AIKEN NEWS NETWORK OCTOBER 25

[clayMaine-iac]

Clay Aiken Biography

Being number two does not always turn out to be an unsuccessful challenger and Clay Aiken has evinced it brilliantly. As the runner up of the 2003 American Idol, he has proven to score a fantastic attainment more than what the contest's winner, Ruben Studdard, has done. Perhaps all of these have never come to his mind before since he actually does not possess any intention and determination to be a famous singer. Born on November 30, 1978 in Raleigh, North Carolina, he has been named Clayton Holmes Grissom. When Clay was barely one year old, his violent and alcoholic father, Vernon Grissom deserted the family. His mother, Faye Aiken, then raised him on her own with deep affection. This strong willed woman quickly discovered that her son has talent in singing. By the age of 5, Clay was supported to perform at a local high school dance.

When Clay turned six, Faye remarried with Ray Parker. Through this man, he found out what the word “family” means. He, therefore, considered and respected him as his real father until Parker's death in July 2002. Meanwhile, Clay passed his childhood happily, along with his stepsister, Amy, stepbrother, Jeff, and half-brother, Brett.

Growing up as a teenager, he joined Raleigh Boys Choir while also being involved in various musical projects, stage plays, and playhouse shows. Nevertheless, his love to teach and help children was greater so that he decided to concentrate on his study. After having been graduated from Raleigh's Leesville Road High School, he took special education major at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where he later became the head of its Council of Exceptional Children. Most of his summertime was spent working at local YMCA as well as volunteering to help children with disabilities.

In the late 90s, Clay legally changed his last name to Aiken, cutting himself from all that was related to his biological father. By this time, he had carefully laid plans to establish a decent career in his life. He looked forward to earn a master degree in administration at the prestigious William & Mary College in Virginia. However, this intention apparently had to be deferred as he met Diane Bubel when he was assisting her autistic child. Bubel repeatedly prompted him to enroll in American Idol, a Fox's popular competition show which selects one's potentiality in singing and performing. Eventually giving in, he entered the Charlotte audition on October 17, 2002. Unfortunately, he failed to move forward to the next stage. This did not make him discouraged; instead he went for the second attempt by joining the Atlanta audition in November. This time being able to impress the judges, he was chosen as one of the contestants.

Having made his way to the top 32, Clay was advised by the American Idol producers to shorten his given name to “Clay” and improve his visual image since he had a bad haircut and wore funny glasses. Supported by this new look, he appeared confidently in the round-of-32. As the result was announced, he only earned third position below Ruben Studdard and Kimberley Locke. However, he was still given chance to compete in the wildcard round. Beautifully performing “Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” he ultimately was chosen as the last finalist of the show. From March to May 2003, he appeared on the screen, singing various tunes while also receiving either criticism or praise from the Idol judges. The show came to its climax on May 21 with Clay and Ruben faced each other at the season finale. Clay was announced as the American Idol runner-up for he lost to Ruben by 134,400 from 24 million votes.

After the show ended its second season, Clay was extremely busy because he had a lot of interviews ahead, such as with CNN, E! News Live, and Larry King Live. Shortly thereafter, he was offered a record deal by Idol's creator, Simon Fuller, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of 19 Entertainment Limited. Fuller then signed him with RCA Records. By June 2003, Clay had launched his debut single entitled “Bridge Over Troubled Water”/”This Is the Night.” To his surprise, the single rapidly sold over 390,000 copies a week after its release, amazingly broke the sales record of Elton John's 1997 version of “Candle in the Wind.” Furthermore, it soared to the chart's peak of The Billboard Hot 100, reigning for 11 weeks as the number one track. The single was finally certified platinum on the next month. This was such a great achievement that could not be accomplished by other American Idol contestants by far.

Read the rest:
ACESHOWBIZ

[clayMaine-iac]

Clay Aiken’s album: “a deep-fried Snickers bar” or songs that show “nuance and restraint”?

