“Ellington didn’t consider his own arrangements to be sacred,” says Joe Jackson of his new album, The Duke, scheduled to drop June 26th on Razor & Tie. “He constantly reworked them, sometimes quite radically. So I think my approach is in the spirit of the man himself.”

This will be only the second time during his career that the English singer/composer/arranger/keyboardist and five-time Grammy nominee releases an album of someone else’s material. Jackson interprets 15 Ellington tunes over the course of 10 tracks that range from the sublime to the explosive.

Jackson’s own unique delivery is featured on “I’m Beginning To See The Light,” “Mood Indigo” and “I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good) while “It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” finds him trading vocals with punk icon Iggy Pop. R&B singer Sharon Jones contributes to “I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But The Blues” while Iranian singer Sussan Deyhim helps with “Caravan” (sung in Farsi) and Lilian Vieira, of the Brazilian/Dutch collective Zuco 103, chips in on a sexy Portuguese version of “Perdido.”

Instrumentals also come to the party as Jackson enlists an All-Star cast on cuts like “Isfahan” and “Rockin’ In Rhythm.” Among those lending a hand are violinist Regina Carter, bassist Christian McBride, guitarist Steve Vai, drummer Ahmir ‘?uestlove’ Thompson as well as two long-time Jackson associates, guitarist Vinnie Zummo and percussionist Sue Hadjopoulos.

“When I started this”, Jackson says, “It felt a little daunting – like, how am I gonna pull this off? But it started to pick up momentum, and took on a life of its own. I got to work with people I never thought I’d be able to get, and they were all extremely enthusiastic and supportive of the project. It all came together in a way that surpassed my expectations. And it’s been a hell of a lot of fun.”

Here’s a 2008 video of Jackson playing the Duke in concert in Germany.

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The Gambler was Kenny Rogers sixth studio album, released on United Artists in 1978. Produced by Larry Butler, the record included one of his best and most famous song, “The Gambler,” as well as three covers of Alex Harvey tunes and an interpretation of Mickey Newbury‘s “San Francisco Mabel Joy.”

The cover is classic Kenny: sporting the dress of an 1800s cowboy card player, Rogers is surrounded by able competition and more than a few ladies vying for his attention. The gold frame and elaborate country-style typography brings home the design, one of the finest of its kind.

Every picture tells a story … find more Awesome Album Cover stories here …

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Having bounced from band to band and from city to city, the guitar-playing duo of LeBlanc and Carr settled in Muscle Shoals in 1976.

With each toting a solo record that found no acclaim, the pair turned out some low-charting records in ’76 and ’77 before hitting the Top 40 with “Falling.”

Even though “Falling” rose to #13 in April ’78, a falling out between the boys precluded any further hits together.

Since 1980, LeBlanc has been recording Christian music while Carr has produced albums by Paul Simon (There Goes Rhymin’ Simon) and Bob Seger (Against the Wind), among others.

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Gone but not forgotten, at least not at WNEW, find more tales of One-Hit Wonders here …

…”Doobie Wah.”

1. Peter refers to himself and his band as “funky”…with a British accent!

2. He lays out a sweet eight-bar solo right from the start, while the crowd claps along.

3. The first line is “do one everybody,” even though the song isn’t about drugs. (It’s not about drugs, is it?)

4. Chiming cymbals and a pair of open-tuned guitars give the song that shimmering sitting-in-the-shade-in-the-summer sound.

5. Frampton sounds like Grateful Dead when he solos.

6. Oh, look, they do get funky at the breakdown. Props to bassist Sidney Sheldon.

Got a different favorite? Hit me up with a comment.

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1. Her first name comes from “They Call the Wind Mariah,” a song from the Broadway musical Paint Your Wagon.

2. Even after her 1990 debut album ran 11 weeks at #1 and she took the Best New Artist Grammy, she didn’t tour. She blamed both stage fright and the strenuous nature of her songs for her failure to hit the road. To defuse speculation that her voice was a studio creation, she appeared on MTV Unplugged, an appearance that resulted in the #1 single “I’ll Be There.”

