene, then carted off to go record vocals, and then have to go back to dance rehearsals. It was always something different,” she says. “I miss the costumes and the lights. It’s like, you get your fill of being on Broadway a little bit. I’ve never been on Broadway, but you get a little bit of a fill.”
Talking about Smash seems a bit bittersweet: The show was touted as the “next big thing” by NBC and debuted to high ratings, which slipped as the season progressed. But the ratings dip in Season 2 was far more substantial. The series bowed out quietly after being relegated to the dreaded Saturday night time slot, where final episodes of shows that viewers have largely stopped watching are burned off.
Nevertheless, McPhee bears no ill will toward NBC for how it handled the ratings slump, acknowledging with her persistent realism that sometimes, these things just happen. “We did really well the first season,” she says. “There’s many different reasons people can pontificate as to why it didn’t last more than two seasons. There’s nothing you can do about it. You just do the best you can.”
As Karen Cartwright on Smash, alongside special guest star Jennifer Hudson. Eric Liebowitz / NBC
While Scorpion doesn’t have McPhee singing and dancing, the series is keeping her busy. And that’s the way she likes it, however stressful it might look from the outside. “I like to be busy,” says McPhee, who hasn’t stayed in one place for longer than 10 minutes all morning.
This particular day of filming Scorpion involves another action scene — guns blazing and a few well-orchestrated tumbles. McPhee and the other actors involved are being heavily choreographed, so it’s not all that different from a big dance number on Smash, albeit less glamorous.
“I’ve always wanted to be Angelina Jolie in Salt,” she says. But that’s not what drew her to Scorpion. Instead, she was taken by the quieter, emotional moments in the pilot script, and by the idea of playing a character more grown-up than Smash’s Karen.
“I just felt like it was the most adult character I’ve been able to come across,” McPhee says. “What grounds the pilot are the sort of real meaty scenes between Walter and Paige, and Cabe [Robert Patrick] and Walter … The action stuff is exciting and fun, but you still have to ground it. That’s what I was looking for, at least, something you could really play real, and not over-the-top. It’s not just an action show.”
Viewers will learn more about Paige and her history over the course of Scorpion’s first season: The character’s backstory is revealed a little more slowly than that of the other team members, according to McPhee.
“It’s television, so you have such little time to introduce [the characters] — you have to introduce them really strong,” she says. “She gets little pieces to show her strength. You believe that she was this woman who had a baby at a young age and had to do anything to make ends meet, and has done it in a really classy, mature way. That’s what I’ve liked, is the strength.”
Karen Cartwright, she is not. McPhee’s Smash character had drive, but she was, for the most part, the shy, innocent ingénue. “When I got on set, those first few days,” McPhee continues, “I was reverting back to what I was used to, which was playing sweet Karen Cartwright.”
While she thinks Karen matched some of her innate characteristics — a genuine desire to succeed and translate her musical background into something more — in person, McPhee comes across much more as a Paige type.
She’s clear about her wants and needs — not bossy, but assertive. While many celebrities would welcome the presence of their publicist at the table, carefully monitoring which questions are asked, McPhee casually dismisses hers, because, as she rightfully explains, it’s easier to have a conversation without a third person eavesdropping.
Like Paige, McPhee has a certain edge to her.
“I don’t know if it’s edge,” she corrects of her Scorpion character. “She’s unapologetic. She’s had to have more responsibility, and she has a kid, she’s a little more grown-up, she’s older. So I don’t know if it’s edgy. It’s just more — not aggressive, but very direct. And I like that, because that’s a fun thing to play.” After a moment of self-reflection, she adds, “I’m direct. I’m pretty direct.”
If Karen Cartwright was overly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on Smash, and Paige Dineen is occasionally too world-weary on Scorpion, McPhee finds herself somewhere in the middle.
Promoting Scorpion at San Diego Comic-Con with co-star Elyes Gabel. Ethan Miller / Getty
When you’ve carved out a certain niche for yourself, as McPhee did with Idol and Smash, it’s natural to assume viewers will come to expect something specific from your work. The stigma of the singer turned actor may not be as strong as it once was — so, too, film actors doing television — but McPhee is more than a one-trick pony, and she wants her career to reflect that.
“I don’t intentionally go out and say, ‘OK, you guys need to send me scripts that are so different from anything else I’ve done.’ I just want them to send me things that are interesting stories and interesting characters and interesting relationships. I think that’s what I look for,” she says. “I would have loved Smash to keep going. It was a lovely and an amazing experience. But I can’t do musicals for the rest of my life. I’d love to, but you have to look for stuff that’s different.”
Witnessing the transition of a series from critical hit pilot to pop-culture punch line, as she did over the course of Smash’s uneven run, it’s easy to see television as a fickle mistress. But amid her honest expectations for Scorpion’s future, McPhee is allowing herself optimism.
“I’m more positive about my career and the trajectory of the show and this or that than I probably was with anything else I’ve done before,” she says. “I’m definitely not one of those people who’s like, ‘It’s gonna be this, it’s gonna be huge.’ I don’t make predictions like that, but I also don’t like to be negative in order to protect myself from being disappointed.”
Nor does McPhee focus too much on her image. At one point, she was “that runner-up on American Idol.” Nowadays she’s probably best known as Smash’s Karen Cartwright. But if Scorpion finds the success McPhee and the rest of its cast and crew are hoping for, she’ll soon broaden that designation.
At least now she’s no longer being “introduced”: When NBC aired its first promos for Smash, they closed with, “and introducing Katharine McPhee,” which many considered an odd — and arguably shade-throwing — choice, given that she’d already broken through on Idol. But McPhee shrugs that off too. “I think that was a nice thing,” she says. “I’m not offended by it. I mean, I know myself as an actor, but people don’t know me as an actor.”
It’s McPhee’s commitment to doing Paige justice that’s had her soldiering on through the cold and the frequent interview interruptions and the general atmosphere of the Hustler Casino. As the conversation moves back to Smash, she acknowledges again how sad she is that it’s over — but that’s all the more reason to throw herself into Scorpion.
“It’s fun for me to be a part of something that’s totally different than what I was doing, and for people to go, ‘Oh, OK, I guess she’s gonna keep working as an actor,’” McPhee says. “I don’t want to be just OK. I want to be really great at something.”
2015 People's Choice Awards Nominations. Scorpion is nominated.
Guests for the final three weeks of Craig Ferguson’s The Late Late Show have been announced. Ferguson’s final show will be on December 19th, after which he’ll be replaced by James Corden. Among those who will stop by during the last three weeks will be some of his most frequent guests — Tim Meadows, Thomas Lennon, Betty White and Henry Winkler — as well as Jon Hamm, Carey Fisher, his old pal Drew Carey from The Drew Carey Show, Mila Kunis, and Larry King.
Oddly, but also appropriately, Jay Leno — the last late-night host to step down from network television — will be the final guest, and I suppose the two will chat about what happens after a late-night show ends its run. For Jay Leno, it just means another talker — a car-themed show on CNBC — while Ferguson won’t disappear, either. He’s hosting Celebrity Name Game, which is currently in syndication.
Disappointingly, the big Doctor Who fan does not have anyone associated with that show stopping by in the last three weeks, nor is the subject of one of his best interviews of all time, Game of Thrones‘ Gwendoline Christie.
First of all, yes, Holly Hunter is in Batman V Superman. No, she will not be reprising her role as Elastigirl. But we don’t know what role, which has us intensely curious not least because she’s going to be spending at least a little time with both Batman and Superman in the same movie.
I have scenes with Superman. He looks phenomenal. And to see Ben [Affleck, who plays Batman] and Henry [Cavill, who plays Superman] together is quite formidable. They are massive hunks of masculinity.
And this is a woman who’s been romanced by Nic Cage with a mustache; she knows from masculinity.
What’s intriguing, here, is that we can’t quite figure Hunter’s role. The rumor was that she was cast as Dr. Leslie Thompkins, essentially Batman’s doctor and conscience, which would seem to be a fairly vital role in a movie where Batman has supposedly been around for years and kept a remarkably low profile. But she’s also generally Gotham-bound, and keep in mind this movie has a lot to fit in; it’s introducing the Justice League in varying capacities, and is so enormous it’s still filming and is going to have a year of post production.
Of course, they also could have just made something up; the IMDb claims she’ll ... a Senator. But we’ll find out soon enough; Batman V Superman arrives March 2016.
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‘Elvis & Nixon’ Sets Kevin Spacey & Michael Shannon In Tale Of Historic White House Hangout – AFM
EXCLUSIVE: Historical drama Elvis & Nixon has set two-time Oscar winner Kevin Spacey to play President Richard Nixon opposite Oscar nominee Michael Shannon as rock ‘n’ roller Elvis Presley as the reconfigured project hits AFM this week. Written by actor Cary Elwes with Hanala and Joey Sagal, Elvis & Nixon centers on the historic 1970 meeting between King and the president that famously yielded one of the more curious White House photo ops in pop culture history.
Liza Johnson (Hateship Loveship, Return) is directing Elvis & Nixon, which The Butler’s Cassian Elwes is producing with Holly Wiersma. Byron Wetzel is executive producing alongside Tim Smith and Paul Brett for Prescience, which is backing the project. Bloom’s Alex Walton and Ken Kao are taking Elvis & Nixon to foreign buyers at AFM. CAA and Elwes are co-repping domestic rights.
More about that meeting: On the morning of December 21, 1970, Presley showed up on the White House lawn asking to speak with the president at the height of his revived rock ‘n’ roll stardom. President Nixon received him in the Oval Office, where they discussed the patriotic Presley’s views on drug use and hippies (he didn’t care for either, though he would develop an addiction to barbiturates), and the King asked to be sworn in as an undercover federal agent, leaving behind a gifted Colt .45 for the president. Less than four years after their powwow, Nixon resigned over the Watergate scandal; three years after that, Presley was dead at 42.
is Cary related to Cassian? This seems more like a SNL skit than a film
Elvis & Nixon unfolds during the course of a week. Eric Bana and Danny Huston once were attached to the roles, but it’s a new package that’s also seen some script revisions that Bloom is introducing this week in Santa Monica. Filming is slated for an early 2015 start. “It’s almost hard to fathom this story which evolved in the Oval Office between these two extraordinary men,” said Walton. “It’s almost too good to be true.”
Shannon, seen recently as General Zod in Warners’ Man Of Steel and the Toronto hot title 99 Homes, just finished his run on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, which ended last month after five seasons. He’s repped by CAA, Wetzel Entertainment and Morris Yorn.
Spacey also is enjoying small-screen acclaim with his Netflix series House Of Cards, which returns for its third season next year. He’ll reprise his role in WB’s comedy sequel Horrible Bosses 2, in theaters November 26. He’s repped by CAA and Joanne Horowitz Management.
