http://forum.songfacts.com/showforum.php?fid/9/What is new and interesting in the world of music? This is the place to share current news stories.enFri, 19 Mar 2010 15:20:01 GMTFri, 19 Mar 2010 15:20:01 GMThttp://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rssFusionBB 2.2 (www.fusionbb.com)http://forum.songfacts.com/showtopic.php?tid/147751/http://forum.songfacts.com/showtopic.php?tid/147751/

“It’s an age-old story in the music business,” said Fusari’s lawyer Robert Meloni. “You become famous and you turn on the person who discovered you.” According to the suit, Fusari initially recruited Gaga, then just Stefani Germanotta, to join what he envisioned as “an all-girl version of the Strokes.” “Fusari was expecting someone a little more grunge-rocker than the young Italian girl ‘guidette’ that arrived at his doorstep and was worried that he had made a mistake,” the suit contends. Recognizing Gaga’s ability, Fusari claims he helped craft Gaga’s songwriting to something with more of a dance feel. Their collaboration resulted in three songs that eventually appeared on The Fame — “Paparazzi,” “Brown Eyes” and “Dirty, Rich, Beautiful” — plus the bonus tracks “Disco Heaven,” “Again Again” and “Retro Dance Freak.”

Fusari also claims he accidentally created the “Lady Gaga” name when “one day when Fusari addressed a cell phone text to Germanotta under the moniker ‘Radio Gaga’ [a song by Queen], his cell phone’s spell check converted ‘Radio’ to ‘Lady.’ Germanotta loved it and ‘Lady Gaga’ was born.” Rolling Stone told the tale a little differently in our June 2009 Lady Gaga cover story, where Brian Hiatt reported that Fusari was struck by some Freddie Mercury-like harmonies the singer recorded and began singing “Radio Gaga” to her as a running joke; Gaga texted Fusari her new name and never answered to “Stef” again.

Besides being collaborators, Fusari and Gaga also shared a romantic relationship, though Fusari’s suit claims that ended in January 2007, adding that Gaga was a “woman scorned” and eventually became “verbally abusive” to Fusari. “All business is personal,” the suit says. “When those personal relationships evolve into romantic entanglements, any corresponding business relationship usually follows the same trajectory so that when one crashes they all burn. This is what happened here.” When reached by Rolling Stone for a response, Lady Gaga’s rep said the singer has no comment on the suit. ]]>Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:15:14 GMThttp://forum.songfacts.com/showtopic.php?tid/147748/http://forum.songfacts.com/showtopic.php?tid/147748/
Parker died at his home of natural causes. Parker was said to be coherent and communicating with his family just minutes before his passing.

Parker launched "Davy Crockett" in December 1954, quickly inspiring an American fad for the coonskin cap his character wore in the show. The three episodes were repurposed the following year as a feature film called "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier." He followed up that success with a string of Disney films like "Old Yeller" and "Westward Ho the Wagons!"

In the 1960s, Parker again found fame on TV as the star of "Daniel Boone," another show about a frontiersman wearing a coonskin cap. The series ran for six seasons, from 1964 until 1970. Following the conclusion of "Boone," Parker would rarely be seen on the small screen and instead became a real-estate developer and winemaker.

"I left the business after 22 years," he told the AP in 2001. "It was time to leave Hollywood. I came along at a time when I'm starting out with Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Sterling Hayden and Gregory Peck. Who needed a guy running around in a coonskin cap?"

Parker died at his Santa Ynez Valley, California, home on the 84th birthday of his wife, Marcella, to whom he'd been married for 50 years.

"She's a wreck," the family's spokesman said.

Arrangements for a funeral will be announced later.

Copyright ® 2010 AP ]]>Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:13:29 GMThttp://forum.songfacts.com/showtopic.php?tid/147745/http://forum.songfacts.com/showtopic.php?tid/147745/
The singer, songwriter and guitarist was 59.

“I’m crushed. We’re all just crushed,” said John Fry, owner of Memphis’ Ardent Studios and a longtime friend of Chilton’s. “This sudden death experience is never something that you’re prepared for. And yet it occurs.”


Chilton had been complaining about his health earlier Wednesday, Fry said. He was taken by paramedics from his home to the emergency room but could not be revived.

Chilton and Big Star had been scheduled to play Saturday as part of the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. The band was also scheduled to play at the Levitt Shell in Memphis on May 15. It’s unknown what will happen to those shows.

The Memphis-born Chilton rose to prominence at age 16 when his gruff vocals powered the massive Box Tops hit “The Letter,” as well as “Cry Like a Baby” and “Neon Rainbow.”

After the Box Tops broke up in 1970, Chilton had a brief solo run in New York before returning to Memphis. He soon joined forces with a group of Anglo-pop-obsessed musicians — fellow songwriter/guitarist Chris Bell, bassist Andy Hummel and drummer Jody Stephens — to form Big Star.

The group became the flagship act for Ardent’s Stax-distributed label. Big Star’s 1972 debut album, #1 Record, met with critical acclaim but poor sales.

