Julianne Hough: Dancing Up The Charts

Ken Tucker

Julianne Hough took the scenic route to Nashville.

Growing up one of five dancing and singing Utah siblings -- sometimes nicknamed "the blonde Osmonds" -- she moved to London to study performing arts at age 10. Five years later, she returned to Utah, then eventually moved to Los Angeles, where she joined the cast of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."

She has partnered with the show's last two champions, Apolo Ohno and Helio Castroneves, and this season is paired with TV/radio star Adam Carolla. Her debut self-titled album this week came in at No. 3 behind only 3 Doors Down and Bun-B. Meanwhile, her debut Mercury single, the infectious "That Song in My Head" (written by Jim Collins, Wendell Mobley and Tony Martin), has caught the attention of country radio: This week, it jumps 32-29 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart.

Hough landed her deal with Mercury Nashville not long after her digital single "Will You Dance With Me" -- a collaboration with veteran producer David Malloy -- peaked at No. 8 on iTunes' country chart last year.

"I've always wanted to sing country music," the 19-year-old says. "I've been singing as long as I've been dancing and it's actually a bigger passion of mine."

Country WSOC Charlotte, N.C., PD D.J. Stout calls Hough's single "one of the best debut singles I have heard by a female artist in a while. Stout adds that he's not a regular viewer of "Dancing" and didn't know who Hough was. "Being in front of that many people each week is definitely a positive, but if the song wasn't good I wouldn't play it," he says.

After the show's season ends in May, Hough will head out on the road with Brad Paisley.

The Billboard Q&A: Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson

Paul Sexton


Paul Bruce Dickinson made his live debut with Iron Maiden at the end of 1981, some two years after the band started its enduring relationship with EMI Records. He had viewed the group's early emergence from a ringside seat as lead singer with Samson, another of the bands in what the rock press dubbed "the new wave of British heavy metal." Since then, he has been not only Iron Maiden's definitive lead singer, but an author, sportsman, a solo artist for five years in the 1990s, a radio DJ and a pilot. In the middle of the most successful global tour of the band's career, he sat down with Billboard to discuss his, and Maiden's, life and times.

When you joined Maiden, how aware had you been of the band?

We effectively grew up together, musically, because I was in Samson, and all the bands were aware of everybody else, we all gigged together. It's fair to say Maiden had this momentum about them. It was like standing in front of a truck. They had that energy before they got the deal [with EMI].

But that took quite a while to build, didn't it?

It did, but a lot of that was Steve [Harris, bassist and founding member] trying to get the personnel right, trying to get the commitment from people. Once the deal was signed, the press leapt all over it. "Running Free" came out, and it cunningly snuck in under the radar of all the punk stuff. They must have had to restrain Steve, because he absolutely hated punk. The first album ["Iron Maiden," 1980] went to No. 4, which was an astonishing feat for a band like that.

I was in Samson; we were supposed to be going off on tour supporting Maiden. I got the date list and there were 50 or 60 shows, right the way through Europe. I thought, "This is unbelievable." We were still scrabbling around trying to find gigs in Newbridge Memorial Hall in Gwent [Wales]. That fell through, we never did it, which in retrospect was probably a good thing. Maiden came back, having made quite a serious dent in the U.S. market, which they never expected.

Then, before your arrival, the band did "Killers" in 1981.

I liked that more than the first album. It got sniffily received [in the United Kingdom], because it wasn't very punk. They wanted [producer] Martin Birch for the first album and didn't think they could get him. The irony was, Martin had noticed the band and was like, "I'd love to work with them." Anyway, it did happen on the second album, and by then Adrian[Smith, guitarist] had joined and was writing, so really the sound of the band just matured massively.

That was the album that really started to break them in America, and actually had a radio hit, "Wrathchild."


What were the circumstances of you replacing Paul Di'anno as lead singer?

Things with Paul hadn't been going terribly well, and they'd made the decision to get rid of him. So they came and took a peek at me. Clive [Burr, Maiden's then-drummer] had been in Samson for three years, and "Killers" was being made at Zomba Studios [in northwest London], which back then was Morgan Studios.

We were in Morgan, and Maiden were in the [studio] opposite. So we used to go to the pub and have a few beers and chat. I went over and listened to the Maiden record and Clive would come over and listen to ours.

Had you looked across at the band and thought, "I could do that"?

Oh, I did that the first time I saw Maiden play, in Camden [north London] at the Music Machine. It was like a four-act bill, we were supposed to be headlining and Maiden were third on the bill. They turned up and it was clearly their audience. Everybody left as soon as they'd finished.

I stood at the back watching and thought, "Christ, this is a great band. Imagine what I could do if I was singing with that band."

Were you cocky in those days?

Absolutely, I had an unfeasible amount of balls. Rod Smallwood offered me the chance of an audition, he didn't offer me the job. This was at Reading Festival.

I said, "Well, alright. First of all, if I do the audition, I'm going to get the job, so you need to figure out whether or not you want me onboard, because I don't want to be unless I can be a pain in the ass and have some opinions.

"I'm not going to be like the old guy. I'm going to have disagreements with Steve, because I've got some ideas about how I want to change things around. So if you don't want that, you'd better tell me now."

They asked me to learn three songs and I basically learned the lot, both albums.
So we turned up to the rehearsal room and let rip. Steve picked up the phone and said, "Could we get him into a studio today?"

They were still doing gigs with Paul. The atmosphere was a bit down. When they came back from Sweden, we popped in the studio, recorded three songs and that was it. That was "job done." We all went out and got very drunk that night.