Bloom is in production on Shane Black thriller The Nice Guys, starring Russell Crowe, and in post on Gus Van Sant’s The Sea Of Trees, starring Matthew McConaughey. They’re at AFM with Michael Apted’s Unlocked with Noomi Rapace, Renny Harlin’s Jackie Chan starrer Skiptrace and the John Moore-helmed The Hunters as well as the Gillian Flynn adaptation Dark Places, starring Charlize Theron; Liam Neeson actioner A Walk Among The Tombstones; The Woman In Black: Angel of Death; soccer biopic Pele; Jane Got A Gun, starring Natalie Portman; and Out Of The Dark, starring Julia Stiles and Scott Speedman.
Source: BLOOM November 5, 2014
Academy Award nominee Michael Shannon (Man of Steel, Revolutionary Road) is set to star as Elvis Presley opposite two-time Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey (American Beauty, The Usual Suspects), who will star as Richard Nixon in the true story Elvis & Nixon.
Two men at the height of their powers, conscious they could not stay on top forever, both ripped with fear of the inevitable, sharing one famous private moment in the Oval office. Elvis & Nixon recounts the morning of December 21st 1970, when the King of Rock' n Roll (Shannon) showed up on the White House lawn to request a meeting with the most powerful man in the world, President Richard Nixon (Spacey). He had a very urgent request: to be sworn in as an undercover Federal Agent at large. This intimate moment in the Oval office between two men at the height of their powers has never been told.
To be directed by Liza Johnson (Hateship Loveship, Return), Elvis & Nixon is based off a screenplay by Cary Elwes and Hanala and Joey Sagal. Cassian Elwes (Dallas Buyers Club, The Butler), and Holly Wiersma (Dallas Buyers Club, Bobby) are producing while Byron Wetzel and Prescience’s Tim Smith and Paul Brett are executive producing. Prescience is financing the film, which BLOOM is introducing to foreign buyers at AFM.
BLOOM'S Alex Walton said: "It's almost hard to fathom this story which evolved in the oval office between these two extraordinary men. It's almost too good to be true."
Producer Cassian Elwes continued: "After the enormous success of 'The Butler' I have a deep affection for films set in the White House as does the public. To work with Shannon and Spacey on this movie at the height of their careers is a dream come true."
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[Insert weak Ed Sullivan impersonation here] – Marvel Super Special #4, “The Beatles Story”
March 10, 2012
My mother had a Beatles beach towel when I was growing up, a ragged remnant of her adolescence that she’d trot out every summer for sand and surf holidays — I’m pretty sure it was a twin of the one you can see here. I can still see it hanging on the clothesline in the backyard, flapping in the wind as it dried after a washing that miraculously didn’t disintegrate its aged fibers and send it up to towel heaven. I sometimes wonder whatever happened to it, whether it still sits on a shelf somewhere in the old house. Maybe my mother takes it out now and again, looks at it lovingly and remembered the days when she would have screamed her head off and fainted if she ever saw the Fab Four in the flesh. DEAR GOD I HOPE SHE DOESN’T.
All that is a roundabout way of saying that the Beatles belong to my mother’s generation, not mine. I recognize their preeminence in the music world, and gape in awe at the artistic/financial colossus that is their catalog. I appreciate their music. But I wouldn’t call myself a fan. I have only one song of theirs on my iPod, the over-in-an-instant “We Can Work It Out.” (It’s a song I truly love, and one I like to belt out whenever I’m in the middle of a heated argument. It’s a tremendous tension diffuser. Try it sometime.)
It boils down simply being born to late. I can no more fully grasp the fever of Beatlemania than I can internalize the national shock of JFK’s assassination.
It’s this from-a-distance eye that I’m forced to bring to the Beatles’ 1978 Super Special classic, which marks a sharp right turn away from the Krull and Santa Claus efforts that started of the Marvel Super Special March.
Before even getting to the boys and their story, we should pause to note the artists, as they both went on to work on books with great critical and box office acclaim. The penciller, George Perez, needs no introduction. Nor does Klaus Janson, though his inks here don’t stretch back in time as far as those in the senses-shattering int...of Woodgod. (John Lennon. Woodgod. Paul McCartney. Woodgod. George Harrison. Woodgod. Ringo Starr. Woodgod. Okay, Ringo and Woodgod might go together, I admit.) If you’re looking forward to seeing some young Perez running wild, I think in the following scans you’ll see a lot more young Janson. His inks were by this point developing their trademark all-consuming force. BE WARNED.
Reading this biography of a band (scripted by David Kraft), I was struck by the similarities between it and the R.E.M. comic that was featured here the day that group broke up. Both aren’t the best reads, unless going through a graphic timeline checklist is something that you’d queue up for. This happened, and then this happened, and then this happened. You get the idea. This structure is perhaps unavoidable with the constraints imposed by space and the medium, but that fundamental critique remains. And much of the behind-the-scenes business chicanery is glossed over in a way that makes your eyes gloss over. It’s an overload — too much at once.
When a book has “Unauthorized” on the cover, you’re conditioned to expect some salacious Kitty Kelley scandal-mongering, but there’s none of that. This is unauthorized hagiography, if such a thing isn’t an oxymoron.
That said, I can see how a band aficionado would have fun with this book, as there’s an undeniable kick in seeing music history rendered in the comic book medium. There’s also a “before the fall” spirit when read at this late date, as the final, irrevocable sundering of the group — the tragic murder of John Lennon that made any reunion impossible — was still two years away when the comic was published. That sad foreknowledge is always on your mind.
A casual reader like myself goes through searching for the events that have seared their way into our societal pop consciousness. And they’re there. Aplenty. Here’s the Beatles’ Ed Sullivan introduction (which ranks someplace just behind the Moon landing on the BIG MOMENTS list), with some brief lead-in and follow-up:
If there’s one panel, that I’m glad was thrown in, it’s this one, representing the clash of civilizations that was the meeting between the four Brits and Elvis Presley:
I think I’d read a whole mag devoted to some fanciful imaginings about that encounter. Nothing about Monopoly games, though.
The book is split into two parts. It’s in the second, with the psychedelic influences of the counterculture, that the artwork breaks boundaries and comes out to play. There are some Technicolor LSD hallucination rainbows involved — BIG SURPRISE:
Of course, these end times also mean the introduction of rock’s great villainess. LO, THERE SHALL BE A YOKO:
A little over a month ago I posted a couple of ads for this mag, and a comment pointed out that Ringo looked odd. That’s not so much the case in the comic proper, though later in this chronicle of the Beatles’ career, when they all started sprouting facial scruff, Mr. Starr bears a passing resemblance to Baba Booey. Most of the likenesses, however, are passable at worst, and excellent at best. The photographic reference work is mentioned in a portion of the extra materials (which are the obvious discographies and fluff articles, nothing too astonishing). That morsel can be found in the Marvel biographies below, as well as a few other items of interest:
A) Perez looks like Charles Manson or something. B) I wonder what the extent of Janson’s friendship with John Lennon was. Pals? C) Is Kraft nude in his picture? It reminds one of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’...ture photo.
And there you have it. If you love the Beatles — if you have a ratty Beatles beach towel hidden somewhere — than this is manna from heaven. If you’re not a fan, it’s a bit of a bore, even with two big industry names illustrating it. I found it boring. If you disagree, try to see it my way. Only time will tell if I am right or I am wrong.
XPoNential Artist Spotlight: The beat-heavy road to the top of Marian Hill
July 23rd, 2014 | 12:32PM | By Sameer RaoPhoto by Paul Gilmore via facebook.com/marianhillmusic
Of all the shining local stars we’ve featured on WXPN, few have seen their fortunes rise quickly as Marian Hill. When they take the stage this Friday at the XPoNential Music Festival, they will be doing so on the heels of escalating tour momentum, glowing reviews in national news outlets, and a boatload of raw talent – all of which has come together within only a year-and-a-half of their official formation.
It would be foolish, however, to think too much of the duo’s relative youth (both as a band and as 24-year-olds). Vocalist Samantha Gongol and producer/beatsmith Jeremy Lloyd possess the rare mix of gracious humility and insatiable, studied ambition that strongly correlates with creative longevity.
“We still have a long way to go, but already realizing so many dreams and having this type of audience…it’s been out of this world,” says Lloyd. Earlier, he relayed a story of a show played in San Francisco where people in the audience knew the words to their songs – a rare feat here, let alone 3000 miles from home.
“On the flip side of that…you can always wonder how to move things faster,” adds Gongol.
Marian Hill have the right to be this ambitious. Their music – a tapestry-like blend of snappy beats and playfully sultry vocals and synths – puts a timeless spin on current downtempo RnB trends. The result, manifest on their stellar debut EP Play, is a subdued complexity that reveals itself over repeat listens – easy listens, mind you, since they’re also instantaneously catchy. Lloyd and Gongol developed their blueprint over studied attempts at channeling their various musical predilections into pop-styled songwriting.
“In college, I took classes in musical theatre and composition. In parallel, I’d create beats on my computer and work on programming,” describes Lloyd. “Around two years ago, I started thinking about this much more seriously and started applying the songwriting craft into electronic music. I think for most people who write songs, you want to make music that makes people feel something.”
“For the past three years, I’ve been really focused on pop writing,” says Gongol. “I’d been out to LA and was considering a move, before Marian Hill took off, to immerse myself in that scene. But the whole while, I was experimenting with mixed sounds. I love the way that Jeremy’s production compliments vocals.” Both Lloyd and Gongol see what they do as an intentional move to make the vocal more prominent in a production style that typically deemphasizes vocalists.
The two musicians, who have been friends and making their own music since their shared childhood in the suburbs of Philly, share an electric interpersonal chemistry that’s apparent even through a distorted conference call line. Their chemistry transcends their geographic distance (Lloyd lives in Brooklyn while Gongol lives in Philadelphia) and compels a very tight working relationship, enacted in frequent weekend meet-ups and music-making sessions: “We like to work in the same room with each other. We’ll have fragments of ideas separately, but when we’re working actual tracks, Sam will have ideas for the production, I’ll have be coaching vocal takes, and we write the lyrics and melody together,” notes Lloyd.
The most underrated part of Play is the lyrics, seductive narratives of lust and precocious longing that take on their full dimensions through Gongol’s jazz-inspired vocals (she sites Billie Holliday and Etta Fitzgerald as perennial favorites). These lyrics are inspired by a fictional character, a modern woman who controls her own narrative of lust. “So much RnB music has a woman singing sexily and being a total sex object. For us, it was important to write this powerful woman who was calling the shots, and was extremely sexy but on her own terms,” says Lloyd. “That excited us to move forward.”
Few musicians on Marian Hill’s level are so thoughtful and intentional in the art that they create. Their presence in Friday’s XPoNential line-up adds something wholly new to the festival’s already-eclectic mix of sounds and sensations. If their current success is any indication, their star will continue to shine brighter, and they are well worth your attention.
Marian Hill plays the Marina Stage at 6:30 PM on Friday. Visit the XPoNential website for the full festival line up, and check back in for more previews on artists playing this year’s festival.
