Sunday June 18th, 2006 HOME
New CD's this past week:
None to report
Music news headlines this week:
Luther Vandross Charts Posthumous Hit Single
The late singer Luther Vandross has
charted a single on Billboard's R&B
chart nearly a full year after his death. The tune "Shine," has landed at
Number 64 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart this week, and is
also Number 32 on the trade magazine's Adult R&B Airplay chart.
The tune "Shine" is from a new compilation of Vandross tunes called
Ultimate Luther Vandross, that is due later this year. The set will
feature two brand-new songs and 16 previously unreleased tracks from J
Records and his previous label, Epic Records.
Vandross died July 1st, 2005, of complications after a stroke. He was 54.
Richie Rolls With Young Producers
Lionel Richie has recruited a slew of
guests for his his new album,
"Coming Home," due Sept. 12 via Island. Jermaine Dupri, Raphael Saadiq,
Dallas Austin, Sean Garrett and Chuckii Booker join the five-time Grammy
Award winner, along with producers Stargate and Taj.
Richie wrote or co-wrote nine of the album's 10 tracks; Stargate and Taj
penned the album's first single, "I Call It Love," which will be delivered
July 17 to U.S. radio outlets.
Other songs set for inclusion are "Outta My Head," "I'm Coming Home" and
"I Love You" (all penned by Richie), "I'm Missing Her," "Sweet Vacation"
(with Saadiq) and "You Are" (with Dupri).
"Coming Home" is the follow-up to 2004's "Just for You," which reached No.
47 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 204,000 copies in the United States,
according to Nielsen SoundScan.
The lone date on Richie's summer schedule is a July 4 show as part of
Philadelphia's Sweet Sounds of Liberty concert, sponsored by Sunoco.
Usher Helps Clean Up New Orleans
Five-time Grammy winning R&B artist Usher
pulled on some work gloves,
grabbed a pair of trimmers and chopped away at a patch of vines that had
overtaken a fence at a New Orleans school shuttered by Hurricane Katrina.
Usher, whose full name is Usher Raymond IV, joined dozens of volunteers
yesterday (June 13) to clear the overgrown lawn of the International
School of Louisiana, the state's first foreign language-based charter
school, which has been closed since Katrina hit last Aug. 29.
Usher got his first glimpse of Katrina's destruction Monday, when he
visited storm-damaged neighborhoods in New Orleans and nearby St. Bernard
Parish. "I'm here to physically do something and hopefully motivate other
people to do the same," said Usher, the latest in a growing list of
celebrities to visit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast since Katrina.
Shortly after Katrina, Usher began Project Restart to help families in the
Gulf Coast region find housing. Though most well-known for his dance moves
and hit songs like "Yeah," he has been a strong advocate for volunteerism.
On Monday, Usher met with Xavier and Dillard University students, whose
campuses flooded. Some students joined him yesterday for the cleanup
effort, among them 21-year-old Trivia Frazier.
"It was very inspirational, just knowing somebody cares," said Frazier, a
junior at Dillard whose New Orleans home was flooded. "It's also an
incentive to keep going."
Usher, a Chattanooga, Tenn., native who now lives in Atlanta, was
scheduled to meet with business leaders in Baton Rouge yesterday, along
with Gov. Kathleen Blanco.
Janet Jackson's New Single To Be Released Monday
Fans have been seeing a lot of the newly
trim Janet Jackson lately.
Starting Monday, they'll be able to hear what the superstar has been
working on in the studio.
Jackson's new single, Call Me, which features rapper Nelly, will hit radio
outlets Monday. It's the lead single from her new album, 20 Years Old, to
be released Sept. 26, Virgin Records announced Monday.
Producers on the album include Jackson's boyfriend, Jermaine Dupri, and
her longtime collaborators, Jimmy Jam Harris and Terry Lewis.
The 40-year-old pop star's last record, 2004's Damita Jo, was released
amid the scandal surrounding her breast-baring Super Bowl appearance.
20 Years Old marks the anniversary of her star-making album, Control,
released in 1986.
Island Def Jam Drops Christina Milian
Island Def Jam has dropped R&B artist
Christina Milian, less than a month
after her latest album release, So Amazin’, failed to sell well.
The New York Daily News alleges that Milian drew the ire of Island Def Jam
CEO L.A. Reid, after he reportedly pleaded her to record, “S.O.S. (Rescue
Me).”
The song was eventually recorded by Milian’s label mate Rihanna, whose
album Girl Like Me sold 115,000 copies in its debut week.
In comparison, Milian went with the Cool and Dre-produced, “Say I” as the
lead single off her new album. Despite the catchy hook and a featured
guest appearance from Young Jeezy on that track, So Amazin’ sold 50,202 in
its first week.
Milian’s public relations rep said it was a mutual decision between the
label and the singer to end their relationship.
Despite her relationship with Island Def Jam being brought to an abrupt
halt, the Internet Movie Database reports that Milian is slated to appear
in a film called Pulse due this year.
Originals Member Dies Of Lung Cancer
Freddie Gorman, a member of the R&B group
The Originals, died June 13 of
lung cancer. He was 67. The Originals were a quartet out of Detroit, most
famous for the hit songs "Baby I'm for Real" in 1969 and "The Bells" in
1970. Gorman was also a songwriter and penned hits for The Reflections and
others in the early- to mid-'60s. He was also an original member of the
Motown writing team Holland-Dozier-Gorman (with Eddie Holland and Lamont
Dozier), which later became Holland-Dozier-Holland, when Eddie's brother
Brian replaced Gorman. Gorman is survived by his wife, Dodie; a son,
Dillon; and daughter, Sheila Evans. A funeral will be held in Detroit, as
well as a Memorial service in Los Angeles, where Gorman lived out the
later years of his life.