I recently came across “Now And Then” by Paul Stanley’s Soul Station, an album of classic soul cover versions (of the ilk of “Ooh Child”, “Could It Be I’m Falling In Love” and “Just My Imagination”) and a clutch of soundalike originals, essayed by the erstwhile singer-guitarist from heavy rock gods Kiss, with a crack backing ensemble, all apparently having the time of their lives.
On the reasonable assumption that Stanley is a multi-multi millionaire who doesn’t need the money, I must presume he’s using his clout to pay tribute to the music he loves, even if it’s not the music he ended up making a living from. Stanley himself looks not unlike Sylvester Stallone playing a rock star these days, and I’m sure he has no illusions as to how his undistinguished but pleasant enough voice compares to the originals like Al Green and Marvin Gaye, but it’s an enjoyable, guileless and fun album, and I’d imagine their gigs are a fantastic evening out.
So in the interests of making a thread out of this, what are the other vanity projects big stars have indulged themselves in? And did they work, or were they filed under “Let Us Never Speak Of This Again”?
Stanley’s voice sounds a lot better in that clip than he did the last time I saw Kiss live – perhaps this suits his ageing voice better than his own band’s material, that could be another reason for changing things up. That, and not having to be around Gene Simmonds every day… 😉
Did someone say Gene Simmons….
The Return of Bruno the Bruce Willis album
According to Wikipedia People magazine described his version of Under the Boardwalk as “Surprisingly okay”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_Bruno_(album)
The Killers’ drummer has a band called Ronnie Vannucci’s Big Talk.
I think it THE most ‘side project’ name in existence.
Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders?
Surely the bar was set the “highest” following the Himalayas of coke consumed by those responsible for Keith Moon’s excerable mid-70s solo album, Two Sides of the Moon.
Just 29 minutes of the recordings were deemed fit for public consumption and Moon could only be arsed to play the drums on just three tracks.
Major crimes against good taste included pointless covers of the Beach Boys ‘Don’t Worry, Baby’ and the Beatles classic below
If that was the only solo album he did it must have been The Whole of the Moon.
@davebigpicture
Still not been eclipsed in the self-indulgence stakes almost 50 years after its release
The fragrant Minnie Driver released a couple of albums of acoustic pop in the early 2000s, backed by The Wallflowers. They’re good, if not great, think Natalie Imbruglia. There was also – according to Discogs – an album of covers released in 2014, but only in the US, which I have never heard.
If Willis and Driver are taking us into actors who unexpectedly release albums, Scarlett Johansson released Anywhere I lay My Head, a collection of Tom Waits covers, in 2008. I’ve got a copy but can’t say it gets much play, though it’s not as awful as you might have thought.
She was on EMI or an EMI label and I saw her do two or three numbers at Abbey Rd as part of a conference type/showcase event. She also stood in the middle of the aisle chatting when I was trying to carry a DigiBeta deck to control at the top of the raked seating. It wasn’t until she soundchecked that I realised who I’d been trying to get past. She was, as you say, good rather than great, but she can sing.
I have that Minnie Driver covers album. It’s OK, as is the Scarlett Johannson Tom Waits record. If we are, as we seem to have begun to, talking about records by actors, there are many worse. Mick Jagger for one.
BTW, has anyone seen him in “The Burnt Orange Heresy” yet? An astonishing and bravura performance, I thought. And not in a good way……
That looks… great? It must have been a lovely few weeks around the Italian lakes, though. Nice work etc…
Well, we’re all paying the price for the lack of success Laurence Fox has had as a singer-songwriter. He’s not happy to and somebody’s gotta pay. Perhaps sometimes it’s better to indulge these people. If The Return of Bruno hadn’t been a hit album, maybe Willis would have become a gun nut in fact as well as fiction.
Does that Chris Gaines Greatest Hits album fit in here, then?
Garth, we can all see it’s you in a wig.
Or, how about Paul Young’s Tex-Mex band, Los Pacaminos?
They’re very good. His contribution is basically rhythm guitar. Apart from the fact that he still gets a lot of female attention, you wouldn’t know it was him.
He hasn’t the pipes to sing like he used to, hence the self-demotion.
I asked Pino for his opinion. You’ll never guess what he said…
Would feel horribly short-changed if I went along and they failed to do a Latino version of “Toast”.
And here in all its glory is that deep cut (slice?) from the days when Paul Y used to be in Streetband?
You’ve got to hand it to an act that turns up for their solitary Top of the Pops appearance with a gas stove.
Flick Colby was heard to say, “Well that’s too literal even for me”
Wherever I Lay This Twat?
I haven’t seen Los Pacaminos for some years. But surely Paul still does a fair bit of the singing? He did a cracking version of He’ll Have To Go last time I saw them.
They’re all musicians in their own right and have been playing together for about 20 years. I know their bass player, Steve Greetham, a bit through work.
Somebody posted that Nick Knowles thing on here a while back. If anybody needed an SOS it was the poor sods he was playing with.
This is reminding me of that HORA (Hoary Old Rock Anecdote) from the Word podcast years ago, where Kevin Costner gave a demo tape of his “friend’s” band to Nick Lowe (I think it was)., to which Nick gave non-committal and unenthusiastic feedback. And years later Nick realised the singer on the tape was Kevin himself….
Anyone remember that one? I loved the HORAs.
The well-connected Pia Zadora had a tilt at the big time in the late 80s. Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis and Shep Pettibone were commissioned to make her a star. This was one of the songs, Dance Out of My Head featuring a video that was considered possibly amazing at the time due to the cartoon characters appearing to perform alongside Pia. Not very convincing, but the clip seems to have invented Spongebob and for that we should be eternally grateful.
Despite everything – I don’t hate it.
Always loved the story about Pia Zadora when she was awarded the lead role in a stage production of Diary of Anne Frank during what is rather optimistically described as her late 70s/early 80s “heyday’.
Apparently, her performance was so wooden that when the Germans burst into the house where she was hiding to search for Jews to kill someone in the audience shouted out “she’s in the attic”.
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Despite its having been dismissed by Snopes as an Urban legend, there is a sizable part of me that prefers to think of it as true
Hilarious, Jaygee!!
To be fair, though, she did get a name-check by Iggy in his and Debbie’s uber-cool cover of “Well, Did You Evah?”
Robert Mitchum recorded a whole album of calypsos which was far better than one might expert.
Very successful actor goes to New Orleans and records an album with the best musicians that NOLA had to offer.
I’ve no great wish to listen to Hugh Laurie’s LP. But good luck to him for fulfilling a boyhood dream.
If you are super rich you may as well spend your dosh on something you enjoy.
Better a blues album than a spaceship or alimony to umpteen ex-wives.
He can still cut it and was excellent in David Copperfield.
…and Twin Peaks.