It seems as though Maiden developed a common cause because the band members were, and still are, outsiders.

We are still outsiders. We always will be, because that's our essential nature. I can't imagine what it would be like to go to vacuous showbiz parties. It'd be a nightmare. It's just not what we're about. The show's the thing. Everything you need to know about Iron Maiden is onstage.

So when you joined, you hit the ground running.

There was no transition. It was zero to 100 miles an hour in one stride. That rush continued for five years, solid. It was No. 1 album ["The Number of the Beast," 1982], No. 1 tour, biggest thing on the planet. I'd never done a gig outside the U.K. until I joined Maiden. Unless Inverness [Scotland] counts. I'd probably only done 20 or 30 gigs in my life.

How did you develop your personal stagecraft?

It's one thing to project a confident air to the back of a club. It's another to do the same thing in a theater, then an arena, and it's quite another thing to do it in a festival. Before the days of camera and side screens, you were just a little speck. It was a rapid learning curve.

My aim as a frontman is always to try and shrink the venue, if you can, to turn that football stadium into the world's smallest club. At least you have to try. The essence of the Maiden experience is that we want to include everybody in it.

When "The Number of the Beast" hit No. 1 on the U.K. charts in April 1982, it knocked Barbra Streisand's "Love Songs" off the top. It was almost anti-establishment.

Yes, we had a bit of a history of that. With "Bring Your Daughter . . . to the Slaughter" [in January 1991] we did a service to the nation by knocking Sir Cliff [Richard] off the Christmas No. 1. I'm still waiting for my [royal honor as a] C.B.E. for that.
That leads into a question about the way you've always been viewed by the U.K. music mainstream.

The funny thing is, we were on Saturday morning telly, on "Tiswas." At the time, everything was so overwhelming. Some of it was, "Let's do this and see what happens."

But you were, and still are, regulars in the singles chart.

Oh, yeah, and if you listen to some of the singles we had out, some of them were pretty bloody good, quite catchy, like "Can I Play With Madness." People listen to the catalog and go, "Oh, it's Maiden, not a lot of melody." It's like, "Just a minute!" All of our songs are stuffed full of tunes.

You personally have always taken on challenges, whether it's fencing, broadcasting, being an author or being a pilot.

That's because I just have an insatiable curiosity about the nature of things, and I think the best way to find out about something is to try and do it. Flying wasn't on a list. It would be awfully good from the point of view of people writing about us if there was a plan, but there isn't.

The movie we're just doing ["Chemical Wedding"] stems from conversations in the pub with Julian Doyle [Dickinson's co-writer on the film and its director] 15 years ago. As it happens, we're now having the most successful tour in the band's history, the band is a global phenomenon, and in the same year, we get to release a feature film, followed shortly afterwards by another feature film with a documentary, DVD, all the rest of it. Fucking hell, it looks like a plan. It's not. It's totally random.

So you're probably not very good at sitting around daydreaming.

I'm very good at daydreaming. Ask any of my schoolteachers.

In the period when you were out of the band (1993-1998), did your solo work fulfill you?

The reason I left Maiden was that I genuinely didn't know if I was getting that buzz anymore from doing new stuff. Nothing bad happened, there were no disagreements. The machine ran like clockwork and that's when I started to get really antsy.

Also, the cult status of the band meant that whatever you did, people would go, in a patronizing fashion, "Oh, nice effort." I didn't think they'd have any problem finding another singer, but their subsequent career path hit a few oily patches on the road.

My own career fell off a cliff, and I decided I'd have one go at completely reinventing [myself], so everybody thought I'd gone raving mad, and I came up with an album called "Skunkworks" [1996]. It got great reviews, but the record company wasn't sure.

Then I did a record called "The Chemical Wedding" [1998], which was digging really deep into territory I'd never been to before, but keeping a rock sensibility.

I think it's fair to say it was a fairly groundbreaking album, did really well sales-wise and I could see myself having a successful global cottage industry as an artist. Clearly it was never going to rival Maiden. But at the same time, looking at Maiden, it was obvious something was going to crack.

How did you develop as an artist during those solo years?

I was a much deeper musician by the time I got to "Chemical Wedding" than I ever was during the latter two or three albums with Maiden. I was much more serious about it. Roy Z, who was my producer and collaborator, said, "You've got to go back. You've done it, you've changed yourself around, it's worked. But the world needs Iron Maiden."

And I thought, "It does." Then we had a meeting, myself and Steve. He was a bit leery at first. His main thing was wanting to know, if I came back, that I wasn't going to leave again. I said, "Quite the contrary—if we glue it all back together again, we could do stuff that's better than we ever thought possible. It could be bigger than we ever dreamed of."
And that's pretty much the way it's turned out. It's a really exciting place to be at the moment.

What's it like for young bands out there just starting up?

We were brought up in clubs. Then you had this transitional phase of bands who looked wonderful on the cover of Vogue. But now it's come full circle, and bands are doing their own little YouTube things, and everything's gone live in a big way, and it's all eye contact.

You've just got to go out and do it. There's nothing between you and the audience, and I see a whole generation of bands now that really have that ability.

And the global numbers on your ticket sales, can you believe those?

When bands start out, the excitement level is 100% and the experience level is zero. Usually there's a trade-off, and by the time they finish their careers, their experience level is 100% and the excitement level is zero.

We're in this situation now where the excitement is back up to 100%, but the experience is up there as well, so we can play these songs with all that experience backing us up.

So how would you compare Maiden now with the group of, say, 25 years ago?