Members of the pioneering rap group Sugar Hill Gang circa 1979. From left, Wonder Mike, Master Gee and Big Bank Hank.Credit Everett Collection
Big Bank Hank, one-third of the Sugarhill Gang, the unlikely ambassadors who took hip-hop out of Bronx parks and onto the pop charts, died on Tuesday in Englewood, N.J. He was 58.
The cause was complications of cancer, said David Mallie, business manager for the two other members of the Sugarhill Gang, Wonder Mike and Master Gee.
The Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” was not the first commercially released hip-hop single, but it was the one that effectively birthed the genre as a commercial force. The song, which used the break from Chic’s disco smash “Good Times” as a foundation, became a radio staple soon after its release in 1979, reaching No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100. Sugar Hill Records, the group’s label, said it sold two million copies.
Big Bank Hank was born Henry Lee Jackson in the Bronx on Jan. 11, 1956, and grew up close to DJ Kool Herc, Coke La Rock and other hip-hop pioneers.
He was not originally a rapper by trade. In the late 1970s he was working the door at a Bronx club called the Sparkle, where he met a rapper named Grandmaster Caz. He offered to manage Caz’s group, the Mighty Force MCs, borrowing money from his father to get it a worthy sound system for its live appearances. To pay back the loan, he took a job at Crispy Crust Pizza in Englewood.
“He would rap all the time,” Wonder Mike said in an interview on Tuesday. “While he was making the pizzas, while he was slicing them, while he was serving them.”
At the pizza shop he met Joey Robinson Jr., a son of Sylvia Robinson, soul singer turned record executive. After seeing a rapper perform at a club, Ms. Robinson had become determined to release a rap record, and she built the Sugarhill Gang from scratch. Mr. Robinson heard Mr. Jackson rapping in the pizza shop and invited him to audition for his mother, who approved of his rapping and his personality.
“He was boisterous — he filled the room,” Wonder Mike said. “Ralph Kramden-type stuff.”
The Sugarhill Gang was convened on a Friday, and by Monday it was in the studio to record its first song, “Rapper’s Delight,” which was soon released as a single, in the fall of 1979.
Until that time, hip-hop was mostly the purview of parties in nightclubs, parks and even apartment-complex rec rooms. Reportedly recorded in a single take, “Rapper’s Delight” — the full version ran more than 14 minutes — immediately shifted the center of gravity from hip-hop as a live form in which D.J.’s and rappers shared billing to one that gave primacy to rappers and their recordings.
Within weeks, the Sugarhill Gang was opening for Parliament, the leading funk outfit of the day. Soon it was headlining its own shows.
Many contended that “Rapper’s Delight” was not representative of the hip-hop that was pulsing through the Bronx — it was a little too smooth, and the Sugarhill Gang, from New Jersey, wasn’t one of the known crews. Nevertheless, it lit a fire under other record labels and hip-hop crews, and soon it had plenty of commercial competition.
The group was also chided for lack of originality; many of Big Bank Hank’s rhymes on “Rapper’s Delight” were taken from one of Grandmaster Caz’s rhyme books. Not having much experience writing lyrics, he had asked his friend for help.
His verse on the song began: “Check it out, I’m the C-A-S-AN, the O-V-A and the rest is F-L-Y/You see, I go by the code of the doctor of the mix and these reasons I’ll tell you why.” Casanova Fly was a nickname of Grandmaster Caz. The lack of formal credit became a sticking point over the years; to this day, Grandmaster Caz does not receive a writing credit on the song.
Despite releasing a handful of records after “Rapper’s Delight,” the Sugarhill Gang never matched its early success and eventually disbanded in the mid-1980s, though it occasionally reunited for performances and released a children’s hip-hop album in 1999. In 2011, “Rapper’s Delight” was named to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry.
Information on survivors was not immediately available.
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Carol Ann Susi, Unseen Actress on ‘Big Bang Theory,’ Is Dead at 62
Photo
Carol Ann SusiCredit Warner Bros. Television, via Associated Press
Carol Ann Susi, a character actress who was seen on numerous television shows but who was best known for a role in which she was only heard — the always off-screen mother of a character on the CBS sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” — died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. She was 62.
The cause was cancer, her agent, Pamala Ellis-Evenas, said.
Although never on camera and heard in fewer than a quarter of the episodes, Ms. Susi’s character, Mrs. Wolowitz, was an important element in the success of “The Big Bang Theory.”
Mrs. Wolowitz’s son, Howard, played by Simon Helberg, is an engineer and a friend of the show’s main male characters, the brilliant but socially awkward physicists Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) and Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki). Until shortly after marrying his longtime girlfriend at the end of the show’s fifth season (it is now in its eighth), Howard lived with his mother, whose raspy, booming voice was frequently heard haranguing, complaining to or otherwise making life miserable for her nerdy son.
“It didn’t bother me that they’d never show Howard’s mother,” Ms. Susi said in an interview with the Cleveland newspaper The Plain Dealer in 2012. She said that Chuck Lorre, one of the show’s creators and executive producers, asked her shortly after casting her, “ ‘You don’t mind not seeing the hair and makeup people for the next 10 years?’ ”
“And I said, ‘Not at all, as long as I get paid.’ ”
Asked where Mrs. Wolowitz’s full-throated voice came from, Ms. Susi said, “It just hit me that they wanted someone who was screaming at him all the time, so that’s what I did.”
“The Big Bang Theory” is the highest-rated comedy on television and one of the most successful series in syndication. CBS announced this year that it was renewing the show for three more seasons. The producers have not said if the role of Mrs. Wolowitz will be recast or if the character’s death will be written into the show.
Ms. Susi (pronounced Susie) was born in Brooklyn on Feb. 2, 1952, and moved to Los Angeles in the 1970s after studying acting at the HB Studio in Manhattan. Her first credited TV role was as an office intern in three episodes of the supernatural comedy-drama “Kolchak: The Night Stalker” in 1974. Later she appeared on “Seinfeld,” “Cheers,” “Six Feet Under,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and other series, and in small roles in “Death Becomes Her,” “My Blue Heaven” and other movies. She also appeared in several Los Angeles stage productions.
She is survived by a brother, Michael.
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13 November 2014Last updated at 13:47 ET
Elvis Presley's first recording to be sold
Presley made the recording as a present for his mother - but the family did not have a record player
The first record Elvis Presley ever made is to be sold at auction.
In June 1953, an 18-year-old Presley went to the Memphis Recording Service to record My Happiness and That's When Your Heartaches Begin onto acetate.
He wanted to find out what his voice sounded like on record and paid $4 for the session.
He returned to record sessions for Sun Records the following year and went on to become the "king of rock 'n' roll". The auction will take place in January.
It will be one of 68 rare artefacts to be auctioned at his former home of Graceland in Memphis.
The announcement from Graceland described the record as "part of the 'Holy Grail' of artefacts in rock 'n' roll history".
Presley was said to have made the recording partly as a present for his mother.
But the family did not have a record player, so he took it to a friend's house to listen to the results of the session and left it there.
This will be the first time it has come up for public sale.
The other items in the auction will include his driving licence, issued in 1952, a 1955 contract to perform on the Louisiana Hayride radio and TV programmes and a jacket worn in the film Viva Las Vegas.
The auction will take place on 8 January, what would have been the star's 80th birthday. The items have not been given estimated values.
Last week, the never-irrelevant Queen of Soul/Displeased Dowager Who's This Close To Hitting You Over the Head with Her Purse Aretha Franklin made more headlines via a Wall Street Journal interview, in which she was asked to assess some contemporary singers.
She had nice things to say about Adele ("Young singer, good singer"), reasonable things to say about Alicia Keys ("Young performer, good writer"), and respectful things to say about Whitney Houston ("Whitney was a talent, definitely a talent, she had a gift... and Cissy's baby"). She had nothing to say about Nicki Minaj ("Nicki Minaj, hmmmm...I'm gonna pass on that one!") and, most hilariously, she had this to say about Taylor Swift: "OK, great gowns, beautiful gowns."
That—the complete and utter reduction of Swift to a walking hanger—is shade, and it's just the most recent helping from a dish that Ree has been serving for decades. That much is clear in David Ritz's recent and exhaustive biography on Aretha titled Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin. It's a fascinating, delicious depiction of the life of a woman who'd rather not be depicted—at least, not with any level of depth.
Ritz was inspired to write the book after co-writing Franklin's widely panned 1999 memoir Aretha: From These Roots. Franklin hit up Ritz to help her write the follow-up to Roots, and he suggested they go deeper than last time, as many (including Ritz) were disappointed by how tight-lipped Franklin was while telling her own story. She refused, saying she'd like to focus on her life since that book was released—essentially, she was looking to round up her various awards and honors, which she felt were not properly noticed by the press. He, in turn, declined, and wrote what is essentially an oral history using interviews from Franklin's family members, friends, and collaborators. The result is a book so juicy, it is dripping.
What I found most surprising about Respect is just how insecure Franklin is and apparently always was regarding her contemporaries. Yes, the undisputed Queen of Soul, whose musical genius extends beyond her objectively wondrous voice and into piano playing and song arranging, apparently feels threatened by other singers (most of whom would admit to being lesser in terms of ability, by the way). At least that's what it seems like when going through the several accounts of Franklin's shady behavior toward and less-than-kind words for other singers, especially women. Here is how Aretha's own sister Erma Franklin put it:
Aretha's always had problems with her female contemporaries. Her fantasy is that they would all disappear and she and she alone would be the only singer. Her fantasy is to eliminate the competition. By not acknowledging them—whether it's Gladys [Knight] or Mavis [Staples] or even younger artists like Natalie [Cole] or Whitney [Houston]—in her mind, she's making them go away.
Using examples from Respect and other sources, here is an index of notable recipients of queenly shade:
Natalie Cole
Cole broke out in 1975 singing a series of Chuck Jackson and Marvin Yancy songs that Franklin had turned down. Here is how Cole described Franklin's reception to Ritz:
The first time I saw Aretha was at an industry banquet. She gave me an icy stare and then turned her back on me. It took me weeks to recover. I mean, this is the woman whom I revere! She began this make-believe feud that I still don't understand. I give her the highest respect—then, now, and always.
Franklin was quoted in Jet in 1977:
It's easy for a singer to sometimes pick up on another singer's sound, but that's just copying. It's really a compliment that she sounds like me on some songs. In fact, when I listen to her I hear little things that remind me of myself at the beginning of my career. I think Natalie's doing a fine job but in my estimation she's just a beginner.
And:
I don't think she has the ability or the equipment to take anything from me and I'd say that to Natalie herself.
Celine Dion
"(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" writer and diva in her own right Carole King gingerly described Franklin's attempt to steal Dion's thunder during the VH1 Divas Live concert in 1998, and the manner in which Dion boomed back:
Roberta Flack
Producer Joel Dorn described Franklin's reaction to listening to her Atlantic labelmate Roberta Flack's first album:
Although they are vastly different artists, Aretha saw Roberta as a threat. She actually go up and walked out while I was playing her that first Roberta album. She later complained to Ahmet [Ertegun] that it wasn't appropriate for Atlantic to be trying to break another female soul singer.