3. Carey’s 1995 single “One Sweet Day” was inspired by the death of record producer David Cole and her sister’s AIDS diagnosis.

4. The bomb movie Glitter (2001) and the bomb album Charmbracelet (2002) represent the low point of Carey’s career. Her 2005 album The Emancipation of Mimi would be the year’s top seller, however.

5. Carey once described her early songs as “schmaltzy MOR.” Maybe, but we still think her very first single, “Vision of Love,” is great. Here she is, from the Grammys on the night she won Best New Artist.

Experience more Rock Flashbacks.

10. The Raspberries – “Overnight Sensation (Hit Record”)

Before Eric Carmen went soft, he sang for one of power pop’s best.

9. Elton John – “The Bitch Is Back”

Non-album cut (originally) shows Reg rockin’ out.

8. J. Geils Bands – “Musta Got Lost”

A record that doesn’t get played much anymore outside the East Coast … but should.

7. Steely Dan – “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”

Electric sitar goes pop in the ’70s.

6. Eric Clapton – “I Shot The Sheriff”

E.C. goes dreadlock.

The most bankable movie star in the world in the middle of the 1960s was not an action hero or a romantic leading man — it was Julie Andrews. Her role as Maria in The Sound of Music came not long after her Oscar-winning role in Mary Poppins — and the appeal of her singing voice made The Sound of Music soundtrack an enormous hit.

That’s not to say The Sound of Music would have bombed without her, for it featured songs by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, whose names were once as familiar as the weather, and who wrote the songs for many of the legendary musicals of the American theater. Many of the songs in The Sound of Music remain familiar today, including the holiday perennial “My Favorite Things, “Do-Re-Mi,” “Climb Every Mountain,” and “Edelweiss.”

The power of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s songs and the star power of Julie Andrews was enough to propel the soundtrack of The Sound of Music to #1 for two weeks in November 1965. The film itself was one of the most successful of all time — adjusted for inflation, it’s the third-highest grossing film of all time, behind only Gone With the Wind and Star Wars.

Here’s the trailer — much different than trailers of today — which contains snippets of a few songs and is about three hours shorter than the movie itself.

Read more about The #1 Albums.

While John Lennon and George Harrison contributed to “I’m the Greatest” and “Photograph,” respectively, Paul McCartney added some good fun to Ringo’s second #1, “You’re Sixteen.”

“Paul was good enough to write a song for Ringo,” says producer Richard Perry, “and we had two or three nights of wonderful recording when he and Linda came down.”

“In fact, the solo on ‘You’re Sixteen,’ which sounds like a kazoo or something, was Paul singing very spontaneously as we played that track back, so he’s singing the solo on that.”

“You’re Sixteen” debuted at #75 and took just six weeks to hit #1 on January 26, 1974.

Check out more songs that were “#1 with a Bullet.

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The Lion King was a blockbuster on Broadway and even bigger at the box office, not in small part because of the music.

Five of the nine original songs were the work of lyricist Tim Rice, who teamed with Elton to write “Circle of Life” and “Hakuna Matata”. The remaining four cuts were created by famed film composer Hans Zimmer (whose credits also include the Pirates of the Caribbean series).

Rounding out the set were three EJ versions of the songs “The Circle of Life,” “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.” The first and last became hits and The Lion King, since its release in July 1994, has sold more than 10 million copies.

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Gordon Lightfoot‘s lone gold single is possibly the sexiest folk song ever written: “Sundown.” The tune was inspired by his then girlfriend, Cathy Smith, who later became infamous for having been involved in the death of John Belushi.

For Lightfoot’s part, Smith was responsible attempting to kill his heart, naming her “the one woman in my life who most hurt me.”

Lightfoot got some repayment for his hurt, however, when “Sundown” went to the top of the Hot 100 and Easy Listening charts, #13 on the country chart and sold a million copies by June 1974.

Read about some more Going for the Gold golden oldies (and not-so-oldies).

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