The way we play the songs now is in many ways more powerful, it's more under control. It's not like somebody running so fast that their legs are running away underneath them, which is kind of what it was like in the '80s. This is a mature runner now who knows the pace and has always got something in the tank for the sprint when it's appropriate. We've reached that sweet spot.

March 18, 2008

Cortney Harding, N.Y.

Given the radical changes that Panic at the Disco has made to its image during the course of the last year, it's hard not to read the lyrics to its new album's opening song as a pre-emptive strike against critics.

"Oh, how it's been so long/we're so sorry we've been gone/we were busy writing songs/for you," bassist Jon Walker sings, by way of apology for the two-and-a-half-year lag between 2005's "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out" and the new "Pretty. Odd.," due March 25 via Fueled by Ramen/Atlantic. Then, he launches into lines meant to comfort fans who have no doubt noticed their favorite band now looks less like Queen and more like the Kinks: "You don't have to worry 'cause we're still the same band."

Lyricist/guitarist Ryan Ross describes the song as "a lighthearted way to make an important statement." But despite Ross' insistence that things in Panic-land are business as usual, the fact is, a number of things have changed since the band burst on the scene in 2005, resplendent in layers of makeup and surrounded by circus performers.

The band shed one member (bassist Brent Wilson) and replaced him with Walker. The members traded their Hedi Slimane-style black suits for vests, cravats and floral patterns.

And perhaps most crucially, they toned down the bombastic, glammy sound of their first record, replacing it with a stripped-down approach that, at times, recalls the Beatles and Bright Eyes.

But it was that bombastic, glammy sound that made them stars in the first place. And with Panic at the Disco's history being so tied to it, will it be easy to shed?

At first, the band took its time promoting their debut, moving 4,000 copies per week while shooting its first video, for the song "I Write Sins Not Tragedies." That clip, an over-the-top production that featured the Lucent Dossier Vaudeville Cirque, premiered January 2006 on MTV's "TRL" and launched them into the national consciousness. For the remainder of 2006, the band was a road dog, selling out theaters before embarking on an arena tour. The accompanying stage sets and visuals were splashy and intricate; shows featured ballerinas and acrobats, while Panic's members went through so much makeup that MAC Cosmetics offered to set them up with a supply of eyeliner in exchange for an endorsement.

They released a series of big-budget videos, again depicting the members as something straight out of the Moulin Rouge, culminating in the band taking home MTV's video of the year award for "Sins" in 2006. Two months prior, "Fever" had peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard 200, before being certified platinum a month later. To date, it has sold 1.7 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

After its banner year in 2006, Panic retreated to a cabin in the woods in early 2007 to begin work on its follow-up. Ross describes the initial effort as "a short story set to music. I was mostly working on it by myself, and while the other guys liked it, it wasn't as good as I wanted it to be."

Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz, who discovered the band, signed them to his imprint and describes his role in the band's development as "Obi-Wan living in the desert," says he heard the lost record and that it sounded like "a bizarre musical about wolves. It felt a bit forced."

The death of that project, Ross says, "gave me a lot of insight. It became easier to move forward after that was done." Ross adopted the Beatles as his new role models for the next take on the second Panic album. "They weren't afraid to try things and do what they wanted to do," he says.

"We wanted to grow, and we were really over the circus theme at that point," he continues. "We went out in the woods and got new clothes and all grew beards. Jon and [frontman] Brendon [Urie] wrote songs for the record, and it became more of a band effort and less about me."

In the summer of 2007, Panic took the opportunity to try out new songs, performing them at several festivals around Europe. For a band whose garish live show had been its staple, it also took a risk by performing, as Wentz puts it, "wearing flannel shirts and jeans. They looked like they were coming out to do covers of the Band."

If performing looking like Pearl Jam circa 1993 was the band's first airing of its new self, then the next act represented the group throwing down the gauntlet. After two years of being officially known as "Panic! at the Disco," the band removed the exclamation point from its name.

"We ruined a lot of MySpace names with that move," Urie says sarcastically. "You look silly now if your MySpace name is John! At The Disco."

The fans who haunt the band's MySpace and Facebook pages noticed the change and took to the forums to engage in some grammatically incorrect debates, with an even split between those calling the band a sellout and those writing the minor change off as harmless.

For the band, at least, the decision was seeped in meaning. "Dropping the exclamation point was our way of drawing a line in the sand," Ross says. "We have a new record and we feel like a new band. We were all tired of it, and we went ahead and got rid of it."

The "Pretty. Odd." campaign kicked into high gear Dec. 11, shortly after Billboard announced the release date of the new record. A series of puzzles began to appear on the band's Web site, with the solution to the first being, "You don't have to worry." A second puzzle revealed samples from a song on the upcoming album, and the third led to a blog entry on MySpace, which updated the progress of the album and offered a rough version of the song "We're So Starving." Then came roll-out of the poppy single "Nine In the Afternoon," which has been climbing on the Hot 100 since debuting there six weeks ago.

"It's important for us to reinvent our sound and our visual," Urie says. "We were really young when we wrote the first record, and that teenage angst paid off well. But we are happy with the music and with the place we are in. In a weird way, this feels like another first record."

March 12, 2008

Fred Bronson

Alan Jackson's "Good Time," his 20th title to appear on the Billboard album chart, sits at the top of The Billboard 200.

THE JACKSONS: One Jackson replaces another at the top of The Billboard 200, with Janet Jackson's "Discipline" (Island) giving way to Alan Jackson's "Good Time" (Arista), while another Jackson has his first new entry since 2005.

