Cee Lo Green is nominated for three Grammy Awards this year– Best R&B Song and Best Traditional R&B Performance for “Fool For You”, the throwback, soulful duet with Melanie Fiona.
We were first introduced to Cee Lo Green as part of the rap ensemble Goodie Mob, but he may have become best known in the mainstream as part of the duo Gnarls Barkley when the song “Crazy” took off all over the world. Since then Cee Lo has taken the world by storm and gained more crossover appeal as a judge on the television music competition The Voice and because of his 2010 album The Lady Killer, which is still going strong and is nominated this year for Best Pop Vocal Album. To find out if Cee Lo wins, watch the Grammy Awards February 12 at 8/7c on CBS.
Leonard Friend is the alias of one Alex Feder. Named after his grandfather who left music for a career in sales, the talented new artist and dancer could very well give Justin Timberlake a run for his money (whenever he actually decides to do music again). Out today, Friend releases his 8-track EP entitled Lynyrd Frynd.
Mixing the genres of pop and R&B, Feder crafts music that is quite danceable (first single “Serious Music”) and quite serious (“The Year I Die”) as well as tunes meant for the ladies (“Mrs. Friend” and “The Last Gentleman”). If you haven’t caught the video for “Serious Music,” check it out below. It was partly inspired by a performance by the late King of Pop back in ’93, when he performed sitting down because of a sprained ankle.
In a recent press release Friend says, “The reason I came up with the seated idea for the video is because I tore my ACL and had surgery to repair it and didn’t want to wait until I was fully recovered to make a video” … “I remembered a Michael Jackson performance at the Soul Train awards in 1993, where he sprained his ankle during rehearsal and performed sitting down. When I got up to dance that day at the end of the video, that was literally the first time I had danced in five months. We saved it for the end of the shoot in case I re-injured myself (which, thankfully, I didn’t).”
Download Lynryd Frynd EP for free via the artist’s website.
“I Will Always Love You” was written by Dolly Parton. She recorded it in 1973 and again in 1982. The song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart both times.
And then there was Whitney Houston’s version.
Produced by David Foster for the soundtrack to the movie The Bodyguard, Whitney Houston re-arranged the song, broke it down and built it back up with a vocal performance that knocks your socks off. It was almost as if she had something to prove. Houston’s version of the song set records (staying at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 14 weeks), sold hundreds of thousands of copies, achieved international success and won many awards including a Grammy Award for Record of the Year.
Acclaimed Somali hip hop emcee and singer-songwriter K’NAAN returns today with his More Beautiful Than Silence EP on A&M/Octone Records. The 5ive-track EP includes cameos by Nas on lead single, “Nothing to Lose” and current single, “Is Anybody Out There” featuring Nelly Furtado.
More Beautiful is a good taste of what the artist is set to unleash, when he releases his third LP Country, God Or The Girl, later this year. Other appearances include Bono, Will.i.am and B.o.B. Peep the lyric videos below.
Track list:
1. “Is Anybody Out There?” featuring Nelly Furtado
A very talented group of musicians that rose to the top of the music world not once but twice, Kool & the Gang continues to be one of the most beloved bands of the last 30 years. Formed by Robert “Kool” Bell, his brother Ronald Bell and bunch of their New Jersey teenage friends in the mid-60s (then called the Jazziacs), the group played traditional jazz in regional venues for several years, slowly morphing their style to incorporate emerging funk sounds of Sly and the Family Stone and James Brown. They were signed by the De-Lite label in the early 70s and gathered a small but loyal national following (particularly for their 1971 release Live at the Sex Machine). The group’s fortunes exploded in 1974 with Wild and Peaceful, an infectiously raw album that spawned three smash hits, “Funky Stuff,” “Hollywood Swinging,” and “Jungle Boogie,” all featuring great instrumentation and lyrics virtually shouted by the group. However, as quickly as they rode to fame, Kool & the Gang faded, their rough sound appearing out of place against the slick, dance-oriented sounds that began to dominate popular radio in the late 70s.
“I Can’t Make You Love Me” by Bonnie Raitt was written by Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin and features Bruce Hornsby on the piano. A song with incredibly honest and vulnerable lyrics–it has been recorded by several artists including George Michael, Prince, Nancy Wilson, Tank and Boyz II Men among others. Bruce Hornsby has also included it in his set lists of songs on tour at times. “I Can’t Make You Love Me”… from Bonnie Raitt’s 1991 album Luck Of The Draw.