Carolyn Franklin
Yes, Franklin's own sister. Carolyn was originally approached by Curtis Mayfield to record the soundtrack album of the 1976 film Sparkle. Aretha used her clout to snatch the opportunity from her less-famous sibling. Via Aretha and Carolyn's sister Erma:
Aretha should have left it alone. She should have let Carolyn sing those Sparkle songs and then, afterwards, do her own record with Curtis [Mayfield]. But somehow Aretha got a copy of the songs. They were so good that she felt she had to sing them
Erma Franklin
Yes, Franklin's other sister. When Erma was in talks for her first record deal, which was to be on Epic (the sister label of Columbia, to which Aretha was signed at the time), Aretha had a big problem with it. Erma recalled to Ritz:
The man also said that I would be on Epic, which was a different brand than Columbia. They were part of the same company but I'd have my own producers and an identity separate from Aretha. I thought she would be thrilled. She wasn't. She threw a fit. She told Daddy that she didn't want me on Epic, that it would hurt her career and that people would be confused by too many singing Franklin sisters.
Whitney Houston
Producer Narada Michael Walden described the recording of the 1989 single " It Isn't, It Wasn't, It A...r Gonna Be" with Whitney Houston like this to Ritz:
Whitney flew to Detroit, all excited about singing with her Auntie Ree. But when Auntie Ree walked in the studio, she didn't enter as Auntie Ree. She entered as Queen Aretha the original diva. At the same time, Whitney was the biggest music star in the world and didn't realize that Aretha felt that she had something to prove. Aretha came with her game face. Whitney was acting like a furry puppy dog. Aretha was like a boxer staring down her opponent.
Franklin later supposedly regretted her aggression and wondered to Walden if she should apologize.
Knight cites several instances when Aretha snubbed her. According to Gladys, one time at the Grammys, the two women passed each other in the hall. When Gladys said hello, Aretha kept on walking, not bothering to acknowledge her. Aretha claimed that never happened. Gladys, in turn, claimed it happened all the time.
Additionally, Franklin performed a series of spot-on impressions of contemporaries such as Diana Ross, Sarah Vaughan, Dionne Warwick, and Della Reese on The Flip Wilson Show in 1972. She went on to incorporate a similar routine into her concerts for years to come. Here's Aretha doing Ross, Mavis Staples, and Knight:
Could these be interpreted as tributes? Sure. Could they also be interpreted as Aretha showing that her ability extends beyond doing what she does well and into doing what her contemporaries do well? You bet.
Patti LaBelle
This is the famous dodge that happened earlier this year at the Women of Soul concert at the White House. It spawned a viral parody describing a... fistfight, which spawned the threat of a $10 million lawsuit. What seemed like a potentially innocent oversight looks more like a snub in light of Knight's account of receiving Ree's cold shoulder(s).
Diana Ross
In addition to the impersonation above, Franklin attempted to claim "It's My Turn" as her own, about a year after Ross had a hit with it. This proved effective in the late '60s when Franklin covered "I Say a Little Prayer" just months after Dionne Warwick made it a hit. Franklin's drop-dead brilliant version of that song was called the definitive version by its writer, Burt Bacharach.
Producer Arif Mardin recounted Franklin's "Turn" to Ritz:
But "It's My Turn" was only a year old, and it was far too early to forge a cover version. Aretha disagreed. She felt strongly that the song was more suited to her style than Diana's. Yes, but Diana already at the hit. "I don't care," Aretha said, "it's my turn."
There's also this reference to Ross's titty-jiggle of Lil' Kim that Franklin made to Oprah Winfrey while promoting From These Roots:
Mavis Staples
Aretha enlisted Staples to appear on the followup to the 1972 landmark gospel album Amazing Grace, 1987's One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism. The pair sang "Oh Happy Day" and "We Need Power" together. But when Aretha listened to the playback, she didn't like what she heard, according to her sister Erma:
Aretha listened to those duets, she was convinced that Mavis's voice overwhelmed hers. Singing with the one other gospel singer who could rightfully be called her equal, Aretha felt threatened. I told her she had nothing to worry about, that the two of them sounded great together. Their voices were completely complementary. But Aretha didn't hear it that way. She put Mavis's voice so low in the mix that you could barely hear it. It became an ordeal and caused a serious falling-out.
To be fair, you can hear Staples's voice, although Franklin's is louder on the two tracks.
Tina Turner
Aretha took exception when Beyoncé introduced Tina Turner as "the Queen" during the 2008 Grammy Awards. This is because Aretha is the Queen, and there is only one Queen. She felt it necessary to issue an unprompted statement on the matter. It read:
I am not sure of whose toes I may have stepped on or whose ego I may have bruised between the Grammy writers and Beyoncé. However, I dismissed it as a cheap shot for controversy.
I thank the Grammys and the voting academy for my 20th Grammy and love to Beyoncé anyway.
Luther Vandross
To Ritz, Vandross described the recording of Franklin's career-resuscitating "Jump To It":
I wanted to establish the groove with a long instrumental intro. Aretha didn't think the listener would wait that long to hear her voice. I assured her that the listener would be hooked on the groove and would be delighted to wait. She wanted to come in sooner. I said no. "Who's the one with the most hits here?" she asked. Of course the answer was her. I just had one; she had dozens. "But who's the one with the latest hit?" I asked. She didn't answer. She stormed out.
—
Franklin has, at times, given fellow singers due credit. She has repeatedly praised Jennifer Hudson ("Jennifer Hudson is coming along nicely" she said during a recent cable/local news satellite junket). A few years ago, she called Mariah Carey "...and "nice" (though the absence of any commentary on Carey's voice could be read as shade). In 2007, she rattled off her favorite contemporary singers (and one rapper) to Jet, including: Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Musiq Soulchild, Ne-Yo, Chris Brown, Mary J. Blige, Trey Songz, Anthony Hamilton, Gerald Levert, and Nelly.
But her criticism and contempt for many of her contemporaries is notable for being one of the few parts of her inner life that she's open about. She grew distrustful of the press after a 1968 TIME cover story portrayed her in a less-than-positive light, characterizing her as a woman who "sleeps till afternoon, then mopes in front of the television set, chain-smoking Kools and snacking compulsively." She has referred to mystery boyfriends that those close to her say simply didn't exist (her implied affair with talk show host Tavis Smiley was fabricated entirely, say those who'd know). Remember when she almost ... years ago? We still have no firm idea what that was all about.
Throughout Respect, Franklin is characterized as a woman who internalizes her pain, both when in public and in private. Perhaps that is why the emotion in her voice remains unsurpassed. What makes her a frustrating persona and underwhelming memoirist may be key to her art. In compartmentalizing her pain, she has allowed her music to soar. It's part of her artistic process. Even as someone who regularly dodges the truth, Franklin has given the world so much of her soul, and she has done it more literally than just about anyone else on the planet.
I like her even more after reading Ritz's book—even though she is allegedly fond of dressing up her truth by planting puff pieces in outlets like Jet, the underlying vulnerability in that deception is endearing. Franklin's brand is based on her being superhuman, but humanity has a way of catching up with those who deny it. Franklin is full of contradictions and regularly sabotages herself, but she is fundamentally fascinating. The book argues this fact, and its dozens of participants, with their many observations of and opinions about the woman at the center of it all, corroborate it.
Franklin has called Respect "lies, lies, lies and then more lies" and says she's speaking to a criminal attorney about suing for defamation. For anyone who has made their way through the book, this should come as no surprise at all.
Glen A. Larson, Creator of TV’s 'Quincy M.E.,' 'Magnum, P.I.' and 'Battlestar Galactica,' Dies at 77
8:22 AM PST 11/15/2014 by Mike Barnes
REX USA
The writer-producer also was behind 'Knight Rider,' 'Fall Guy' and 'Six Million Dollar Man'
Glen A. Larson, the wildly successful television writer-producer whose enviable track record includes Quincy M.E., Magnum, P.I., Battlestar Galactica, Knight Rider and The Fall Guy, has died. He was 77.
Larson, a singer in the 1950s clean-cut pop group The Four Preps who went on to compose many of the theme songs for his TV shows, died Friday night of esophageal cancer at UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica, his son, James, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Larson also wrote and produced for such noteworthy series as ABC’s It Takes a Thief, starring his fellow Hollywood High School alum Robert Wagner as a burglar now stealing for the U.S. government, and NBC’s McCloud, with Dennis Weaver as a sheriff from Taos, N.M., who moves to Manhattan to help the big-city cops there.
After ABC spurned the original pilot for The Six Million Dollar Man (based on the 1972 novel Cyborg), Larson rewrote it, then penned a pair of 90-minute telefilms that convinced then-network executive Barry Diller to greenlight the action series, which starred Lee Majors as a former astronaut supercharged with bionic implants.
Other shows Larson created included Alias Smith & Jones, B.J. and The Bear, Switch (another series with Wagner), Manimal and The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo. He spent his early career at Universal Studios, inventing new shows and reworking others, before moving to 20th Century Fox in 1980 with a multiseries, multimillion-dollar deal.
With Lou Shaw, Larson conceived Quincy M.E., which starred Jack Klugman — coming off his stint on The Odd Couple — as a murder-solving Los Angeles medical examiner. A forerunner to such “forensic” dramas as CSI, the series ran for 148 episodes over eight seasons on NBC from 1976-83.
CBS’ Magnum, P.I., toplined by Tom Selleck as a charismatic Ferrari-driving private instigator based in Oahu, Hawaii, also aired eight seasons, running from 1980-88 with 162 installments. Larson created the ratings hit with Donald Bellisario, with whom he had worked on Quincy and Battlestar.
NBC’s Knight Rider, starring David Hasselhoff as a crime fighter aided by a Pontiac Trans-Am with artificial intelligence (K.I.T.T., drolly voiced by William Daniels), lasted four seasons and 90 episodes from 1982-86. And ABC’s Fall Guy, with Majors as a stuntman who moonlights as a bounty hunter, prevailed for five seasons and 113 episodes spanning 1981-86.
If you’re counting, Quincy, Magnum, Knight Rider and Fall Guy accounted for 513 hours of television and 21 combined seasons from 1976-88.
“I tried to stay with things until I thought they were on their feet and they learned to walk and talk,” he said.
“If you believe in something, you must will it through, because everything gets in the way. Everyone tries to steer the ship off course.”
Battlestar Galactica lasted just one season on ABC from 1978-79, yet the show had an astronomical impact. Starring Lorne Greene and Richard Hatch as leaders of a homeless fleet wandering through space, featuring special effects supervised by Star Wars’ John Dykstra and influenced by Larson’s Mormon beliefs, Battlestar premiered as a top 10 show and finished the year in the top 25. But it was axed after 24 episodes because, Larson said, each episode cost “well over” $1 million.