"Good Time" is Alan Jackson's 20th title to appear on the Billboard album chart. He made his debut 18 years ago next week with "Here in the Real World," which entered on March 31, 1990 and peaked at No. 57 the week of May 25, 1991. This is Jackson's fourth visit to the penthouse. His No. 1 albums are:

"Drive," four weeks (2002)
"Greatest Hits Volume II and Some Other Stuff," one week (2003)
"What I Do," one week (2004)
"Good Time," one week to date (2008)

Alan Jackson also debuts at No. 1 on Top Country Albums, where "Good Time" is his 12th set to achieve pole position:

"A Lot About Livin' (And a Little 'Bout Love)," five weeks (1993)
"Who I Am," one week (1994)
"The Greatest Hits Collection," four weeks (1995)
"Everything I Love," three weeks (1996)
"High Mileage," two weeks (1998)
"When Somebody Loves You," two weeks (2000)
"Drive," six weeks (2002)
"Greatest Hits Volume II and Some Other Stuff," 11 weeks (2003)
"What I Do," one week (2004)
"Precious Memories," two weeks (2006)
"Like Red on a Rose," one week (2006)
"Good Time," one week to date (2008)

Jackson's No. 1 album may yield a No. 1 single as early as next week, depending on how tenacious Carrie Underwood's "All-American Girl" (Arista) is. While "Girl" rules for a second week, Jackson's "Small Town Southern Man" moves up to second place. If "Man" bests "Girl," Jackson will have his 22nd country singles chart-topper and his first in four years, since "Remember When" had a two-week reign in February 2004.

The third Jackson making a chart impact this week is Jackson Browne, who has his highest new entry on The Billboard 200 in exactly 22 years. Opening at No. 24 is "Solo Acoustic Vol. 2" (Inside), the sequel to his last album to chart, "Solo Acoustic Vol. 1," No. 55 in 2005.
"Vol. 2" is Browne's highest-charting album since "Lives in the Balance" weighed in at No. 23 in 1986. "Balance" debuted the week of March 22, 1986.

The Los Angeles-raised Browne made his Billboard album chart debut the week of March 18, 1972, with an eponymously-titled set that was also known as "Saturate Before Using." That gives Browne an album chart span of 36 years.


'SOUL' MAN: After scoring two chart albums in the '80s and one in the '90s, Michael McDonald makes his fourth appearance of the 21st century on The Billboard 200 as a solo artist.

"Soul Speak" (Universal Motown) breaks in at No. 12, making it McDonald's highest entry since "Motown Two" worked its way to No. 9 in 2004. "Soul Speak" is McDonald's seventh chart entry away from the Doobie Brothers. The first was "If That's What It Takes," which sped to No. 6 in 1982, McDonald's high water mark as a solo artist. Counting back to "Takes," McDonald has a solo album chart span of 25 years, six months and four weeks. Including his work with the Doobie Brothers, McDonald's album chart span is 31 years, 11 months and three weeks, dating back to the April 1976 debut of the band's fifth chart LP, "Takin' It to the Streets."

COLBIE'S GOOD DAY: While Colbie Caillat's latest single is "Realize," her debut hit, "Bubbly" (Universal Republic), remains entrenched at No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart for the 11th week in a row. That's the longest consecutive grip on the top rung since 2006, when Daniel Powter's "Bad Day" led the list for 18 non-stop weeks.

Here is a summary of the longest consecutive runs at No. 1 on the AC survey in this millennium:

23 consecutive weeks: "Drift Away," Uncle Kracker featuring Dobie Gray (2003)
21 consecutive weeks: "A New Day Has Come," Celine Dion (2002)
20 consecutive weeks: "Breakaway," Kelly Clarkson (2005)
18 consecutive weeks: "Bad Day," Daniel Powter (2006)
17 consecutive weeks: "Lonely No More," Rob Thomas (2005)
13 consecutive weeks: "Breathe," Faith Hill (2000)
11 consecutive weeks: "This I Promise You," 'N Sync (2001)
11 consecutive weeks: "Hero," Enrique Iglesias (2002)
11 consecutive weeks: "Bubbly," Colbie Caillat (2008)



'CAN' HEAT: A couple of weeks ago, I suggested that Ray J was about to earn his first top 10 hit on The Billboard Hot 100, as "Sexy Can I" (Knockout/Deja 34) was poised to surpass the No. 11 peak of his 2006 hit "One Wish."
That prediction has come true, as "Sexy Can I" leaps 13-7 to land Ray J and Yung Berg in the top 10. "Can" is Ray J's fifth chart entry on the Hot 100 over an 11-year span. His first single, "Let It Go," peaked at No. 22 exactly 11 years ago, on the chart dated March 22, 1997.


NEW MARK FOR MARCUS: Jazz musician/composer Marcus Miller has his highest new entry to date on Top Jazz Contemporary Albums. The self-titled "Marcus" (3 Deuces/Concord Jazz) bows at No. 4, besting the No. 6 debuts of "Live & More" in 1998 and "M Squared" in 2001.

Miller first appeared on this tally in January 1988 with "Music from Siesta," which peaked at No. 12. His highest-charting album to date is the above-mentioned "M Squared," which spent one week in the top spot in July 2001.

March 13, 2008, 11:30 AM ET

Ann Donahue, L.A.

