Elvis Presley box set due Dec. 8
A few months after the Beatles box sets made retailers scramble to fill orders, the King of Rock 'n' Roll will get the royal treatment.
Legacy Recordings is marking Elvis Presley's 75th birthday in January with a 100-song box set called "Elvis 75: Good Rockin' Tonight." The four-disc set arrives Dec. 8.
The package defines "career spanning." Disc 1 opens with "My Happiness," the acetate recording Presley paid nearly four dollars to make at the Memphis Recording Service in July 1953, a year before signing with Sun Records. Disc 4 ends with "A Little Less Conversation (JXL Radio Remix Edit)," the electronica-fueled 2002 track that hit No. 1 in more than 20 countries and was included in that year's "Elvis: 30 #1 Hits," which has sold more than 5 million copies in the U.S.
"Elvis 75" ranges from the seminal rock 'n' roll of Presley's early years to his intimate ballads and includes movie songs, gospel performances and "Blue Christmas." The set's 80-page booklet features rare photos and a new essay by Billy Altman.
A single-disc edition of "Elvis 75" will be released Jan. 5, three days before what would have been Presley's 75th birthday.
Here's the track list for the "Elvis 75" box:
DISC 1
1. My Happiness
2. That's All Right
3. Blue Moon of Kentucky
4. Good Rockin' Tonight
5. Baby Let's Play House
6. Mystery Train
7. I Forgot to Remember to Forget
8. I Got a Woman
9. Heartbreak Hotel
10. I Was the One
11. Blue Suede Shoes
12. My Baby Left Me
13. One-Sided Love Affair
14. I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)
15. Lawdy, Miss Clawdy
16. I Want You, I Need You, I Love You
17. Hound Dog
18. Don't Be Cruel
19. Love Me Tender
20. Love Me
21. Paralyzed
22. Too Much
23. All Shook Up
24. Mean Woman Blues
25. (There'll Be) Peace in the Valley (For Me)
26. (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear
27. One Night
28. Jailhouse Rock
29. Treat Me Nice
30. Blue Christmas
31. Don't
DISC 2
1. Hard Headed Woman
2. Trouble
3. King Creole
4. Wear My Ring Around Your Neck
5. I Need Your Love Tonight
6. A Big Hunk o' Love
7. (Now and Then There's) A Fool Such as I
8. Stuck on You
9. A Mess of Blues
10. It's Now or Never
11. Thrill of Your Love
12. Such a Night
13. Are You Lonesome Tonight?
14. Reconsider Baby
15. Doin' the Best I Can
16. Pocketful of Rainbows
17. Surrender
18. Crying in the Chapel
19. I Feel So Bad
20. There's Always Me
21. Judy
22. Can't Help Falling in Love
23. (Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame
24. Little Sister
25. Good Luck Charm
26. Suspicion
27. She's Not You
28. Return to Sender
DISC 3
1. Bossa Nova Baby
2. (You're the) Devil in Disguise
3. (It's a) Long Lonely Highway
4. I Need Somebody to Lean On
5. Viva Las Vegas
6. It Hurts Me
7. This Is My Heaven
8. Adam and Evil
9. How Great Thou Art
10. Tomorrow Is a Long Time
11. Guitar Man
12. Big Boss Man
13. Too Much Monkey Business
14. U.S. Male
15. If I Can Dream
16. Memories
17. Don't Cry Daddy
18. In the Ghetto
19. Suspicious Minds
20. Stranger in My Own Home Town
21. Kentucky Rain
22. Only the Strong Survive
DISC 4
1. Polk Salad Annie
2. The Fool
3. Funny How Time Slips Away
4. I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water
5. I Just Can't Help Believin'
6. I'm Leavin'
7. An American Trilogy
8. Burning Love
9. Always on My Mind
10. Steamroller Blues
11. Loving Arms
12. Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues
13. Promised Land
14. T-R-O-U-B-L-E
15. For the Heart
16. Hurt
17. Way Down
18. Unchained Melody
19. A Little Less Conversation (JXL Radio Remix Edit)
Pro wrestler, music video icon Albano dies at 76
NEW YORK – "Captain" Lou Albano, who became one of the most recognized professional wrestlers of the 1980s after appearing in Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" music video, died Wednesday. He was 76.
Albano, whose real name was Louis Vincent Albano, died in Westchester County in suburban New York, said Dawn Marie, founder of Wrestlers Rescue, an organization that helps raise money for the health care of retired wrestlers. He died of natural causes, Marie said.
World Wrestling Entertainment called him one of the company's "most popular and charismatic legends."
With his trademark Hawaiian shirts, wiry goatee and rubber bands hung like piercings from his cheek, Albano was an outsize personality who, in a career spanning nearly five decades, was known as much for his showmanship as for his talent in the ring.
His fame skyrocketed when he appeared in Lauper's landmark 1983 music video, playing a scruffy, overbearing father in a white tank top who gets shoved against a wall by the singer.
Partly because of the success of Albano's partnership with Lauper, the entity then known as the World Wrestling Federation forged ties with the music industry. That helped bring it to a wider national audience in the mid-1980s, known as the "Rock n' Wrestling" era.
"When the Captain hit the screen with the video, it gave us a whole new audience," said "Irish" Davey O'Hannon, a professional wrestler who knew Albano since the 1970s. "When that came out, let me tell you, it just rocketed."
It was a time when wrestlers such as Albano, Hulk Hogan, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and Andre the Giant were so popular that they could headline a television cartoon series and appear in movies.
Albano later had a role in the music video for Lauper's 1984 song "Time After Time," and he appeared in episodes of the TV series "Miami Vice" and in the 1986 movie "Body Slam." He played Mario in "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show," a live-action animated show, from 1989 to 1991.
His career in the ring began in 1953 in Canada, and he went on to form the "The Sicilians" tag team with Tony Altimore. They were known for wearing fedoras and talking about the Mafia in interviews, according to the book "WWE Legends" by Brian Solomon.
Albano also coached popular tag teams such as The Wild Samoans, The Executioners and The Moondogs. He retired from the WWE in 1996.
Albano was born on July 29, 1933, in Rome. After moving to the U.S., the family settled in Mount Vernon, N.Y. Survivors include his wife, Geri, four children and 14 grandchildren.
Singer Leona Lewis punched during UK book signing
LONDON – A young man punched singer Leona Lewis in the head as she signed autographs and posed for photographs at a book signing session in central London on Wednesday, her spokesman said.
Stuart Bell said Lewis, 24, had been meeting members of the public at Waterstone's book store in Piccadilly in central London for about 90 minutes when a man from the line came up and hit her. He was immediately led away by security guards and later arrested by police.
Bell said Lewis, who was launching her new autobiography "Dreams," was shaken up by the incident and went to see a doctor as a precaution.
Lewis shot to fame after winning the "X Factor" reality show in 2006, and her powerful voice has led to comparisons with Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston
London's Metropolitan police said a 29-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assault and is being held in custody.