On the occasion of the release of American Idol 2 runner-up Clay Aiken’s third record, reality blurred asked two people to review it: Michelle C., a longtime Clay Aiken fan, and Eric S., a music afficianado. Previously, they briefly reviewed his first single. Since then, they’ve each had a chance to listen to and then review his full album, A Thousand Different Ways.
What’s most interesting to me is that, while they’re both coming from very different directions, they both basically agree: Clay’s talented, but an album full of covers was a mistake. Here are their full reviews:

“Clay’s vocal performances show nuance and restraint” by Michelle C.
September 19 saw the release of new CDs by my two favorite musical artists, and what a study in contrast: one is critical darling Joseph Arthur (Nuclear Daydream) and the other is critical whipping boy Clay Aiken (A Thousand Different Ways). The frustration of being a Joseph Arthur fan is that he is so little-known, even among indie-music fans, and he deserves to be heard. The frustration of being a Clay fan is that many people think they know him, and what he is capable of, and yet they have no idea. Clay’s first two CDs did not fully capture the amazing voice that we’ve heard in concert—his controlled, pitch-perfect voice that requires no pro-tooling, his beautiful tone, his amazing range of almost two and a half octaves, the variety of musical genres he can perform, or his charismatic energy while performing. How many musical artists sound better live than on CD? When we learned that most of the original songs on Clay’s much-anticipated third CD were scrapped by a covers-happy Clive Davis (who has found cash cows in Rod Stewart’s and Barry Manilow’s covers CDs, among others), many of Clay’s fans were disappointed. How can an American Idol alumnus escape the “karaoke” label if he is not allowed to produce more original material? Clay is a young man at the beginning of his career, as well as being a proven platinum seller. News that the 10 covers on the CD included treacly and overplayed songs by Richard Marx and Celine Dion did not help. When would Clay be given the creative freedom to record something unexpected or musically complex? Were assumptions being made about Clay’s fans’ musical tastes or Clay’s abilities?
On my first listen to ATDW, those disappointments were amplified for me with some of the production choices, including overblown, or too similar, instrumentation on some of the songs. However, Clay’s vocal performances show nuance and restraint; for example, the tender “Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word” shows that bombast and glory-noting are not all that Clay is capable of (a common critic’s complaint). Some completely re-arranged covers bring new life to the songs, such as Clay’s slowed-down, sultry version of Dolly Parton’s “Here You Come Again.” A beautifully crafted, haunting “Broken Wings” features a spoken-word poem (by Erin Taylor) that enriches the song, and even changes its original meaning, by creating a conversation between lovers.
There are also four original songs on the CD, including the catchy “Lonely No More,” which features Clay’s first songwriting credit, and the relatively uptempo (in a CD full of ballads) “A Thousand Days,” which I prefer in Clay’s live performances. Although ATDW has grown on me with multiple listens (let’s face it— I love listening to Clay sing), I’m still waiting for the CD that will really show what Clay is capable of. However, there are two songs that come close, and they are, ironically, not officially on this CD. The K-Mart version of ATDW comes with a download of “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” that features Clay riffing and wailing on some green-eyed soul. The real find, though, is the bonus track on the iTunes version of ATDW, “Lover All Alone” (lyrics by Clay, music by David Foster). The instrumentation is spare and gorgeous, Clay’s voice is at the right place in the mix, and the lyrics are poignant. I am thrilled to know that Clay can write such a heartfelt, beautiful song, and I am hopeful that he will be given this level of artistic freedom and quality production in the future.

“the man who made himself famous by covering pop songs doesn’t even pander with well-chosen music” by Eric S.

