David Cook recording with Green Day producer
David Cook has promised to make a rock record that’s true to himself, and the American Idol winner has confirmed that the studio maestro tasked with helping him realize that goal is Rob Cavallo.
The two are currently squeezing in studio time whenever the Idol summer tour allows, and Cook still plans to release the album in mid-November. As previously reported, Cook has had writing sessions with Our Lady Peace’s Raine Maida and Collective Soul’s Ed Roland, but there’s one person who isn’t involved with the album: industry vet Clive Davis, the man who executive produced several Idols’ debuts, but whose role at SonyBMG, where he’s currently Chief Creative Officer of SonyBMG Worldwide, has shifted. “I never heard his name brought up, ” Cook said.
Cook hasn’t yet made the call about the single. “It’s not like there’s any resistance to [the song], ” he says. “My goal is to make a cohesive record, and I don’t want any song to stick out like a sore thumb.
Two Contestants From So You Think You Can Dance Hospitalized
The contestants on So You Think You Can Dance definitely work hard on the show, but are they pushing these kids too far? Two of the four remaining contestants had to be rushed to Cedars Sinai Hospital after collapsing during rehearsal.
More Idol Headlines After the Jump…
Cook’s tour with ‘Idol’ lacks arena rock feel
This year’s “American Idol” winner David Cook looked at the large numbers of still-seated fans during his set at Nassau Coliseum Monday night and shook his head.
“There’s too many of you people sitting down, ” he said. “We’re at a rock show.”
Well, actually we weren’t. The annual “American Idol” tour may have some rock elements, but it’s pretty far away from arena-filling rock shows. And this year’s version — despite Cook’s excellent set, featuring his hit “Time of My Life” and his ever-impressive grunge interpretations of Lionel Richie’s “Hello” and Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” — was farther away than usual.
David Archuleta’s ‘Crush’ is surprisingly good!
I was not a huge fan of David Archuleta during his tenure on American Idol’s seventh season. Sure, as Randy Jackson reminded us (over and over and over), the kid could “sing the phone book, ” but frankly, a weekly rundown of surnames and seven-digit numbers would’ve been more interesting (and more contemporary) than the array of drippy, “big issues” ballads the Utah teenager favored on his way to a runner-up finish.
With that in mind, though, I’m glad none of my PopWatch colleagues weighed in on David’s first post-Idol single, “Crush, ” which premiered on Elvis Duran’s Z100 morning show Friday morning (while I was enjoying a day off at the Jersey shore), because much to my surprise, it’s actually pretty good.
Archuleta Dreams Of ‘Adventurous’ Woman!
Sounds like squeaky clean teen David Archuleta wants a woman to take him for a walk on the wild side!
The seventeen-year-old American Idol runner-up told OK! that the main thing he looks for in girl is an adventurous streak.
“She has to be fun, have respect for herself and be adventurous, ” David told us at the Teen Choice Awards in L.A. last night.
Up Close With The American Idols – Carly Smithson
How has the tour been going?
Amazing. A dream come true, definitely. A lot more work than I thought it was gonna be, but you get to sing to everyday. That’s all I want to do: sing everyday in arenas like this. I think we’ll have to work really hard to ever play this size [venue] ever again. So I’m soaking it all up.
Nigel Lythgoe leaving ‘American Idol’
The showrunner of the most popular series on television is stepping down.
“American Idol” executive producer Nigel Lythgoe on Monday confirmed reports that he will leave the reality series and pursue a new business partnership with fellow “Idol” executive producer Simon Fuller, with whom he created Fox’s other performance hit, “So You Think You Can Dance.”
“Due to the huge success of ‘Dance, ‘ my summer will be taken up by travels to South Africa, Australia and Canada to work on local versions of the show, ” Lythgoe said. “I will step back from my day-to-day producing work on ‘American Idol’ and will be devoting my time to a new venture with Simon Fuller.”
American Idol contestants audition in Puerto Rico
Contestants for season 8 of American Idol auditioned in Puerto Rico on Saturday, the first time auditions have been held outside the continental United States.
Auditions have now been held in San Francisco, Louisville, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and San Juan. The next stop is Kansas City on Friday, followed by Jacksonville, Florida on August 13 and East Rutherford, New Jersey on August 19.
Teen favorites keep their cool at Choice Awards
While American Idol winner David Cook, 25, and runner-up David Archuleta, 17, were happy to be at the show, the Idol tour remained on their minds.
“The best thing is getting to hang out with everyone and being able to perform in front of a live audience of thousands of people, but the downside is trying to work on the album when you have so little time, ” said Archuleta, who took home the award for the most fanatic fans.