Sure, for most people, "American Idol" is a fun way to spend two nights a week on the couch, groaning at every off-key note and appalling fashion choice. But for the studio audience, it is a lot more intense - a combination of a live concert, a sporting event and a glammy movie premiere. Billboard.com was in the audience at the results show on March 12 (we barely avoided being stabbed by Jim Carrey's elephant ears) and got the inside scoop on what goes on behind the scenes of a taping at CBS Television City. To up the dramatic tension ala Ryan Seacrest, here are Top Ten Secrets You'll Only Know If You Were At AI Live.

10. The new set is huge.
Imagine your high school gymnasium, and double it. The previous incarnation was pretty cramped, but double-decking the main stage with the orchestra really makes it feel like something momentous is about to unfurl. And the rotating globes on the sides are pretty creepy - especially since the one on the left was stuck. Kind of makes you wonder about the electrical wiring.

9. The audience is part of the show.
Before the show and during commercial breaks, audience members are invited on stage to make fools of themselves to win $10 iTunes gift cards. Many people, it seems, will sell out their dignity for a $10 iTunes gift card. And moonwalking is still in, did you know?

8. Simon doesn't rile the folks.
Actually, this one may not be surprising at all: the family members of the contestants don't react to Simon Cowell, at all. It's like he's already crushed their souls. They are seriously unamused.

7. The musicians only dress their upper half.
The orchestra wears sparkly blouses and proper dress shirts; their upper bodies are all that can be seen on camera. Below the line of sight they're wearing jeans and Uggs.

6. Pressure? What pressure?
Despite Ryan Seacrest's dramatic insistence that the bottom three were very (very!) nervous that their time on "Idol" might be coming to an end, both Syesha Mercado and Kristy Lee Cook seemed to be handling the pressure pretty well. They spent the first commercial break giggling and spinning around and around on the chairs they were relegated to on the side of the stage.

5. McPhee wardrobe malfunctions? No way.
Katharine McPhee's performance was carefully choreographed so as to not show the back of her dress to the cameras. It was wispy and white, and you could tell that it risked becoming totally transparent under the stage lights.

4. The judges have bodyguards.
Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon each have their own bodyguards who escort them in and out of the stage area during each commercial break. When the camera pans to the "mosh pit" on the sides of the judges' table, you may notice some burly gentlemen watching the show. They're actually making sure no one takes a dive towards the judges.

3. Being in the bottom three is no fun.
Before the final member of the bottom three was selected, Ramiele Malubay seemed truly worried that it was her time to go. (Judging by her positioning, she was sitting in the same spot - fourth from the end - that Syesha and Kristy were before they were nudged to the side.) Amanda Overmyer and David Cook came over to comfort Ramiele during a commercial break, and she went a little fetal.

2. Jim Carrey wasn't just there to show off his Seussian elephant suit.
Yep, Carrey stayed to watch the entire show - none of this do-the-promo-and-cash-the-check movie star behavior. After the intro, he popped off the main soundstage to lose the "Horton Hears a Who" costume, then he came back in to wait and watch in the wings until his second go-around onscreen.

1. "Taped Live" is an oxymoron.
The segment with the phone calls and McPhee's performance? It was taped before the show started, requiring audience members to be there at 4:15 p.m. before the live part of the show started at 6 p.m. It might not be a surprise to eagle-eyed viewers out there, who could have spotted the incongruity of Syesha and Kristy being back on the couches when they panned over the contestants.

Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, Class Of 2008

March 10, 2008, 1:00 PM EST

Jessica Letkemann, Leah Kaufman and Susan Nunziata

A new set of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers is being inducted on March 10 at New York's Waldorf-Astoria. The wide range of genres and accomplishments represented by this year's class include pop (Madonna), songwriting mastery (Leonard Cohen, Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff), rock (Dave Clark Five, the Ventures, John Mellencamp) and blues (Little Walter).


MADONNA

Born: August 16, 1958
First Album: "Madonna," 1983
First Billboard Chart Appearance: "Everybody," No. 3 on the Hot Dance/Club Play chart, 1982
Became Hall of Fame Eligible: 2008
Being Inducted By: Justin Timberlake (He becomes eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2023.)

Madonna's entry into the Rock Hall comes literally at the first moment she's eligible, her first album being exactly a quarter century old this year. Since the release of that self-titled debut in 1983, Madonna has been no stranger to the Billboard charts. Her steady stream of famed Hot 100 No. 1's began with "Like a Virgin" and have included soundtrack ballads (1985's "Crazy For You," 1986's "Live To Tell"), pure pop ("1987's "Who's That Girl), dance jams (2000's "Music") and everything between. A total of 12 of her singles have reached the top of the Hot 100, and six of her studio albums have repeated the same feat on the Billboard 200.

After her most recent album, 2006's "Confessions on a Dance Floor," landed at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, Madonna made headlines late last year by leaving longtime label Warner Music Group to sign a deal with Live Nation reportedly worth $120 million. A combination of the deal, her "Confessions" tour and her H&M clothing line earned her the No. 1 spot on the Forbes list of music’s wealthiest women. Madonna will release a new album, "Hard Candy," in April.

THE DAVE CLARK FIVE

Formed: 1961
Members: Dave Clark, Mike Smith, Rick Huxley, Denis Payton, Lenny Davidson
First US Album: "Glad All Over," 1964
First Billboard Chart Appearance: "Do You Love Me?," No. 11 on the Hot 100 in 1963
Became Hall of Fame Eligible: 1989
Being Inducted By: actor Tom Hanks

Lead singer Mike Smith, who died of pneumonia at age 64 just two weeks short of the 2008 induction ceremony, may not have lived to take the podium and rock the event with his old bandmates, but he did live to know he'd made it into the Hall of Fame.