Late in August at the Minnesota State Fair, I ponied up $3 for one of the newer food items on the greasy-food-on-a-stick circuit: the deep-fried Snickers bar. Think corn dog but with melted chocolate and nougat in place of the frankfurter. There’s really no way this thing could taste bad, I think. So I dive in and after the first bite, it’s pretty good. Even after the second, I’m still hanging in there. But somewhere in between bites three and four, things start to go horribly wrong: The chocolate mess is dripping down my wrists, the powdered sugar coating is all over my face, and I feel like I’m going to vomit. Clay Aiken’s latest album, A Thousand Different Ways is a deep-fried Snickers bar.
I’ll be completely honest here: before listening to this album, I was not a Clay Aiken fan. But, being a voracious consumer of all music, pop and not, I pressed the play button for track one with an open mind. And then, almost immediately, things start to go horribly wrong: Clay covers Richard Marx. There are really only three reasons to cover any pop song: 1. To pay tribute to the original artist (Hendrix doing “All Along the Watchtower”), 2. To be ironic (punk bands covering Madonna or the Wiggles) or 3. To pander to your audience (Clay Aiken). But amazingly, the man who made himself famous by covering pop songs doesn’t even pander with well-chosen music. There is no reason to sing tunes already proven to be not-timeless by the likes of Foreigner, Rob Thomas, Bryan Adams and Celine Dion. Then to make matters worse, you pair a poor song selection with a backing band who I’m convinced is the robot quintet from Chuck E. Cheese.
The producers try to salvage their dull piano and synthy drums by layering in some pseudo-dramatic strings, but this feels forced. “Right Here Waiting” gives us a guitar player who had to be rolling his eyes for 4 minutes straight. “Everything I Do” starts with what I think is a pan flute then punches it up with some seriously bad 80s kick drummin’. The robo-band goes on and on until this cavalcade of mediocrity stumbles towards final track: “Broken Wings” by that titan of soft-rock songwriting, Mr. Mister. In case the rumbling African congas and Clay’s increasingly dramatic singing didn’t let you know how intense this musical moment is, there is a woman whispering to you in the background saying, essentially, “you should feel moved now.”
Despite all of this, there are, while rare, moments of fairly decent pop on this album, all in the original tracks. I genuinely like “A Thousand Days” where Clay shows us he’s got real rocker-vocalist chops. Even the strings work here, especially during the “November Rain”-esque bridge near the end. Then on the quieter “Everything I Have,” the drum machines are turned down and Clay’s biggest strength, his vocals, are, at last, done justice.
As for the rest of the album, sure, you’ll find yourself belting out the choruses on some of the classics of 80s one-hit-wonderdom. I was listening to “When I See You Smile” on Highway 94 in Wisconsin at 1 a.m., and the truckers next to me would have beaten me with their 72 oz long haulin’ coffee mugs if they heard the white-boy sing-a-long that was happening in my car. But there was absolutely no reason for that song to exist, and singing it made me feel dirty. Bad English released this track in 1989 and it should have been retired then along with all the other power ballads from that decade. The same is true for all the other cover tunes on the album which had no right to be re-interpreted. Clay Aiken has some talent, but “A Thousand Ways” is like Superman using his x-ray vision to peer through the wall of a dressing room at the Gap. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
With the original tracks on this album, Clay shows us he can sing songs with some pop music legitimacy. But, if he continues to release terribly produced cover songs about love and smiling, he’s going to be sitting in a lounge in Vegas in 10 years with Celine, Richard, Bryan, etc. thinking about the thousand ways he went wrong.

REALITYBLURRED

[clayMaine-iac]

PLAY WITH CLAY

[clayMaine-iac]

ChartAttack's Weekly Listings For TV & Radio

Friday, October 27
Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC) (12:05 a.m. ET)  Clay Aiken 

CHARTATTACK

[clayMaine-iac]

The Late Night Lineup For The Week Of October 23, 2006

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Friday, October 27: Actor/comedian George Lopez, musical guest Clay Aiken (he will be a panel guest as well as perform)

PETERSREVIEW

[clayMaine-iac]

Three things to remember

October 24, 2006
1. If you're like the 3 Things staff, excitement is building for Halloween. Check out the annual Pumpkinfest at Didier Farms, open daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the family homestead on Aptakisic Road in Prairie view. Info's at (847) 634-3291.

2. Drag yourself away from the television for a change and take in some amateur theater, such as the "Annie Jr." production Wednesday at Waukegan High's Wixom Theatre. Tickets range from $4-8. Details at 847) 360-1336.

3. If you're Aiken for Clay, don't forget to send your entry into our contest to win two free tickets to his Dec. 1 Genesee Theatre performance. Tell us why you love Clay in 100 words or less and mail them to us here at The News-Sun, e-mail them to
IloveClay@scn1.com or drop them off at our office. Deadline is Nov. 22.

SUBURBANCHICAGONEWS

[clayMaine-iac]

The Chart Flashback FAQs...
 
...a.k.a. The Man in the Mirror Manifesto: Whitney Pastorek answers the biggest questions from readers of her weekly music column

Yeah, but sometimes you give really low grades to songs that are awesome, and that makes me sad.
Music is subjective, people! There is possibly no other art form so difficult to quantify, and one man's Clay Aiken is often another man's ear-bleeding brain torture. So who are we to say? In the case of Chart Flashback, I happen to be the MC on the mike. But the good news is, there's always room for you to disagree in the comments section.

EW.COM

[clayMaine-iac]

Clay Aiken: Christmas with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra :: Special Events     
 
Tuesday, December 12, 2006 at 8:00 pm

Connecticut Convention Center
100 Columbus Boulevard, Hartford

Artists
Clay Aiken, tenor-alto
Edward Cumming, conductor

Multi-platinum recording artist Clay Aiken kicks off the Hartford Symphony Orchestra's new "Symphony at the Center" series with Music Director Edward Cumming and the Hartford Symphony.

