Norah Jones, Jason Mraz and Black Eyed Peas are making music news. Norah Jones' new album due in November
Billboard.com reports:
Singer/songwriter Norah Jones will move away from jazz roots on her fourth studio album, due in November on Blue Note Records, her label announced today (Aug. 20). Producer Jacquire King (Kings of Leon, Modest Mouse) is working with Jones on the as-yet-untitled project, which will also feature songwriting contributions from Ryan Adams, Will Sheff of Okkervil River and Jones' longtime collaborator Jesse Harris, who penned the singer's breakthrough hit, "Don't Know Why." "I got in touch with Jacquire initially because he engineered one of my favorite records of all time, Tom Waits' 'Mule Variations,' " says Jones in a statement. "He was really eager to do it and we got along really well, which was important." Jones is also said to be branching out from her jazz-influenced pop roots on the new material and playing guitar more than piano. The changes suggest that her new material may resemble her work as a member of the alt-country outfit The Little Willies, whose self-titled 2006 album featured Hank Williams, Willie Nelson and Fred Rose covers. READ MORE
Billboard.com reports:Two longevity records will be shattered on the Billboard Hot 100 chart to be released on Billboard.com. With an eighth consecutive week at No. 1 for "I Gotta Feeling," the Black Eyed Peas will have held the top slot for an unprecedented 20 straight weeks, having previously led the list for the prior 12 frames with "Boom Boom Pow," the lead single from its Billboard 200-topping album "The E.N.D." Also entering the record books is Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours," which spends an extraordinary 70th week on the Hot 100. The track debuted on the May 3, 2008, chart and peaked at No. 6 nearly a year ago, on Sept. 20, 2008. The song has resided within the top 40 of the list in all but the first 12 weeks of its chart life, dropping 23-29 on the latest tally.
For Mraz [pictured], his never-say-die single overtakes the weeks-on-chart mark held for nearly 11 years by LeAnn Rimes' signature hit "How Do I Live." That ubiquitous track spent 69 weeks on the Hot 100, with its final frame occurring on the Oct. 10, 1998, chart. Multi-format airplay is one of the reasons for "I'm Yours'" longevity. It is the only track to reach No. 1 on each of the following four radio-based charts: Mainstream Top 40/Pop Songs, Adult Contemporary, Adult Top 40, and Triple A. It has also appeared on Latin Pop, Smooth Jazz, and debuts this week at Rhythmic.On the song's multi-genre appeal and long shelf life, Mraz states, "I think it's because it borrows from every one of those formats. Or perhaps the song is genre-less. The first two and a half minutes have so little production you could almost classify it as spoken-word. Yet it's rhythmic and melodic at the same time." Also aiding its continued presence on the Hot 100 is the fact that "I'm Yours" ranks as the third-best selling digital song (4.4 million downloads) since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking download sales in 2003. Only recently did Mraz begin to realize that "I'm Yours" was nearing uncharted chart territory. "I found out about 6 weeks ago that the song was on its way to breaking this record. I was moved....I'm still blown away - humbled by the success of my happy little hippie song." READ MORE
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