Playing a lot of new music for his guests during a vacation cruise around Sicily and Capri recently, J Records Chairman and Chief Executive Clive Davis says he got the strongest reaction from the rough mixes of an upcoming album by a newly signed artist.
The album is a collection of American pop standards including George and Ira Gershwin’s “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” the Jerome Kern-Dorothy Fields chestnut “The Way You Look Tonight” and others including “These Foolish Things,” “Moonglow” and “I’ll Be Seeing You,” all done in straightforward, traditional settings.
“There were about 20 people on the yacht from different areas of the world, and not many knew each other,” Davis says. “But the most unifying and uplifting and entertaining evenings were the ones where I put on this record, even in a rough state. To see its emotional impact, to see people singing along–it was infectious.”
The singer?
Rod Stewart.
The still-untitled package, due Sept. 30, marks the first teaming of Stewart and Davis. The singer joined J after parting ways late last year with the Warner Music Group family of labels, his musical home for more than two decades. Davis is known for a hands-on approach that’s resulted in one of the music business’ most impressive resumes, from Whitney Houston’s biggest hits to Santana’s “Supernatural” to Alicia Keys’ 2001 breakthrough.
“I’ve been working very closely with Rod and [producers] Richard Perry and Phil Ramone,” says Davis, the album’s executive producer. “I’m a song man. I love the idea that great songs that have been memorable in people’s lives can be reinvented and have life long beyond when they were written.”
Davis has had input about arrangements and approach, and also is in the process of recruiting some big-name instrumental soloists.
But Davis says he wants nothing to detract from the songs or from Stewart’s voice–and gives the singer full credit for the concept.
“This actually began in 1983,” says Arnold Stiefel, Stewart’s manager. “Rod and I were having dinner as I just became his manager and he said, ‘I’d like to make an album where I get to sing the songs my parents loved when I was growing up’ ” in Scotland.
The marketing plan being drawn for the album will by and large not treat this as a pop project. Stiefel and Davis describe an unprecedented campaign that will cross genre and age demographics. Rather than spend money to make videos, the first priority will be TV commercials and a network special, currently in negotiations.
The key, Stiefel says, is simply for people to hear the music. “When he’d play some of the roughs, people would say, ‘Why hasn’t he been doing this all along?'”
by STEVE HOCHMAN, L.A. Times