Program to include the following selections:

Sleigh Ride
Winter Wonderland
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
A Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
Christmas Waltz
Merry Christmas With Love
What Are You Doing New Years Eve?
Hark The Herald Angels Sing/O Come All Ye Faithful
The First Noel
Mary Did You Know
My Grown Up Christmas Last
Don't Save It All For Christmas Day
O Come O Come Emmanuel

Tickets go on sale Monday, October 30, at 10am:

$150 cabaret-style table seat
$85 front orchestra
$50 orchestra
 
Full tables with seating for four people will be available for purchase at a discounted rate of $540, which includes a free parking pass for the Convention Center garage.

Theater-style seating will be available online at Ticketmaster.com, at all Ticketmaster outlets, and by calling (860) 525-4500 or (203) 624-0033 to charge orchestra tickets by phone.

Table seating will be available through HSO Ticket services at (860) 244-2999, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, and via www.hartfordsymphony.org.

The Symphony at the Center series is presented by Lincoln Financial Group Foundation. 

HARTFORDSYMPHONY

[clayMaine-iac]

Music Videos
Top 100 Videos

THIS WEEK   LAST WEEK    ARTIST    VIDEO

65   --     Clay Aiken     Without You: Live@Yahoo! Music... 

 

YAHOO MUSIC
 
   

[Her]

Good morning M.B.   HAPPY HUMP DAY!

[clayMaine-iac]

Buddy!!  Hump day for you....one more day for me.   Be happy, anyway!! 

Hi news gang!!  Have a great day!

Here you go:
 

 

[ANGELA]

GOOD MORNING DEANNA , JAYNE & ANN READERS,

DEANNA AS ALWAYS, THANKS FOR BRINGING US THE NEWS WAY BEFORE THE SUN RISES.

HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY.

ANGELA

[HavinaClayAffair]

Remember the AskMen.com poll, top 49 men among men...Clay was in the poll?

This was in my email:

George Clooney Crowned No. 1 'Man's Man'
LOS ANGELES (October 24, 2006) -- George Clooney is the No. 1 man's man, according to a list compiled by AskMen.com.

The Oscar winner tops the Web site's list of what it calls the 49 best representatives of the male gender. Rap mogul Jay-Z, adventurer-entrepreneur Richard Branson, cyclist Lance Armstrong and designer Tom Ford make up the rest of the top five, in order.

The list was culled from nominations submitted by readers of the online magazine, who were asked to name the top "ambassadors of male-kind." Voters were asked to look for traits such as integrity, charisma and intelligence.

The list will be posted Tuesday.

Bill Clinton ranked 10th and Tiger Woods 13th. Travel-show host Anthony Bourdain was 19th on the list.

"I shall be sure to spend the week shooting things, barbecuing, drinking manly drinks to excess and high-fiving loudly while watching organized athletics," Bourdain said.

Rocker Bono was 27th, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was 29th and director Martin Scorsese was 46th. "Entourage" star Jeremy Piven ranked 49th.

Looking thru now to see where Clay placed..

edited: Guess he didn't place. I could not find him. There were "people" outraged that Clay was in the poll to begin with and his fans were spamming(?), and posted the like in their forum Q&A. The Poll moderators said, "If you don't like it, then vote."--Guess they did.

BUT- In the bottom right corner of their website- I found this!!

MOST POPULAR:

Category: Men
Month: October 2006
1: Tiger Woods         6: Michael Shumacher
2: Justin Timberlake  7: Tom Cruise
3: Clay Aiken             8: 50 Cent
4: Daniel Craig          9: John Cena
5: Brad Pitt               10: Kevin Federline

Not Forgotten!!!!!!!!

Lora

[lorraine]

PLAY WITH CLAY

  OH YOU MEAN PLAY HIS SONGS.      OKAY I WILL DO THAT FROM WORK.

[lorraine]

GOOD MORNING DEANNA AND FRIENDS.

HAPPY HUMP DAY.  I HAVE A SHORT WEEK    MY WEEKEND STARTS ON FRIDAY.   

SURE MISS OUR CLAY BUT WE WILL BE "RIGHT HERE WAITING FOR HIM"  FOR SURE.

HUGS
RAINEY

[HavinaClayAffair]

Feel like trying to get Clay's name on Artist Direct Top 100...just by clicking on his profile and listening? There is Christmas Music there too, along with Without You..

http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/listenwatch/0,,2573065,00.html#artist_name

They even list 50 songs, with clips to a lot of them!!!