“I was vested emotionally in Battlestar, I really loved the thematic things. I don’t feel it really got its shot, and I can’t blame anyone else, I was at the center of that,” said Larson, who years early had written a sci-fi script, Adam’s Ark, with a theme similar to Battlestar’s and had been mentored by Star Trek's Gene Coon. “But circumstances weren’t in our favor to be able to make it cheaper or to insist we make two of three two-hour movies [instead of a weekly one-hour series] to get our sea legs.”
Much like Star Trek before it, Battlestar became much more beloved after it was canceled. Universal packaged episodes into two-hour telefilms and added a “Battle of Galactica” attraction to its studio tour that proved hugely popular. A new version debuted in 2004 on the Sci-Fi Channel, followed by a spinoff, Caprica.
Yet for all his success, Larson had his share of critics.
Writer Harlan Ellison, in a 1996 book about his Star Trek teleplay for the famous episode “City on the Edge of Forever,” infamously called him “Glen Larceny,” accusing him of using movie concepts for his TV shows.
It often has been noted that Battlestar premiered soon after Star Wars, that Alias Smith & Jones arrived shortly after Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid and that the setups for McCloud and B.J. and The Bear bore similarities to the Clint Eastwood films Coogan’s Bluff and Every Which Way But Loose, respectively.
“Larson is undeniably a controversial figure in TV history because of his reputation for producing video facsimiles of popular films, but scholars, fans and critics should also consider that ‘similarity’ is the name of the game in the fast world of TV productions,” John Kenneth Muir wrote in his 2005 book, An Analytical Guide to Television’s Battlestar Galactica. “Shows are frequently purchased, produced and promoted by networks not for their differences from popular productions, but because of their similarities.”
Fox in 1978 sued Battlestar studio Universal for infringing on Star Wars copyrights but lost the suit years later, vindicating Larson, who described his TV show as “Wagon Train heading toward Earth.”
He also said that Alias Smith & Jones was “certainly in the genre of Butch Cassidy, a New Wave western” and compared B.J. and the Bear to something along the lines of the 1977 film Smokey & the Bandit.
He was not apologizing for any of this.
“Television networks are a lot like automobile manufacturers, or anyone else who’s in commerce. If something out there catches on with the public … I guess you can call it ‘market research,’ ” he said in the TV Archive interview. “You can go in and pitch one idea at a network and they’ll say, ‘You know, we’d really like it if you had something a little more like this.’ ”
And the trend goes on: new versions of Battlestar, Knight Rider, Manimal,Six Million Dollar Man and The Fall Guy have been floated about for the big screen in recent years.
Glen Albert Larson was born an only child on Jan. 3, 1937, in Long Beach, Calif. He and his parents moved to Los Angeles when he was young, and he became enthralled with the art of storytelling while listening to hour after hour of radio shows.
He met Wagner while hitchhiking to Hollywood High and landed a job as a page at NBC, then home to such live anthologies as Lux Video Theatre and Matinee Theatre.
Music took over when Capitol Records A&R exec Nik Venet signed The Four Preps to a long-term contract in 1956, and the wholesome youngsters recorded such hits as “Twenty Six Miles (Santa Catalina),” “Big Man," “Dreamy Eyes” and "Down by the Station."
“Ultimately, The Four Preps’ biggest influence can be heard via their impact on Brian Wilson, whose harmony-driven production for The Beach Boys was a direct antecedent of The Four Preps’ sound,” or so says a biography of the group ...lMusic.com.
The Preps appeared on The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, The Ed Sullivan Show and American Bandstand, played college campuses around the country and toured the world. But with a new wife and child, Larson wanted to get off the road, so he pursued a career in television and sold a story idea for a 1966 episode of The Fugitive.
Larson then wrote an episode of It Takes a Thief, and within the short span of a season he went from story editor to producing the series.
He created his first show, the ABC Western Alias Smith and Jones, which starred Peter Duel and Ben Murphy as outlaw cousins trying to go straight. He exited the series soon after Duel died of a self-inflicted gunshot on New Year’s Eve in 1971.
He did not get along with Klugman on Quincy and eventually left the show in the hands of Bellisario.
Selleck, who was under contract at Universal and had done a couple of pilots that had not made it to series, was obligated to do Magnum, whose pilot was written by Bellisario.
“We got the star, it was a perfect fit,” said Larson, who was a fan of the 1960s CBS series Hawaiian Eye, which centered on a detective agency. “I had a house over there [in Hawaii] and a guy [like Selleck’s character] who lived in a guest house and took care of it.”
Larson based the unseen novelist character Robin Masters, the owner of the home, on author Harold Robbins.
After years at Universal — where he also did The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries for ABC and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century for NBC — Larson left for Fox. But to get out of his Universal deal, he had to give the studio one more show, and that would be Knight Rider.
“Michael Knight [Hasselhoff’s character] in a way is prototyped by the Lone Ranger,” Larson said. “If you think about him riding across the plains and going from one town to another to help law and order, then K.I.T.T. becomes Tonto.”
At Fox in the spring of 1983, he sold four new series: Manimal to NBC and Trauma Center, Automan and Masquerade to ABC, but all were quickly canceled.
Larson’s next show, CBS’ Cover Up — about a photographer (Jennifer O’Neill) who replaces her late husband as an undercover CIA agent — lasted one season. During production, actor Jon-Erik Hexum died as a result of an accidental self-inflicted blank-cartridge gunshot wound on the set.
In July 2011, Larson sued Universal, alleging a decades-long fraud perpetrated by a studio that he said never once sent him profit participation statements despite his shows earning hundreds of millions of dollars.
More recently, Larson reteamed up with The Four Preps, reuniting in 2004 for a PBS reunion show, Magic Moments, with best friends and fellow group members David Somerville and Bruce Belland.
Survivors include his wife Jeannie, brother Kenneth and nine children (including his son James) from former wives Carol Gourley and Janet Curtis: Kimberly, Christopher, Glen, Michelle, David, Caroline, Danielle and Nicole.
A memorial service will be held in the near future, his son said.
Despite his remarkable career churning out hits, Larson earned but three Emmy nominations, two for producing McCloud and one (for outstanding drama) for Quincy. He never won.
His shows, Larson said in the TV Archive interview, “were enjoyable, they had a pretty decent dose of humor. All struck a chord in the mainstream. What we weren’t going to do was win a shelf full of Emmys. We got plenty of nominations for things, but ours were not the kind of shows that were doing anything more than reaching a core audience. I would like to think we brought a lot of entertainment into the living room.”
Alex Ben Block contributed to this report.
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'Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B': TV Review
9:22 AM PST 11/15/2014 by Allison Keene
Courtesy of Lifetime
The Bottom Line
She may have been one in a million, but 'Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B' isn't able to light the fire that shows why her legacy is still burning bright.
Airtime
Saturday, Nov. 15 at 8 p.m. on Lifetime
Cast
Alexandra Shipp, Clé Bennett, Lyriq Bent, A.J. Saudin, Rachael Crawford
Writer
Michael Elliot
The controversial TV movie finally gets its premiere
Based on Christopher John Farley's book Aaliyah: More Than a Woman, Lifetime's Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B follows the meteoric rise of the young singer, who was tragically killed in a plane crash in the Bahamas in 2001.
The project was defined early on by many fits and starts, including the first actress cast as Aaliyah, Zendaya Coleman, leaving the production after heavy criticism on all sides (including her own). Coleman was then replaced by Alexandra Shipp, who also sings the movie's few songs, after a lawsuit from Aaliyah's family blocked the rights to her hits. The family's main concern, it seems, was the portrayal of Aaliyah's relationship and brief (illegal) marriage to R. Kelly (played by Clé Bennett), which the family has always staunchly denied, despite court documents proving its truth. Finally, the casting of Chattrisse Dolabaille as Missy Elliot, and Izaak Smith as Timbaland also led to concerns about the production being "white-washed."
So at last, this potentially controversial production has found its premiere date on Lifetime, but the results don't quite live up to the hype. Though her vocals don't match Aaliyah's gorgeous cadence (that would have been too much to ask of anyone), Shipp is beautiful and likable in the role but lacks a necessary magnetism. The same is essentially true for everyone in the production. Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B simmers along pleasantly, but never finds its fire.
Then again, Aaliyah's short life, aside from that business with R. Kelly, didn't really seem to have a lot of drama to it. The movie begins with her appearance in Star Search in 1989 and follows the dedication of her uncle, Barry Hankerson, as he gets the likes of Gladys Knight (Elise Neal, whose brief appearance is a highlight) and Kelly to become interested in his niece. Of course, it wasn't hard to convince anyone once they heard her sing, but Aaliyah's rise to fame feels -- in this production -- like the ABCs to becoming a star.
Aaliyah wasn't a spoiled brat or a diva, though, and her mother Diane (Rachael Crawford) was no momager. It's refreshing to see the two's close relationship portrayed (and the close relationship of their entire family, as well as Aaliyah's down-to-earth attitude), but it also doesn't exactly make for exciting television. Perhaps that's why the movie spends its first half solidly entrenched with Aaliyah and Kelly's relationship and the blink-and-you'll-miss-them nuptials (which the family had annulled), as the only whiff of scandal.
There are many lessons to be learned by young starlets from Aaliyah's rise to stardom. In one exchange with label executives, she says, "I don't want to sound like everybody else," to which one replies excitedly, "You'll sound like money in the bank!" "I want to sound like myself," she emphasizes. It worked. Her collaborations with Timbaland continue to make their mark on the world of pop and R&B more than a decade later. She may have been one in a million, but despite a decent script from Michael Elliot, and a few split-screen effects from director Bradley Walsh, Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B fails to capture the magic of why her legacy is still burning bright.
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Resinging the Song of a Life Cut Short
'Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B' Debuts on Lifetime
Photo
Alexandra Shipp in the Lifetime biopic "Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B."Credit Christos Kalohoridis/Lifetime
Telling someone’s life story, warts and all, requires the alignment of several parties who ordinarily might not share a goal. People who want the subject treated hagiographically have to see eye to eye with people who want to acknowledge the fullness of a person, even the failures. Plus, there is the matter of ownership — sometimes the people with legal rights to a story aren’t best suited to tell it.
Furthering the legacy of Aaliyah, the singer who died in a plane crash at 22 in 2001, has been a challenge. A posthumous Aaliyah album supervised by Drake and his producer Noah Shebib never came to fruition. And “Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B,” an uninspiring cut-and-paste job being shown Saturday on Lifetime, has been broken almost from the start.
The title role was going to be played by the Disney star Zendaya, but she pulled out of the production in June amid a fan backlash to her casting and her own concerns about the film’s integrity. She was replaced by Alexandra Shipp, whose role here is the definition of thankless.