Smith and drummer Dave Clark's eponymous band formed in London just in time to become one of the leading bands of the British Invasion, right after the Beatles. By the time they disbanded in 1970, the group had logged five albums in the top ten of the Billboard 200 chart (including a No. 3 peak for "Glad All Over") and eight top ten singles on the Hot 100 chart, earning No. 6 with their best known single "Glad All Over" in 1963 and then scoring a No. 1 with their 1965 song "Over and Over."


JOHN MELLENCAMP

Born: October 7, 1951
First Album: "Chestnut Street Incident," 1976
First Billboard Chart Appearance: His album "John Cougar" peaked at No. 64 on the Billboard 200 in 1979.
Became Hall of Fame Eligible: 2001
Being Inducted By: Billy Joel (Joel entered the Hall of Fame in 1999)

A man of many names, Mellencamp has recorded as Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, John Cougar Mellencamp, and John Mellencamp over the course of his 32-year career, and he's managed to land on the Billboard charts with all of his monikers except the first.

A practitioner of solid Midwestern rock and roll, the Indiana native has had eight albums reach the top ten of the Billboard 200, including a No. 1 peak for 1982's "American Fool" and a No. 5 peak just last year for "Freedom's Road." Each of Mellencamp's ten Hot 100 top tens are memorable, often nostalgic singles, from "Hurt's So Good" (No. 2) and "Jack and Diane" (No. 1) in 1982 to "Small Town" (No. 6, 1985) and "Wild Night (with Me'Shell Ndegeocello, No. 3, 1994).

LEONARD COHEN

Born: September 21, 1934
First Album: "Songs of Leonard Cohen," 1968
Became Hall of Fame Eligible: 1993
Being Inducted By: Lou Reed (Reed entered the Hall of Fame in 1996 as a member of the Velvet Underground)

In the nearly 40 years since Leonard Cohen, already an accomplished poet and novelist, released his first recording on Columbia Records, popular music has undergone myriad changes in style and substance.

Although his career has ebbed and flowed in that time, Cohen's songwriting has remained steadfast, tapping with each release into that place in each of us where sorrow and joy meet, giving generations of listeners the chance to discover the consolation and healing that can be found in facing pain head-on.

His timeless recordings have been like ripples in a lake, spanning out through the years to touch millions around the globe and spawning a formidable assortment of covers in a variety of languages, including several tribute albums.

Over 400 artists, from Judy Collins to Jesus and Mary Chain, have covered his songs. Bob Dylan, k.d. lang, Bono and John Cale are among the dozens of people who have done versions of "Hallelujah." The late Jeff Buckley's version of the song was No. 1 at iTunes on March 9, likely on the strength of "American Idol" contestant Jason Castro's rendition on the show recently.

THE VENTURES

Formed: 1959
Members: Nokie Edwards, Mel Taylor, Bob Bogle, Gerry McGee, Don Wilson
First Album: "Walk, Don't Run," 1960
First Billboard Chart Appearance: "Walk, Don't Run" No. 2 on the Hot 100 in 1960
Became Hall of Fame Eligible: 1985
Being Inducted By: John Fogerty (Fogerty entered the Hall of Fame in 1993 as a member of Creedence Clearwater Revival)

The Ventures formed in 1959 and landed their first charting single the following year with "Walk Don't Run," leading the wave of '60s surf-rock. The instrumental climbed to No. 2 on the Hot 100 and is considered among the first surf songs to enter the tally.

The song was also among the Billboard's top singles of the year, landing at No. 25 on the year-end pop singles chart for 1960. The group recurred through the year-end charts of the decade, grabbing a spot on 1963's Top Pop Albums chart for "The Ventures Play Telstar, The Lonely Bull and Others" (No. 57), on 1964's Top Pop Singles chart for "Walk, Don't Run '64" (No. 90) and 1969's Top Pop Albums chart for "Hawaii Five-O," a cover of the TV show's theme song.

KENNY GAMBLE and LEON HUFF

Born: Gamble, August 11, 1943; Huff, April 8, 1942
First Single: (as producers) "The '81" by Candy and the Kisses, 1964
First Billboard Chart Appearance: Dee Dee Warwick's version of "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" No. 88 on the Hot 100 in 1966
Became Hall of Fame Eligible: 1985
Being Inducted By: Jerry Butler (Butler entered the Hall of Fame in 1991 as a member of the Impressions)

The names Gamble and Huff mean a lot to fans of 20th century American songwriting, but even if you aren't into reading music credits, you could probably sing along to at least a dozen of the songs these two have been behind either as producers or songsmiths.

Chief builders of Philly Soul, the twosome wrote hits like "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" (also a Hot 100 No. 2 for the Supremes and Temptations) and "Only the Strong Survive" (a Hot 100 No. 4 for Jerry Butler, who is inducting them) before launching Philadelphia International Records in 1971. The label went on to release more hits than will fit in this space.

Huff and Gamble were responsible for Billy Paul's Hot 100 No. 1 "Me and Mrs. Jones," Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes' Hot 100 No. 3 "If You Don't Know Me By Now" (Simply Red's version reached No. 1 in 1989) and the O'Jay's Hot 100 No. 1 "Love Train," all three of which the pair also wrote.