Here are the current Top 100 artists list.

This list is various genres of music!!

http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/genre/0,,,00.html

I would love to see him on this list here. Somehow they got these releases  on their site to click and listen!!

Happy Listening! We can check back in a couple of weeks to see if he is a Top 100 artist.

Lora

[HavinaClayAffair]

Doing some Clay surfing today..obviously!!

I haven't seen this, but I am not always here...REALLY, I'm not. I have no idea how OLD this may be...


http://www.ejmonline.com/songs.htm

All Songs written by Erik Isaacs and Jay Lazaroff except where otherwise noted.

All songs copyright 1999-2006.

Complete songs, additional catalog, and 100s TV Cues available
upon request to Entertainment Industry professionals. All rights reserved. For promotional purposes only.

OK...scrolling thru- some songs on hold, for artists, some just HOPING/SUGGESTING possible artists to record or Producers to claim.

Here is one with a SNIPPET of the song..and it sounds good to ME!!

I'll Know When I Get There”
Co-written with: Luke Brown
Featuring: Luke Brown (formerly MCA)
Genre: Pop/Rock
Tempo: Mid
Gender: Male or Group
Band/Artist Pitch: Bryan Adams, Clay Aiken
Availability: Open
TV/Film Possible Uses: It would be great in a driving scene, especially in scenes where the featured character is taking a drive to “get away” or think about their own life. It would also be great in scenes where the featured character is going through a stage of self discovery, reinvention, or at a cross-roads.
Click here for a snippet!

Go to the site and click on ths snippet to HEAR it...I can see it being sang by Clay, but I am easy.

Here is one that "caught Clive Davis eye"..

“Dream The Dream”
Written by Erik Isaacs, Jeremy “J” Monroe, Craig Owens, and Greg Lawson
Featuring: Jeremy Monroe
Genre: Pop (could go Urban Pop or AC or Country)
Tempo: Ballad
Gender: All
Band/Artist Pitch: Ruben Studdard or Tyrese or truly any artist depending on style
Availability: Open
TV/Film Possible Uses: Great song for “American Idol”. Any scene needing an inspirational song like “I Believe I Can Fly”.
Notes: This song has come very close on several major projects including films like Remember The Titans (through Mitchell Lieb at Hollywood Records) and Stuart Little II (through Ocean Cities/Bonnie Greenberg). This song has also caught the ear of Clive Davis and Tyrese when it was close to getting on Remember The Titans.
Click here for a snippet!

Another one "pitched" to artists like Clay Aiken:

“I Would Give My Life For You”
Co-written with: Walter Brandt and Bill Brandt
Featuring: Storm Lee
Mixed by: Spider
Genre: Pop/Rock
Tempo: Midtempo
Gender: Male or Group
Band/Artist Pitch: Jesse McCartney, Enrique Iglesias, Backstreet Boys, Clay Aiken, etc.
Availability: Open
TV/Film Possible Uses: The song lyric has multiple meanings which allows multiple uses. In one sense it relates to a love relationship that is fading. On another higher level it’s about losing someone close to any number of reasons (illness, moving away, breakup, etc.). The song could be used in a number of scenes relating to the lyrics with either meaning.
Click here for a snippet!

Still peeking- you get the idea. There are LOTS of Clay mentions, possible- with clips to each song. I even saw some David Foster suggestives...

Interesting to me!!

Lora

[paclayfan]

Top 40 / Pop
 
From Bill Lamb,
Your Guide to Top 40 / Pop.
FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!
Clay Aiken's Not-Quite-a-Tour Christmas Concerts
This year, instead of embarking on a full concert tour, Clay Aiken will be performing one-night-only sets of all Christmas music with local orchestras and symphonies during the month of December. In many cases, the local orchestra will perform first followed by a collaborative collection of great Christmas classics. Many of the songs performed will be from Aiken's platinum Merry Christmas, With Love album. Check the complete concert listing for dates, cities, venues, and an opportunity to purchase tickets.

Related Links:


Clay Aiken Profile
Clay Aiken Quiz
Review of A Thousand Different Ways

http://top40.about.com/b/a/208540.htm

[lolita]

Hello Deanna and all ANN readers.

Thanks for the news. I'm playing with Clay now.

hugs,

lolita

[lorraine]

JUST AN AFTERNOON CHECK-IN.  BOY IS THIS DAY GOING BY FAST.

HAVE A GOOD ONE.

HUGS
RAINEY