At least part of the reason for this film’s failure is structural — Aaliyah’s family, which controls the rights to her recordings, did not grant permission to use them, which means the film’s producers had to find ways around that. The signature songs from her late-1990s run of spooky R&B — “Are You That Somebody?,” “4 Page Letter,” “If Your Girl Only Knew” — are nowhere to be heard. Instead, there are inconsequential detours such as Aaliyah’s performance of a song from the “Anastasia” soundtrack at the 1998 Oscars, and the time spent on her covers of “At Your Best (You Are Love)” and “Got to Give It Up.” (You only need to secure publishing rights to cover a song in a film.)
These songs are sung by Ms. Shipp, who lacks Aaliyah’s vocal cool and nuance, though that is among the least of this often slapdash and occasionally bumbling film’s problems. Condensing the singer’s life into such a short space requires a cruel knife and, in this case, a wildly imprecise one. A good film doesn’t show its seams. This one — based on “Aaliyah: More Than a Woman,” a biography by Christopher John Farley — is mostly seams. Much of the acting has dull edges, and the screenplay is aggravatingly stilted. (Elise Neal provides a brief jolt of real acting in a quick appearance as Gladys Knight, who had been married to Aaliyah’s uncle.)
Finally, a film about Aaliyah is a challenge because, by definition, it has to at least in part be a dramatic re-enactment of a love affair between a man and a child — Aaliyah married R. Kelly, the producer of her debut album, when she was 15. (The marriage was later annulled.) “Eighteen feels like an eternity from now,” Aaliyah tells Kelly (Clé Bennett) during a conversation early in their affair, and it’s difficult not to cringe.
Photo
Ms. Shipp as Aaliyah, the rising young star who died in 2001.Credit Christos Kalohoridis/Lifetime
When Aaliyah’s father learns of the wedding, he unloads fury on the two, pulling his daughter to safety. Kelly responds with tears — it’s hard to sympathize.
There may be another way, at some point, to celebrate Aaliyah in film, but ham-handed, underwhelming efforts like this don’t help. Instead of a worthy tribute, this film isn’t much more than an on-screen reflection of behind-the-scenes warring, and a case study in when to cut losses.
Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B
Lifetime, Saturday night at 8, Eastern and Pacific times; 7, Central time.
Produced by Aaliyah Productions. Directed by Bradley Walsh; written by Michael Elliot, based on the book “Aaliyah: More Than a Woman,” by Christopher John Farley; Howard Braunstein, Debra Martin Chase and Wendy Williams, executive producers; Steve Solomos, producer.
WITH: Alexandra Shipp (Aaliyah Haughton), Rachael Crawford (Diane Haughton), Sterling Jarvis (Mike Haughton), A. J. Saudin (Rashad Haughton), Lyriq Bent (Barry Hankerson), Anthony Grant (Damon Dash), Izaak Smith (Timbaland), Elise Neal (Gladys Knight), Clé Bennett (R. Kelly) and Chattrisse Dolabaille (Missy Elliot).
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A Warhol Leads a Night of Soaring Prices at Christie’s
Photo
“Triple Elvis (Ferus Type),” taken from a publicity shot for his 1960 movie “Flaming Star,” had been expected to sell for around $60 million.Credit 2014 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, via Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Elvis Presley, as depicted in Warhol’s 1963 painting, looked ready for a shootout, staring at the viewer with his gun pointed. But there was no need to pull the trigger: The singer beat out Warhol’s Marlon Brando, along with 78 other works Christie’s had packed into its contemporary art sale on Wednesday night in Manhattan. While Elvis took home the evening’s top price — selling for nearly $82 million — it was just one big number in a night filled with soaring prices.
Christie’s had put together a banquet — 80 works total, 22 of them expected to sell for more than $10 million and nine poised to bring more than $20 million each. It managed to pull it off.
“It’s our highest total ever,” said Brett Gorvy, Christie’s worldwide chairman of postwar and contemporary art. “We saw a lot of new bidders tonight from the Middle East and Asia, but the biggest and most powerful buyers were still from America.”
For months before the sale, experts at Christie’s had been marketing the auction as an event filled with once-in-a-lifetime pieces. It worked. Some of this country’s biggest collectors came to watch the action, including Michael Ovitz, a former Hollywood agent; J. Tomilson Hill, the vice chairman of Blackstone Group; Andrew Saul, a New York businessman; and the Chicago collector Stefan Edlis. The sale totaled $852.9 million, well above its high $836 million estimate. Only five works failed to sell. The evening also trampled Sotheby’s sale on Tuesday, which was a smaller auction (78 lots) that brought $343.6 million. (Final prices include the buyer’s premium: 25 percent of the first $100,000; 20 percent of the next $100,000 to $2 million; and 12 percent of the rest. Estimates do not reflect commissions.)
WestSpiel, the government-controlled German casino company, was the seller of the two Warhols. The paintings had been hanging in its casino in Aachen since the late 1970s. Both were bought by unidentified telephone bidders. “Triple Elvis (Ferus Type),” taken from a publicity shot for his 1960 movie “Flaming Star,” showed Elvis in three overlapping images and had been expected to sell for around $60 million. “Four Marlons,” from 1966, based on a film still from the 1953 movie “The Wild One,” sold for $69.6 million. That too had been expected to sell for around $60 million. The image — Brando in a leather jacket leaning forward on his motorcycle looking the epitome of cool and seductive — is one of the actor’s most famous. Still, neither Warhol beat the $104.5 million paid at Sotheby’s a year ago for “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster),” a two-panel Warhol from 1963.
It was the multiplication factor — that Christie’s had two major Warhol stars for sale in one evening — that gave the auction heft and helped propel prices, especially for other classic images from the 1960s and early 1970s. One of Twombly’s signature blackboard paintings, being sold by Nicola del Roscio, the artist’s former assistant and archivist who is now president of the Cy Twombly Foundation, had the sale’s most active bidding. Five people chased after the canvas, which is filled with the artist’s signature loops. While it was expected to sell for $35 million to $55 million, it went to a telephone bidder for $69.6 million.
Christie’s has had quite a track record with Francis Bacon and was capitalizing on the huge prices it has been able to get, most prominently “Three Studies of Lucian Freud,” the triptych that Elaine Wynn bought for $142.4 million a year ago. On Wednesday night it was selling “Seated Figure,” a 1960 Bacon estimated to bring $40 million to $60 million. Part of the artist’s series of paintings inspired by Velázquez’s portrait of Pope Innocent X, it had last been up for sale at Christie’s in London in 1996, where it brought $2.5 million. The buyer then — and the seller on Wednesday night — was said to be the Belgium dealer Pierre Salik. But Wednesday night there was only one bidder, and it sold for nearly $45 million.
A navy blue canvas with the word “Smash” in yellow, which Ed Ruscha painted in 1963, was among the evening’s most sought after. Five bidders went for it, and it ended up being purchased by Larry Gagosian, the Manhattan super-dealer, for $30.4 million, well over its $20 million high estimate.
Mr. Gagosian also bought a self-portrait by Martin Kippenberger, from 1988, which shows the artist in his underwear, for $22.5 million, its high estimate.
After the sale, David Ganek, the Manhattan financier, looked particularly pleased, having been the only bidder on a group of 21 of Cindy Sherman’s “Untitled Film Stills” being sold by Mitchell P. Rales, a Washington collector and industrialist, and his wife, Emily, founders of Glenstone, the contemporary art museum in Potomac, Md. Mr. Ganek paid $6.7 million. “It’s one of the greatest examples of photography from the late 1970s until 1980,” Mr. Ganek said.
Asked what he thought of the entire auction, he paused and added, “The quality of the sale was epic.”
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Patti Smith Reportedly Invited to Perform at Vatican Christmas Concert
5:23 PM PST 11/14/2014 by Diana Swartz
Niko Tavernise
The "godmother of punk" often weaves Catholic imagery into her work
The "godmother of punk," Patti Smith, was invited to perform at the Vatican's annual Christmas concert, the Independent reported on Friday.
Pope Francis invited Smith to perform at Rome's Conciliation Auditorium, just outside Vatican City, on Dec. 13. The concert will be broadcast live on television in Italy, the paper reported.
Smith often weaves Catholic imagery into her work, and she recorded Mercy Is for Noah, Darren Aronofsky's controversial remake of the biblical story.
The lullaby is in contention for a best original song Oscar nomination.
Smith told The Hollywood Reporter in October that she had a strong Bible education as a child and then went through a period of rebelling against religion. (Her song "Gloria" starts with the famous line "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine.") Now she loves the story of Noah and Bible-themed films.
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Oran Juice Jones “In The Rain” On ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’
Jimmy Kimmel celebrated his 47th birthday last night and one of his requests was for Oran Juice Jones to come on the show. So last night, he got his wish as OJ performed the 80’s classic alongside the Juice. Take that all you alley-cat-coat wearin’, hush-puppy-shoe wearing crumb cakes.
Hi, I'm Tanya Tucker, I'm 56, and You're Still Hearin' From My Ass
New Country Music Hall of Fame exhibit takes guests on a journey through the singer's storied, 40-year career
Tanya Tucker speaks at a press conference during the unveiling of the Tanya Tucker Exhibit at Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on November 13, 2014 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Seventeen years before future teenaged superstar Taylor Swift was even born, Tanya Tucker, another teen with a remarkably mature voice and an impossibly strong sense of self, debuted on the country chart with "Delta Dawn." The haunting story of a 41-year-old woman who wanders the streets of Brownsville, Tennessee, "looking for a mysterious dark-haired man" was more than some adult singers could have tackled at the time. But for the mature-beyond-her years Tucker, the song, which Nashville record producer Billy Sherrill first heard Bette Midler sing on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, became a Top 10 country hit in 1972.
Remarkably, the Texas-born Tucker was just 13 at the time she recorded it. She would reach Number One on the Billboard country chart for the first time a year later with "What's Your Mama's Name" and follow that with "Blood Red and Goin' Down," and "Would You Lay With Me (in a Field of Stone)." Other smash hits included "Lizzie and the Rainman," "San Antonio Stroll" and "Here's Some Love." All of that chart-scaling at such a young age led to the history-making achievement of 1974, when the feisty teen with the Elvis growl in her voice graced the cover of Rolling Stone with the prophetic headline, "Hi, I'm Tanya Tucker, I'm 15, You're Gonna Hear From Me." A year later, she signed a recording contract worth $1.4 million.
As her career progressed, Tucker's hard-partying ways – and a series of ill-fated romances, including a tabloid-splashed one with fellow performer Glen Campbell – nearly overshadowed and threatened to outright extinguish the talent that had come to light at such an early age. After a stint at the Betty Ford Clinic and a dry spell at country radio, Tucker returned with another hot streak that included such Eighties and Nineties radio staples as "Strong Enough to Bend," "Walking Shoes," "Two Sparrows in a Hurricane" and "I Won't Take Less Than Your Love," which she recorded with Paul Overstreet and Paul Davis. On the night she gave birth to her second child, son Beau Grayson, Tucker was named the 1991 CMA Female Vocalist of the Year, an honor that was long overdue. The mother of older daughter Presley and younger daughter Layla, Tanya penned her autobiography, Nickel Dreams, in 1997, with music journalist Patsi Bale Cox. In 2009, she released her most recent album, My Turn. She continues to perform, as well as work on new music.