Added Cook, who snagged the male reality/variety star award: “It’s great to feel the energy of the crowd, but the hard part is being in a different city every night.”
Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers, Chris Brown, ‘Gossip Girl’ Win Big At Teen Choice Awards
Meanwhile, “American Idol” won the award for Choice TV Reality Music Competition, while this season’s winner and runner-up, David Cook and David Archuleta, also walked away with surfboards: Cook, for Choice TV Male Reality/ Variety Star and Archuleta for Most Fanatic Fans. MTV’s “The Hills” was the winner of the Choice TV Celebrity Reality honor, while Lauren Conrad claimed the Choice TV Female Reality/ Variety Star prize.
From Beatles to Michael to Mariah, 50 Years of Counting Down the Hits
The Hot 100 just turned the big 5-0.
The seminal singles chart turned a half-century-old today, having made its Billboard magazine debut on Aug. 4, 1958. Ricky Nelson’s “Poor Little Fool” topped the inaugural Hot 100 chart, which covered the week ended Aug. 9, and nearly a 1, 000 songs have graced its perch since.
In celebration of its silver anniversary, here’s our own hit list of Hot 100 highlights:
Oh Dear, Elvis Sings With Carrie
Poor Elvis. He will be turning over in his grave with news that he has recorded a song with Carrie Underwood.
Carrie, who wasn`t even born when Elvis died, has recorded a duet with the dead King for an upcoming Christmas album `Elvis Presley Christmas Duets`.
Dead Elvis gets to sing with live music acts on this album. It features duets with Martina McBride, Leann Rimes, Gretchen Wilson, Anne Murray and Amy Grant.
A conversation with Bo Bice
It’s been a long time since Bo Bice, a terrific artist and world-class prankster, first appeared on American Idol’s stage, wowing audiences across the nation. Since then, he’s been churning out music nonstop. His latest release, See the Light, is the first for which he has exerted full creative control.
We caught up with Bo to find out what’s next on his to-do list and why he loves to call Nashville home.
THE LEADING MEN: Keeling, Bell and Parlato
Q: Taylor Hicks is currently Grease’s Teen Angel. Have you had a chance to talk with him?
Keeling: Yes, he’s a really cool, down-to-earth guy. He kind of got here in the same way, though on a bigger scale, that I did. He knows what it is like. One of the things that has happened with a lot of us [from reality shows] is people see you on a TV show and think that’s the first thing you did, when a lot of us had been working in the business for awhile. I got my first professional job ten years ago. Taylor said the same thing. He said he’d been on the road for about 15 years at the point of “American Idol, ” going around as a musician. He said, “I worked 15 years to establish myself, and now I’ve been working the last couple years to re-establish myself.” I really understood what he was saying because I’ve had people come up to me and say, “Hey, welcome to the business. Welcome to New York.” And I say, “I’ve been here for awhile, but thanks!”
Fair closes with former idol
At 8 p.m. on Saturday, the grandstand stage at the Clearfield County Fair sat vacantly in the shadows. By 8:30 p.m., a capacity crowd grew eager with anticipation and called for Chris Daughtry to take the stage as it shifted anxiously in its seats. They weren’t disappointed, because by the end of the show, most of the crowd forgot about the wait completely.
Chris Daughtry, whose “American Idol” stint may forever live in infamy, took to the stage at 8:45 p.m. and rocked away the final hours of the 148th edition of the Clearfield County Fair.
Movin’ on up
Life goes on for Sanjaya Malakar – he of the many splendored hairdos on “American Idol” season six -who will serenade gamblers and shoppers at Mohegan Sun tonight. The biggest thing in his world? He just got his first apartment, on New York’s Upper East Side. “I opened it today with the key, for the first time, so that was a great feeling, ” the tunesmith told us yesterday. “But my stuff isn’t here yet. It’s just me and my suitcases.” Malakar said he and his 21-year-old sister still dream of attending Berklee College of Music. So maybe his next pad will be in Boston.
‘American Idol’: A trip to Idol Camp
In a world of brand extension and merchandise obsession, “American Idol” is king. Spearheaded by FremantleMedia, the company that owns the “Idol” trademark, there are the requisite T-shirts, journals, water bottles and CDs. There is also Dreyer’s Choc ‘N Roll Caramel “American Idol” ice cream, Karaoke Revolution’s “Idol” video game and a new attraction at Disney World.
Then they opened Idol Camp.
Idol Camp is a two-week performing arts sleep-away gathering for aspiring singers, aged 10 to 15. The camp, which opened in Massachusetts last year, moved to California this summer. It costs $2, 995.