The group briefly disbanded, but reunited without Bell to record the album Radio City. Released in 1974, the second album suffered a similar fate, plagued by Stax’s distribution woes.

The group made one more album, Third/Sister Lovers, with just Chilton and Stephens — and it, too, was a minor masterpiece. Darker and more complex than the band’s previous pop-oriented material, it remained unreleased for several years.

In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine named all three Big Star albums to its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

“It’s a fork in the road that a lot of different bands stemmed from,” said Jeff Powell, a respected local producer who worked on some of Chilton’s records. “If you’re drawing a family tree of American music, they’re definitely a branch.”

In the mid-’70s, Chilton began what would be a polarizing solo career, releasing several albums of material, including 1979’s Like Flies on Sherbet — a strange, chaotically recorded mix of originals and obscure covers that divided fans and critics.

Chilton also began performing with local roots-punk deconstructionists the Panther Burns.

In the early ’80s, Chilton left Memphis for New Orleans, where he worked a variety of jobs and stopped performing for several years.

But interest in his music from a new generation of alternative bands, including the Replacements and R.E.M., brought him back to the stage in the mid-’80s.

He continued to record and tour as a solo act throughout the decade. Finally, in the early ’90s, the underground cult based around Big Star had become so huge that the group was enticed to reunite with a reconfigured lineup.

The band, featuring original member Stephens plus Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow of the Posies, continued to perform regularly over the next 16 years. Big Star became the subject of various articles, books and CD reissue campaigns, including the September 2009 release of the widely hailed box set, Keep an Eye on the Sky.

“I played with Alex for eight or 10 years regularly, and he was one of the best musicians I ever knew,” said Doug Garrison. “That’s what really locked the first time I played with him, this feel on the guitar. He just played flawlessly. He had a limited technique, but he did what he did really well.”

Chilton was often described as “mercurial,” but those who knew him well described a man with a keen sense of humor, a tremendous musician and a generous friend.

“He was the only person on a record I’ve ever worked with where you’d come up with a horn arrangement, and he’d say, ‘Look, I’m going to make you guys a co-writer on the song now,’” said Jim Spake, who played sax on the most recent Big Star record.

Chilton is survived by his wife, Laura, a son, Timothy, and a sister, Cecilia.

“When some people pass, you say it was the end of an era. In this case, it’s really true,” said Van Duren, a fellow Memphis musician who knew Chilton for decades. “It puts an end to the Big Star thing, and that’s a very sad thing.” ]]>Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:38:30 GMThttp://forum.songfacts.com/showtopic.php?tid/147742/http://forum.songfacts.com/showtopic.php?tid/147742/
Jackson's estate has now signed a music deal with Sony worth up to $250 million over seven years. That's the biggest music deal of all time!

Michael Jackson Sony music deal



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The outcome of a dispute over the level of royalties the band received remained unclear, however, as that part of the judgment was held in secret, the Press Association reported. A source close to the band said those talks were "ongoing."

Lawyers said it was the first time a royalties dispute between artists and their record companies had been held in private, after EMI successfully applied for a news blackout for reasons of "commercial confidentiality."

The ruling at London's High Court is the latest blow to EMI, the smallest of the four major record companies, which is seeking new funds to avoid breaching debt covenants.

EMI sought to play down the court's decision.

"The litigation has been running for well over a year and most of its points have already been settled," the company said in a statement.

"This week's court hearing was around the interpretation of two contractual points, both linked to the digital sale of Pink Floyd's music. There are further arguments to be heard and the case will go on for some time."

EMI's owner Terra Firma is also embroiled in a legal dispute with Citigroup over advice and financing the U.S. bank provided to enable it to buy EMI in 2007.

Several top acts, including Pink Floyd and Queen, are reportedly in talks with other labels, following the exodus of the Rolling Stones and Radiohead since Terra Firma took over.

But EMI added in its statement: "We're huge fans of Pink Floyd whose great catalog we have been representing for more than 40 years and continue to represent exclusively and internationally."

VALUABLE BACK Catalog

Pink Floyd's back catalog at EMI has been outsold only by that of the Beatles.

The band, whose albums include "The Dark Side of the Moon" and "The Wall," went to court to challenge EMI's right to "unbundle" their records and sell individual tracks online.

Judge Andrew Morritt accepted arguments by the group that EMI was bound by a contract forbidding it from selling records other than as complete albums without written consent.

The judge said the purpose of a clause in the contract, drawn up more than a decade ago, was to "preserve the artistic integrity of the albums."

Pink Floyd alleged that EMI had allowed online downloads from the albums and parts of tracks to be used as ringtones.

But Elizabeth Jones, representing EMI in court, countered that the word record "plainly applies to the physical thing -- there is nothing to suggest it applies to online distribution."

The judge ordered EMI to pay Pink Floyd's costs in the case, estimated at 60,000 pounds ($90,000), and refused the company permission to appeal.