Although her early success in country music would leave her just as much to live up to as her wild-child reputation would leave her plenty to live down, Tucker is a shoo-in for future Hall of Fame induction. On Friday, November 14th, a special exhibit devoted to her life and career opened at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Rolling Stone Country was invited to preview some of the artifacts in the exhibit, which includes a denim suit with rhinestones spelling out "Delta Dawn," various gowns she's worn at awards shows and special events, and a custom-made pink motorcycle. There's also her very first record player, a series of Elvis Presley concert tickets (not surprising for someone who was quickly branded the "female Elvis") and, of course, her own personal copy of that 1974 Rolling Stone issue. Tucker, now 56, sat down with Rolling Stone to talk about the items in the exhibit and to share some of the memories they conjure up for her today.
Have you always kept and collected memorabilia from your career? Like a pack rat! But as much as whatever I still have, what I've given away or lost is much greater, I'm sure. Like, where's that TNT [album cover] outfit? I have no idea. There's a watch that Glen Campbell gave me that he bought in Geneva, Switzerland. I can't find that. I've got a beautiful ring that he gave me, and I would like to recover that. But I've got just a little bit of pretty much every era of my life. You know who was good at that? George Jones. He was kind of OCD. You'd see his closet; you could eat breakfast in there.
Your little record player in the exhibit is so sweet. When did you get that? I got it when I was nine years old.
What was the first 45 that you ever had? It was probably Elvis Presley, [singing in her best Elvis-like voice] "Don't Cry Daddy." That record player is what I used to play a song for George Jones. I ran into him one night on the lake with [Nashville restaurateur] Mario [Ferarri]. I pulled up my boat and hitched it up to Mario's big boat. I said, "Man, Possum, I've got a song for you. It's amazing I saw you today. But you're gonna have to come out to my ranch to get it." Sure enough, it wasn't but a week later and here he was in his station wagon, with his Bermuda shorts on and one of those old wife-beaters. He came all the way out to the ranch all by himself? My mother answered the door and she said to me, [whispers], "Tanya, George Jones is at the door!" That's her hero. I said, "Well, just get him some iced tea. I know what he came for but I'm not quite prepared. I thought, "What am I going to play [the record] on?" So I went and got that little turntable and I played him "Bartender's Blues" by James Taylor. I said, "Now, you cut that and you'll have you a hit." So four months later he cut it. [The song became a Top 10 hit for Jones in 1978.]
Did you have a pretty big collection of records when you were growing up? I did. I remember distinctively seeing Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night," which Glen played on. Then next to it, I'd see an Elvis or a Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette.
Tanya Tucker and Glen Campbell perform together in 1980 (Photo: Ron Galella Collection)
Were you the kind of kid singing with the hairbrush in the mirror? Oh yeah, the mirror is your best rehearsing tool. Because you've got to know how you look. People might think you're vain, but that's not what it's about. I've always said rehearsal halls should be fully mirrored, because the band can see how shitty they look sometimes! It's a real learning tool.
Another of the artifacts is your copy of Rolling Stone with the legendary cover story about you. What do you think when you look back at that now? Well, I can't believe Chet [Flippo] has passed. [A former Rolling Stone editor and editorial director at CMT, Flippo, who wrote the cover story about Tucker, died in 2013]. He toured with us quite a while. I sit back and think, "Can you imagine what would've happened if Chet hadn't done that article?" Never mind me being on the cover. I had no connection to Rolling Stone. When I was a kid, do you think I read Rolling Stone? I was reading Tiger Beat, for God's sake. I was Donny Osmond's biggest fan. I had no earthly idea. But everybody kept talking about it and I'm going, "OK, but we ain't got the cover for Country Music magazine yet." That would have impressed me a little bit more at that time. The Rolling Stone photographer did some great shots. I had so much fun doing that session because it was like I was New York vogue. When I look back on it I think it's pretty cool. I don't know why you don't do a recap: "I'm Tanya Tucker, I'm 56, and you're still hearin' from my ass!"
When you look back, do you think country music was ready for you at the time? The first time I came to Nashville, that's when I should have gotten started. I was ready. But they weren't ready for me. Nine years old, singing "You Ain't Woman Enough to Take My Man"? My dad always said, "Tanya, you've got two big problems. One is you're a girl and the other is you're a nine-year-old girl. You're gonna have to sing it with twice as much feeling as the person that made the hit on it. Not sing it better, but with twice as much feeling in the song." My dad would make me sing it over and over and over. "Sing it like Hank Williams. Lay right in there."
You still seem very driven. Do you have the same sense of urgency about your career and other things? It's never gone away. I think, "I'm running out of time, I'm running out of time." But, then again, I enjoy kicking back. But if I kick back too much, I think I'm lazy. I'm not doing what I should be doing. "Oh, there's a spot right there. I need to clean that." I had that from the beginning, "Hey, I'm nine years old, let's get to it!" The urgency is still there but it's there in a different way. I'm more urgent to help others and in creating a better world. I know it sounds really lame but if I can use my music to help others, then that's what I'd like to do. It's about making this world a better place and trying to change things that have been wrong a long time.
In using music to help others, does that include new music to be released anytime soon? We need to get this music out. Garth [Brooks] did it finally. He did what I tried to do, but I just had the wrong group of people around me. He did it the right way. But that's all a bridge over untroubled water. It depends on what part of the river you're on, what bridge you're on. I've burned a few and I've built a few. Someone told me one time that I'm part of the old that can hang with the new [artists]. You just might be the bridge between the two: Tanya "The Bridge" Tucker [Laughs].
Do you have a particular memory of when you realized your own music was universal? I was riding a jet-ski in the Bahamas because my daughter wanted to do it. I was sitting there waiting on her and this guy, we started talking about music, he said, "Hey, are you famous, are you a singer?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "You know who my favorite singer is?" I said, "Who? Elvis?" He said, "Aw, he's OK.... Paul Davis. He's my favorite." This is a black guy with a jet-ski rental place in the Bahamas. He couldn't have said anything better to me. It was like Paul [who passed away in 2008] was saying, "Hey, T, I'm up here watching you."
Being in such a position, what kind of lessons do you think you could impart to artists on both sides? Oh my gosh, I have too many answers to that question! My dad always said, "When you answer that, tell 'em, 'Listen to your parents.'"
One of the things in the exhibit that seems to be connected to how you've controlled your career and your image is the jar of Tanya Tucker salsa. It's one thing to have your name on a record but it's another to have it on... On a product that's… uh, what's the word? Defective! [Laughs] They went in and changed my recipe. It didn't taste anything like what I did. They wanted cheap, cheap, cheap. It's such an insidious world. Because you got to have the eye line [on store shelves]. Mine might be down on the bottom row. I think we should not be worried about selling to the masses. We should be worried about having a beautiful product in a beautiful jar that tastes like I wanted it to taste. And that wasn't even close. It was the wrong people, too. I have managed to be successful through more wrong people trying to kill my career than anybody I've ever known!
What you've just said goes back perfectly to lessons you've learned. It doesn't have to be about salsa. It can be about anything. Yes! Be careful and be on top of things. Like Taylor Swift. She ain't no pushover. She's like Dolly [Parton]. She'll cuss you out and you'll like it. Me, I've got to get all mad before I can... there's just too much anger everywhere. I think the best thing to do is to constantly be grateful. Be thankful even for the bad times. I would've listened a lot more to my dad, if I had it to do over, because I would have been a lot bigger star. Now I'm on my own, he's not here. [Beau Tucker passed away in 2006]. If I can make him proud before I die, that's all I need to do. I used to think my dad and God were the same, not two separate entities. [Laughs] Of course, I want to make God proud but I want to make my dad proud for the reasons that my dad would be proud.
Smashing Pumpkins Release New Song, "Drum + Fife".
The new album, Monuments to an Elegy, will be released December 9. The Pumpkins also have a second new album in the works, Day and Night, which is due out next year.
Great stuff there ID! Really like her voice. SP is good too. I won't be posting as often, but I'd like to keep this thread going with some help from you guys, so if you see some cool article please post them.
It's a TV special fit for a king - or rather, The King.
Legendary country stars TG Sheppard, Brenda Lee, Oak Ridge Boys member Richard Sterban and Tommy Roe will be spending the Thanksgiving holidays with a television show that celebrates the life and times of rock and roll icon Elvis Presley. The Fox News Channel special, Geraldo Rivera Reports "Elvis at 80," is in honor of Presley's 80th birthday on Jan. 8.
The network special will include tributes from celebrities who knew the King of Rock and Roll along with insight from those whose lives were touched by his extraordinary and lasting impact on the music world.
Here's when you can catch "Elvisat 80" on Fox News Channel (check local listings):
Friday, Nov. 28 at 10 p.m. (Eastern) Saturday, Nov. 29 at 1 a.m. and 4 p.m. (Eastern) Sunday, Nov. 30 at 1 a.m. (Eastern) Monday, Dec. 1 at 3 a.m. (Eastern)
John Stamos Lights Up Elvis Presley's Graceland
5:49 PM PST, November 24, 2014
John Stamos is reliving his Uncle Jesse days playing Elvis Presley! ET was with the actor exclusively as he hit Graceland for a very special tree lighting and to voice the new Graceland iPad app.
"What a thrill it is to be here at Graceland," said Stamos, who was assisted by patients from Memphis' Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in "flipping the switch" at the Graceland lighting ceremony.
The honor was especially meaningful for Stamos, who has been a life-long fan of the King of Rock 'n' Roll.
"I remember talking to my father about Elvis," said Stamos. "I said, 'Dad, you got to get hip to this guy,' and he was like, 'I know who he is, but you have to listen to Frank Sinatra.' So I made my dad listen to Elvis and I listened to Frank Sinatra and we both became great fans."
Stamos' mother also shared his love of Elvis, and she even got to guest star on an episode of Full House in which Stamos' character Uncle Jesse donned an Elvis costume.
"I have great pictures of me and my mother when I was dressed like Elvis," said Stamos.
In addition to leading the lighting ceremony, Stamos is currently the "Voice of Graceland" on the mansion's iPad tours.
"You really do feel his presence," said Stamos.
Fans can catch Stamos on TV this winter when he guest stars on ABC's Galavant, set to premiere Jan. 4.
Any suspicions that soul singer Jimmy Ruffin might have harbored hard feelings after his younger brother, David, snatched one of the great gigs in 1960s pop music out of his hands would have been dispelled when the siblings came together in 1970 to collaborate on a harmonious update of Ben E. King's signature ode to solidarity, "Stand By Me."
Jimmy Ruffin was a phenomenal singer. He was truly underrated.- Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records
Jimmy Ruffin, who died Monday in a Las Vegas hospital at age 78, had been in the running to join the lineup of Motown Records' great male vocal group the Temptations in 1964. But when the other members of the group heard David sing, they gave him the job for his slightly grittier sound.