For that price, the Idol Camp grounds are a tween’s dream. A skate park full of half-pipes beckons thrill seekers. A 20-foot-tall inflatable glacier floats in a pond, ripe for the climbing. Among the all-terrain vehicles, the go-karts, the rope course and the horse stables, there is something for every personality.
STAGE FRIGHT
PAULA Abdul wore out her welcome for good with the “Today” show. Abdul was supposed to perform her single “Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow” on the morning show’s concert series in April. She canceled that gig because of “production commitments, ” but rescheduled for Aug. 29. On Friday, she canceled that show as well due to ” ‘American Idol’ commitments.” But one source said, “Please. She can’t perform live. Her voice on the single is so mixed and electronicized you don’t know what she really sounds like any more.” Abdul’s reps didn’t return calls.
Simon Cowell tops the charts at $50M
Simon Cowell is TV’s $50 million man.
The “American Idol” judge, who loves to pick apart the performances of wanna-be stars, tops a new list of the biggest earners on the small screen.
Chesney, Pickler, Wilson to honor Bradley Family
Kenny Chesney, Gretchen Wilson, Kellie Pickler and Ronnie Milsap will perform in a musical tribute to the Bradley Family, considered the First Family of Music Row, on Aug. 26 at the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel.
The Bradley Family will be presented with the Leadership Music Dale Franklin Award for their seven decades of influences and leadership.
Tuesday is the deadline to purchase tickets for the Brenda Lee-hosted event honoring the late musical pioneer Owen Bradley, a Country Music Hall of Fame producer and architect of the Nashville Sound, as well as Country Music Hall of Fame guitarist and musicians union chief Harold Bradley. Owen, who died in 1998, opened the first recording studio on Music Row in the 1950s with Harold.
‘So You Think You Can Dance:’ Top 4 – Twitch & Courtney G.
Stephen “Twitch” Laurel Boss and Courtney Ann Galiano, two dancers in the Top 4 of Fox “So You Think You Can Dance, ” talk about their experience dancing together, and their preparation for dancing in the finals.
‘So You Think You Can Dance:’ Top 4 – Joshua & Katee
Joshua Allen and Katee Taira Shean, two dancers in the Top 4 of Fox “So You Think You Can Dance, ” talk about their content to be in the finals, favorite dance choreographers and memorable moments behind-the-scenes.
Canadian Idol Recap: The Top Seven Perform U.K. Hits
This week, the Monday recap will be two-fold. I went down to the show Monday night, so I’m going to review the contestants as they were live and how they were on television to see how big the difference was. Tom Jones (or Sir Tom Jones as Ben liked to call him) played mentor to our Idols who sang songs that were hits by U.K. artists (or in the U.K. that part wasn’t too clear. Just a note though, my seat was obstructed view so I could not see all the Idols perfectly when they performed. I will note the performances that were hard to see live.
Canadian Idol Top 7 Recap
The Idol wannabes are back at it again this civil holiday, taking on U.K. hits.
We get treated to the usual Ben and judge banter and a montage of Tom Jones, who is mentoring the Idol hopefuls this week.
Up first with …Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis is Mark Day. This is going to be painful. …We talk about the idea of singing it like it the last song, I just dont think it a winning performance, says Jake. …I thought it was the most grown up performance of yours. While I dont think youre going to win Canadian Idol, Ill give you a Tom Jones salute and throw you my panties, says Zack.
Finalewatch: ‘Nashville Star’
Host Billy Ray Cyrus opens the show with “Achy Breaky Heart.” Wow. Did I really write that? Did that actually happen? I had to check my watch to make sure I hadn’t spontaneously traveled back to 1992. In addition to back-up dancers, the three finalists join in with Billy Ray – first Gabe, then Shawn and finally Melissa. Oh. And all the other contestants pop up at the end and they do a bit of line dancing. It ended with some pyro on stage and it actually wasn’t bad. I might dare say it was good. Odd, but good.
‘Nashville Star’ recap: Melissa Lawson’s first single doesn’t suck!
A surprise to, well, no one, Melissa Lawson is our new Nashville Star. In the end, it came down to the mother of five vs. Gabe Garcia, the Hispanic-American former electrician who finally learned how to “turn his Texas on.” The evening’s high and low notes:
Breakout performance: Cohost Katie Cook’s breasts. They’re the only thing that I’m 100 percent certain I’ll remember a year from now.
Performance we’d most like to forget: Tie between the awkward “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” duet Melissa and Gabe were forced to suffer through, and the finalists’ group number with host Billy Ray Cyrus. Was the plan always to use the backup dancers (clones from Jessica Simpson’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” video) just for Gabe’s portion of “Achy Breaky Heart, ” or did Melissa and third-place finisher Shawn Mayer kindly ask producers to get them the hell off the stage? I wonder…