LITTLE WALTER

Born: May 1, 1930
Died: February 15, 1968
First Billboard Chart Appearance: Muddy Waters' "Louisiana Blues," which featured Little Walter, reached No. 8 on the R&B chart in 1950.
Became Hall of Fame Eligible: 1975
Being Inducted By: Ben Harper (Harper will become eligible for the Rock Hall in 2019)

The unparalleled harmonica player began his career blowing the blues on the South Side of Chicago in the late '40s. Impressed by his skill, Walter was soon sitting in on sessions with legendary bluesman Muddy Waters. By 1952, after pioneering the amplified harmonica, he had a big hit on his own with the instrumental "Juke," which lingered at No. 1 on Billboard's R&B chart.

Before his death in 1968 at age 37 following a street fight, Walter racked up more than a dozen charting singles.

Flo Rida

"I didn't know 'Low' would get this big. It's the greatest feeling in the world." -- Flo Rida


March 05, 2008

Expanded from an article issue of Billboard magazine.


Digital Bonanza Lands Rapper Atop The Charts

When Flo Rida first took the bus from Florida to Los Angeles in hopes of launching a music career, he was so broke that he was forced to live on the streets.

Even worse, he once left his bag on a bench while milling around the Beverly Center mall, only to discover that the LAPD had confiscated it, fearing it contained a bomb.

Nowadays, the rapper's outlook is considerably brighter. His debut single, "Low" featuring T-Pain, spends an eleventh week atop the Billboard Hot 100 this week, and in the post-Christmas week, set a new record when it moved 470,000 digital downloads.

As a bridge to his Poe Boy/Atlantic debut, "Mail on Sunday" (March 18), "Low" is prominently featured as the lead track from the Disney film "Step Up 2 the Streets," which opened Feb. 14 in U.S. theaters. Atlantic released the soundtrack Feb. 5.

"It's hard to pick songs for a film like 'Step Up 2' because we don't use known stars," Disney Pictures music and soundtrack president Mitchell Lieb says. "So the dancing and the music really are the stars of the picture. I need my music to chart, and high, by the time the movie comes out."

There's no worries on that front, with "Low" having sold more than 1.78 million downloads through Jan. 6, according to Nielsen SoundScan. But Atlantic now faces the challenge of keeping audiences interested once Flo Rida's debut hits stores.

"Some people may say, 'Why did they give this song to the soundtrack?' " Atlantic VP of marketing James Lopez says. "This deal was done early in the development stages. We wanted to really utilize the marketing the film company was going to do to roll it out, because this is a major film with studio muscle."

Plus, the label has been building the Flo Rida story since late last summer, when he began playing club dates in Florida and the Southeast in conjunction with the release of "Low" to clubs in the area.

"This may seem like an overnight sensation to most of the country," Lopez says. "The song spread so much faster than we could travel."

The "Low" video debuted in early November on BET and MTV, inspiring nearly 100 YouTube videos of dancing fans. According to Atlantic director of digital marketing Brian Dackowski, the label quickly initiated partnerships with social networking sites like Imeem, where fans can upload their own photos and remixes of the "Low" clip.

Flo Rida also has his own YouTube channel, through which "Low" has garnered nearly 5 million plays, and interacts personally with fans on his MySpace site.

"This phenomenon was organic," Dackowski says. "We haven't had an artist take off like this before with a song picking up and kids across the country going for it on their own. It was like riding a wave."

Now, the rapper is putting the final touches on "Mail on Sunday," which features appearances by Ross, Sean Kingston, Lil Wayne, Trey Songz and Brisco, and production from J.R. Rotem, the Runners, Timbaland, Designated Hitters, Tracy Pierce and DJ Montay.

Atlantic is prepping for the imminent release of a viral video, "Gotta Eat" featuring Plies and Lupe Fiasco, and Lopez hopes a second official single will be at radio by the end of this month.

"We want to make sure the consumer buys into an artist and not just because of one song," he says. "We know his album is deep."

But despite all that's on the horizon, Flo Rida is simply thankful for his success and hoping for more. "They say if you grind hard enough, you'll shine," he says. "I didn't know 'Low' would get this big. It's the greatest feeling in the world."

Snoop Dogg

"With my career lasting this long, I had to start looking at the changes in music and the changes in me, seeing what's needed to stay here."


February 26, 2008

Gail Mitchell, L.A.


When Snoop Dogg hit CNN's "Larry King Live" Feb. 1, the segment may have brought into focus all of what's working for the rapper-turned-singer these days.

For starters, there was his burgeoning hit, "Sensual Seduction," playing in the background as Snoop took the talk show host to the Los Angeles hangout Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles. The electro-funk, '80s-influenced song oozed funk—and Snoop's heavily vocoded singing voice—while the rapper enlightened King to the ways of fried chicken and waffles.

The song is shaping into one of the fastest-climbing crossover hits of his career. After just 14 weeks on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart "Seduction" resides at No. 8, and No. 7 on the Hot 100. The song's clever, retro-themed video is reaping its share of buzz as well, getting played on the usual video channels, and perhaps more importantly, is a massive viral hit at YouTube. The heat the single has generated pushed the release date for Snoop's new Doggy Style/Geffen/Interscope album, "Ego Trippin'," up from May to March 11.

Snoop Dogg (born Calvin Broadus) has been full of surprises during his 15-year transition from gangsta rapper to lovable mainstream brand. That he's been able to tweak and have fun with rap's tough-guy image without losing street or mainstream credibility—despite well-publicized run-ins with the law over weapons and drugs—is a singular accomplishment.

Snoop attributes his career evolution to simply being a smart "PIMP": Player Into Making Progress.


"That is what that word has always meant to me," the Long Beach, Calif., native says in his signature drawl. "You may think it's a man sending a woman to a corner or someone taking something from someone else. That's the misconception. You've got to know how to pimp the game and not get pimped. Use situations to your advantage and flip the script like I did."