That didn't sideline Jimmy for long: He heard a song that Motown writers William Weatherspoon, Paul Riser and James Dean had crafted with the Spinners in mind, and persuaded them to let him record it.
"What Becomes of the Brokenhearted," a lament for the anguish a man feels in the face of love that has departed, gave Ruffin his first Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. It ignited a solo career that comprised 10 other charted singles, the last of which, "Hold On to My Love," brought him back to the Top 10 in 1980 during a new round of popularity, the result of his move to England to further his career overseas.
"Jimmy Ruffin was a phenomenal singer," Motown founder Berry Gordy said in a statement Wednesday. "He was truly underrated because we were also fortunate to have his brother, David, as the lead singer of the Temptations, who got so much acclaim. Jimmy, as a solo artist, had 'What Becomes of the Brokenhearted,' one of the greatest songs put out by Motown and also one of my personal favorites."
Early on, Jimmy and David Ruffin sang gospel music in the Dixie Nightingales while growing up around rural Collinsville, Miss., where Jimmy was born on May 7, 1936.
Jimmy Ruffin worked his way north to Detroit, then joined the rapidly growing stable of artists at Motown Records in 1961 — signed to its Miracle subsidiary label. But his career was put on hold when he was drafted and spent two years in the Army.
Upon being discharged, Ruffin had his brush with the Temptations, as members Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams, Melvin Franklin and Otis Williams were searching for a replacement for fifth member Elbridge Bryant. Shortly after adding David to the lineup in 1965, the Temps scored the first No. 1 hit for a male vocal group at Motown with "My Girl," which featured David's lead vocal.
The following year, Jimmy made his rise up the chart with "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted," which he followed with "I've Passed This Way Before," which peaked at No. 17 in Billboard.
Not long after David left the Temptations in 1968, he and Jimmy recorded an album, "I Am My Brother's Keeper," as the Ruffin Brothers, including their version of "Stand By Me," which reached No. 61 in Billboard in 1970.
But Jimmy's solo career never sustained or surpassed that initial burst of success from "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted," so Ruffin decided to focus on the following that his recordings had established in Europe. He moved to London and spent much of the 1980s and '90s there.
English music fans' affinity for Ruffin's music paved the way for the Bee Gees' Robin Gibb to produce for Ruffin an album, "Sunrise," in 1980, which yielded "Hold On to My Love." His final chart hit, a duet with Maxine Nightingale on "Turn To Me," came in 1982.
On Wednesday, Ruffin's children Philicia Ruffin and Jimmy Lee Ruffin Jr. released a statement on their father. "Jimmy Ruffin was a rare type of man who left his mark on the music industry," the statement said. "My family in its entirety is extremely upset over his death. He will truly be missed. We will treasure the many fond and wonderful memories we all have of him."
No details on the cause of death were immediately available. David Ruffin died in 1991 at 50 of a drug overdose.
Any suspicions that soul singer Jimmy Ruffin might have harbored hard feelings after his younger brother, David, snatched one of the great gigs in 1960s pop music out of his hands would have been dispelled when the siblings came together in 1970 to collaborate on a harmonious update of Ben E. King's signature ode to solidarity, "Stand By Me."
Jimmy Ruffin was a phenomenal singer. He was truly underrated.- Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records
Jimmy Ruffin, who died Monday in a Las Vegas hospital at age 78, had been in the running to join the lineup of Motown Records' great male vocal group the Temptations in 1964. But when the other members of the group heard David sing, they gave him the job for his slightly grittier sound.
That didn't sideline Jimmy for long: He heard a song that Motown writers William Weatherspoon, Paul Riser and James Dean had crafted with the Spinners in mind, and persuaded them to let him record it.
"What Becomes of the Brokenhearted," a lament for the anguish a man feels in the face of love that has departed, gave Ruffin his first Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. It ignited a solo career that comprised 10 other charted singles, the last of which, "Hold On to My Love," brought him back to the Top 10 in 1980 during a new round of popularity, the result of his move to England to further his career overseas.
"Jimmy Ruffin was a phenomenal singer," Motown founder Berry Gordy said in a statement Wednesday. "He was truly underrated because we were also fortunate to have his brother, David, as the lead singer of the Temptations, who got so much acclaim. Jimmy, as a solo artist, had 'What Becomes of the Brokenhearted,' one of the greatest songs put out by Motown and also one of my personal favorites."
Early on, Jimmy and David Ruffin sang gospel music in the Dixie Nightingales while growing up around rural Collinsville, Miss., where Jimmy was born on May 7, 1936.
Jimmy Ruffin worked his way north to Detroit, then joined the rapidly growing stable of artists at Motown Records in 1961 — signed to its Miracle subsidiary label. But his career was put on hold when he was drafted and spent two years in the Army.
Upon being discharged, Ruffin had his brush with the Temptations, as members Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams, Melvin Franklin and Otis Williams were searching for a replacement for fifth member Elbridge Bryant. Shortly after adding David to the lineup in 1965, the Temps scored the first No. 1 hit for a male vocal group at Motown with "My Girl," which featured David's lead vocal.
The following year, Jimmy made his rise up the chart with "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted," which he followed with "I've Passed This Way Before," which peaked at No. 17 in Billboard.
Not long after David left the Temptations in 1968, he and Jimmy recorded an album, "I Am My Brother's Keeper," as the Ruffin Brothers, including their version of "Stand By Me," which reached No. 61 in Billboard in 1970.
But Jimmy's solo career never sustained or surpassed that initial burst of success from "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted," so Ruffin decided to focus on the following that his recordings had established in Europe. He moved to London and spent much of the 1980s and '90s there.
English music fans' affinity for Ruffin's music paved the way for the Bee Gees' Robin Gibb to produce for Ruffin an album, "Sunrise," in 1980, which yielded "Hold On to My Love." His final chart hit, a duet with Maxine Nightingale on "Turn To Me," came in 1982.
On Wednesday, Ruffin's children Philicia Ruffin and Jimmy Lee Ruffin Jr. released a statement on their father. "Jimmy Ruffin was a rare type of man who left his mark on the music industry," the statement said. "My family in its entirety is extremely upset over his death. He will truly be missed. We will treasure the many fond and wonderful memories we all have of him."
No details on the cause of death were immediately available. David Ruffin died in 1991 at 50 of a drug overdose.
Estelle's Holiday Tour: "An Evening of True Romance with Estelle" November 29th Link
Before Estelle releases her upcoming fourth studio album, True Romance, next year, the singer will embark on a mini-outing dubbed An Evening of True Romance with Estelle.
The British singer has announced the dates for her four-city tour, which kicks off December 7at The Roxy in Los Angeles, and make stops at The New Parish in Oakland, California, on December 8, and then at Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C. on December 15, before wrapping up on December 16 at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill in New York City.
Syleena Johnson Uncovers ‘Chapter 6′ Album Cover & Tracklisting
Posted on September 15th, 2014 by Ni'Kesia in MUSIC, NEWS |
R&B DivaSyleena Johnson is serving up pure class as she debuted the cover art for her upcoming album, Chapter 6: Couples Therapy.
Dressed in all black and equipped with burgundy curls, the songstress is obviously ready to give fans a supreme body of work. Featuring the lead single “My Love,” Syleena’s upcoming album will host 13-tracks and production from Kris “Kajun” Johnson, Medor, and Syleena herself. Set to hit shelves on October 28, we’re all here for what this album is set to bring.
Check out the list of tracks found on the album after the jump!
Chapter 6: Couples Therapy Tracklist
1) All This Way For Love 2) Fool’s Gold featuring Leela James 3) Heaven In Hell 4) My Love 5) If I Was Your World 6) Harmony featuring Dave Hollister 7) No Beginner featuring Willie Taylor 8) Boom 9) If You Need To Know 10) Perfectly Worthless 11) Silence 12) Unstoppable 13) I Cut My Hair
Posted on November 29th, 2014 by ThisIsRnB in NEWS |
As promised, Ne-Yo will be kicking the new year off with a bang. The R&B hitmaker has announced the official release date for his anticipated sixth studio album Non-Fiction.
While on stage at Project Club L.A.’s “Pre-Thanksgiving Bash” on Wednesday night, Ne-Yo revealed to the crowd that his follow-up to 2012′s R.E.D. will be hitting stores on January 27!
The album has been preceded by the Jeezy-assisted single “Money Can’t Buy,” and the strip club banger “She Knows” featuring Juicy J. He previously revealed that the LP will also feature ScHoolboy Q on the Salaam Remi-produced “Run.”
“I came on home with this one,” Ne-Yo told “The Breakfast Club.” “This album is 99.999998% R&B, meaning I can’t completely abandon that fanbase ’cause they kept the lights on for a very long time. I still got some stuff that can live in that [pop] world, but there’s so much R&B on this album.”
Most recently he teamed up with Pitbull once again for the new pop hit “Time of Our Lives,” which they performed during the halftime show of the Dallas Cowboys vs. Philadelphia Eagles Thanksgiving Day game.
Thanksgiving Day might be over, but the spirit of giving is still very much present. Just ask Frank Ocean.
Dropping off a new song to fans via his Tumblr, the singer-songwriter is giving a little tease for his anticipated sophomore album. Titled, “Memrise,” the short track finds Ocean taking us on a clouded trip to the moon and back.
Set to feature contributions from Hit-Boy, Rodney Jerkins, Happy Perez, Charlie Gambetta, and Kevin Ristro, Franks’s follow-up to 2012’s Channel Orange well hopefully be here next year.
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Pharrell Williams Stars in Chanel Short Film [Teaser]
Posted on November 25th, 2014 by ThisIsRnB in NEWS |
Pharrell Williams continues to make strides in high fashion as he has been commissioned by Chanel and their famous creative director Karl Lagerfeld, to star in and create the music for a new short film from the fashion house called Reincarnation.
The video tells the story of Coco Chanel, and her inspiration for Chanel’s signature jacket. When she goes to Austria in 1954, she eyes the hotel elevator hand (played by Pharrell), who is the inspiration behind the jacket. In the clip the hitmaker gets romantic with model Cara Delevingne, who is the face of the upcoming campaign of the Paris-Salzburg 2014/15 Métiers d’art collection.
In addition to starring in the film, Pharrell composed and wrote the lyrics to “CC the World,” the soundtrack which accompanies Reincarnation.
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Video: Faith Evans – Fragile
Posted on November 24th, 2014 by Ni'Kesia
The wait is over. Along with dropping her new album Incomparable today, First Lady Faith Evans has delivered the video to her new single, “Fragile“.
Teasing the video just last week, the veteran songstress taps into her FLOTUS alter ego to serve up a interesting and thrilling new video that features Pooch Hall as her leading man. Doing her best to uncover the mystery at hand, Faith’s timeless look and sound keeps us reminiscent of all the good she’s done for R&B over the past two decades.
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Photo by Paul Gilmore via facebook.com/marianhillmusic
SP is good too. 