Pink Floyd's influential and acclaimed body of work is a valuable commodity. Members Roger Waters, David Gilmour and Nick Mason all appeared on the 2009 Sunday Times Rich List with personal fortunes estimated at 85 million, 78 million and 50 million pounds respectively.

Copyright © 2010 Reuters Limited ]]>Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:55:41 GMThttp://forum.songfacts.com/showtopic.php?tid/147725/http://forum.songfacts.com/showtopic.php?tid/147725/

Rockabilly pioneer Dale Hawkins, who'd made his home in Central Arkansas since the early '80s, died last night after a long battle with colon cancer.

The funeral is scheduled for 10 a.m., Thursday at the North Little Rock Funeral Home on Main Street. Visitation will held between 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

Born in tiny Goldmine, La., Hawkins famously wrote and recorded the 1957 hit "Suzy Q," the first release by Chess Records of a white artist. Later, as Lauren Wilcox Puchowski's fine profile in the 2005 Oxford American Music Issue details, the swamp rocker took a winding route through the music business to get to Little Rock (and later, and more lastingly, North Little Rock), where in 1999 he released the essential album "Wildcat Tamer":


Dale made the most of the attention he got from “Susie Q” and a few other releases. He appeared at record hops around the country, and by the end of the '50s, he was the host of The Dale Hawkins Show, out of Philadelphia, with guests like Dizzy Gillespie and the Isley Brothers. When the craze for rockabilly—what writer Bill Millar calls a “mayfly era”— began to wane after a few years, Dale found work as a producer — in part, he said, to “quit the road” after his two sons were born.

Dale was quite successful as a producer, with hits like “Western Union” by the Five Americans, “Judy in Disguise” by John Fred & His Playboy Band, and several well-received albums by the Uniques. At one point, three songs he had produced made the Billboard Top 100 at the same time: “Western Union,” “Do it Again a Little Bit Slower,” by Jon & Robin, and “Sound of Love,” also by the Five Americans. Neither band had ever been in a studio before.

Along the way, two things happened. One was that Dale became addicted to the stimulant Benzedrine. The other was that “Susie Q,” to which Dale had sold his share of the rights to Stan Lewis for two hundred dollars a few years before, had become a hit again for groups like Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Rolling Stones. It is hard to know, from the stories Dale tells and the way he tells them, what, exactly, persuaded him that he'd had enough of the music business, but in the early '80s he moved to Little Rock and entered a rehab program there.

For a while, he eschewed music altogether. An aptitude test administered in rehab suggested he might have a talent for motivational speaking, and for a couple of years he gave seminars for businessmen at insurance companies. He started Little Rock's first crisis center, with a suicide hotline for teenagers. In 1986, Dale received an envelope in the mail from MCA, which had bought the entire catalog of Chess Records. envelope held his share of this transaction, a check for sixty-four thousand dollars, after which he began to entertain thoughts of putting together his own studio and making music again.
]]>Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:12:03 GMThttp://forum.songfacts.com/showtopic.php?tid/147719/http://forum.songfacts.com/showtopic.php?tid/147719/Suicide ]]>Sun, 07 Mar 2010 06:00:49 GMThttp://forum.songfacts.com/showtopic.php?tid/147703/http://forum.songfacts.com/showtopic.php?tid/147703/
Wolk began playing with Daryl Hall and John Oates during the recording of their chart-topping 'Private Eyes' album in 1981 and went on to become the group's musical director. T-Bone first earned the duo's attention for his efforts on Kurtis Blow's gold-certified rap single 'These Are the Breaks' earlier in that year.

A multi-instrumentalist, Wolk also played guitar and accordion and worked with the likes of Billy Joel, Robert Palmer, Paul Carrack, Cyndi Lauper, Jellyfish, Elvis Costello and Shawn Colvin, among others, in his accomplished career. As a producer, the New York native also worked with Willie Nile on 1991's 'Places I Have Never Been.'

Wolk continued to perform actively up until his death, playing with Hall and Oates during promotional efforts for their box set 'Do What You Want, Be What You Are.' He also played with Hall for his series of online performances known as 'Live From Daryl's House.'

A great musician who will be missed! ]]>Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:26:21 GMThttp://forum.songfacts.com/showtopic.php?tid/147700/http://forum.songfacts.com/showtopic.php?tid/147700/Link

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"My family and I are devastated and in deep shock by the tragic loss of our dear Michael and ask that everyone respect our privacy during this difficult time," his mother said through her publicist Saturday.

Donny Osmond, his uncle, said on Saturday morning: "Please pray for my sister and her family."

Tonight's "Donny & Marie" show at the Flamingo hotel in Las Vegas has been canceled.

In November 2007, Michael, then 16, entered rehab, though what he was being treated for was not disclosed.

Osmond and Michael's father, Brian Blosil, announced in March 2007 that they were divorcing after nearly 21 years of marriage. Osmond and Blosil had two biological children together and adopted five others, including Michael. Brian Blosil also adopted Osmond's child from her first marriage. ]]>Sat, 27 Feb 2010 23:16:08 GMT