DOGGED PURSUIT OF HISTORY

Seated at a small table in a homey apartment above the legendary Hollywood corner of Sunset and Vine, Snoop Dogg exhibits the rigors of meeting the May-to-March push-up of "Ego Trippin'." With his hair flying loose in Gene Wilder-esque fashion, the visibly tired rapper confirms the album is indeed finally complete. "That's why I look like this, a mad scientist," he says with a short laugh.

But as the interview progresses, Snoop grows more animated when the discussion turns to artistic longevity and the creative impetus behind the album. Drawing inspiration from such musical mainstays as Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield, Snoop says it was time for him to go outside the box.

"I'm the nicest rapper in the world," he quietly declares. "But at the same time I've got that bad boy persona and I didn't really want to approach it like that this time. I wanted to make a record that felt good the whole way through as opposed to trying to make a record that was so gangsta, so hard or so 'hood-appealing. I looked at people before me to see how they went through different decades with their music. Curtis and Marvin lasted, making their same kind of music even after disco came in and then played out. With my career lasting this long, I had to start looking at the changes in music and the changes in me, seeing what's needed to stay here."

Bumping into new jack swing guru and former Blackstreet frontman Teddy Riley while both were saluted during VH1's Hip-Hop Honors last year, Snoop says he felt God was telling him that he "needed to work with this guy." Joining forces with DJ Quik, Snoop and Riley executive-produced the album as the new production team QDT (Quik Dogg Teddy), with collaborative assists from Terrace Martin, Shawty Redd, the Neptunes, Khao and Whitey Ford (aka Everlast), among others.

The album comprises 21 tracks with just two featured rappers, according to Snoop: Too Short and Mr. Fab (on the track "Life of the Party"). Otherwise, it's a more musical Snoop this time out, aided by such guests as Raphael Saadiq, Charlie Wilson and his background singer Tone. Snoop also sings a cover of the Time's 1981 R&B top 10 hit "Cool," produced by Riley.

R&B isn't the only genre Snoop channels. He focuses on his love of country music on the Whitey Ford-written and produced "My Medicine," the guitar sound of which mirrors that of country pioneer Johnny Cash.

"When he goes against the grain, those are usually his biggest hits," Interscope/Geffen/A&M marketing executive Tim Reid says, citing the 2004 No. 1 crossover hit "Drop It Like It's Hot" featuring Pharrell. "That was a different departure for him and now he's setting the tone again with 'Seduction.' "

Snoop believes his foray into singing and working with other genres of music will resonate with consumers because the same Snoop essence that fans have come to love still remains. "I'm not trying to be a real R&B singer, holding notes and going for dramatic moments. It's just great songs with good melodies that I can hold but it's still within the world of Snoop Dogg," he says. "I always stay Snoop Dogg regardless of any change."

To take advantage of the lightning sparked by "Seduction," the label has booked Snoop on a promo tour. Kicking off in New Orleans during NBA All-Star weekend, Snoop hosted an album listening party for key tastemakers, programmers and retailers followed by a performance at the city's House of Blues.

A similar pattern will be followed during stopovers in New York (where he's booked to appear Feb. 22 at Winter Fest '08 with host DJ Khaled), Detroit, Chicago, Houston and Atlanta, before he returns to Los Angeles the first week of March.

Then it's back on the road during the week of release. Snoop will visit the David Letterman and Conan O'Brien shows, BET's "106 & Park" and "Rip the Runway," MTV's "TRL" and ABC's "The View." He'll also do an in-store at Best Buy, and an appearance on "Yahoo Live Sets" that will air the weekend after the album's release. The upcoming release is promoted on the E! Entertainment reality show "Snoop Dogg's Father Hood."

Meanwhile, second single "Life of the Party" is beginning to go to radio now. Its accompanying video was shot in Las Vegas. While in Vegas, he shot another video: a street-themed short for the autobiographical track "Neva Have 2 Worry." That video will be used as an Internet component to support the album.

A full-length domestic tour—possibly with a rock act—is in the talking stages. Snoop has finally regained his visa status for Europe (a declined visa led to the cancellation of a 2007 tour with Sean "Diddy" Combs) and the rapper has "big plans" for his welcome back there but declined to reveal details. "Ego Trippin' " is due for release in most international markets on March 11.

Other Snoop ventures include a new clothing line, Rich & Infamous, that will cater to specialty stores like Demo and Up Against the Wall. Due later this year, Snoop unveiled the line—between video shoots—during the recent fashion industry trade show Magic in Las Vegas. Unlike his earlier apparel venture, Snoop Dogg Clothing, the Snoop moniker will not be attached to this line. Also coming: Coco Ri, his wife's line named after their three children.

In the film and TV world, Snoop has the upcoming film "Golden Door" and another film in development at Fox based on his youth league experiences, "Coach Snoop." Through distributor Codeblack Entertainment, Snoopadelic Films will release "The Adventures of the Blue Carpet Treatment." Due later this year and done in Japanese style animation, the project is based on the rapper's 2006 album, "Tha Blue Carpet Treatment." Also in the works are more videogame ventures, two major league brand partnerships that are currently being negotiated for launch at year's end and more TV, including another animation project.

"TV is missing me right now," adds Snoop, who notes that he has been having meetings at NBC, Comedy Central and E! "Not just in front of the camera but behind the camera, behind the music, behind the everything: drama, comedy, late-night TV, Saturday cartoons, voice-overs, sports. I'm a creative force who's just trying to effectively put my paw prints all over the world."