Other than this week’s original Motown tracks (worth checking out: Lil Rounds’ “Heatwave” is cool with the original tracks, and Anoop has the Miracles backing him on “Ooh Baby Baby”), I’ve found the studio recordings to be in the same groove as the live performances arrangement-wise and vocally. I haven’t heard that many of them so you may well be right, but I wouldn’t expect any intentional oversight of the singers, they’re the ones selling the tracks. It’s a rushed process every week, so maybe the mixes aren’t as thorough as they could be (that’s just a guess). In answer to questions about Clay, I don’t know much about Clay’s business, but generally each territory (like Japan) has a local division that pushes the Artists they think will be most successful. Perhaps there were other Artists at that time they wanted to focus on, or they didn’t think the material would fit their audience, or maybe they did release but it didn’t sell. There are a whole lot of possibilities.

I am confident, though, that Adam is going to be in demand in Japan, someone from Tokyo posted in this thread and I replied about it specifically. There’s an amazing area in Tokyo called Harajuku (look up photos), it’s young Japanese girls dressed goth glam and more who are out of control (Japanese girl fans make Americans look low-key!). They will be so excited… I can hear it now, the Japanese word for “cute” is “kawaii” which gets spread out to “KA-WHYYYY-EEEEE” in high pitched screams. The clothes, the hair, the height, the voice… Adam better get ready! And of course the continent of the great Freddie Mercury and Sir Elton John is receptive (the international posts here are great). So I think we’ll see a lot of international appeal, but like everything else, it’s luck, timing and material.

The brilliant Musical Director Rickey Minor (and equally brilliant Associate Musical Director Michael Orland, he was at the piano when Mr. Robinson was mentoring the contestants) most likely listen to the contestant’s vocals (which may be completely their own, or with the help of the excellent vocal coaches on the show) and create arrangements around them. My understanding is each contestant has a modest wardrobe budget, and imagine some depend upon the stylists’ advice and some know exactly what they want (guess who might be in that category). Of course, this all keys off from the song selection which we’ve talked about before. But ultimately, it’s the responsibility of each finalist to pull the pieces together because those 866 numbers are only connected to their names.

Thanks to all who asked my opinion about “Ring Of Fire” but yours are just as (in many ways more) important. After it all broke loose, a lot of my friends in the country field (which is not my focus) remembered how Johnny Cash took a lot of risks and had a fair share of detractors when he started; a lot of folks thought his style/choices of performances, “wasn’t how it was supposed to be.” Sound familiar? Toward the end of his life, Mr. Cash was interested in many kinds of alternative music which I think is another mark of a great Artist. So my friends thought he would have enjoyed it (and happy to have tribute paid to the song, which was written by his wife and hopefully the family is getting nice royalty checks). Personally I thought it was great that Adam found a song he could truly personalize and his vocals were amazing. Maybe it was a bit progressive for “Grand Ole Opry Night,” but if he knew Motown was next and planned to bring it down, it was really smart to take it all the way out. And because of the chaos, his name recognition probably went up 20-25%. (In fact, it was because of the heartfelt and eloquent posts during that time that I posted for the first time.)

By the way, my thoughts about a duet with a superstar were just regarding fast-tracking Adam’s career; I wasn’t trying to favor any particular artist (although I love Celine and was honored to be at her last show at Caesars Palace). Celine came to mind for the reasons I mentioned, plus her history of amazing duets (like with Andrea Bocelli) and they both have exceptional ranges. But Mariah… Whitney… even having Paula dance to his vocals would be fun! That was my point.

And further regarding musical questions … almost every modern piano has 36 black keys and 52 white keys for a total of 88 keys (seven octaves plus a minor third, from A0 to C8). I mentioned the average range for a Countertenor in a previous message… here are average ranges for different types of singers (C4 is middle C):

Soprano: C4 - C6
Mezzo-Soprano: A3 - A5
Contralto: F3 - F5
Tenor: C3 - C5
Baritone: F2 - F4
Bass/Basso: E2 - E4

Two of the greatest are Deniece Williams, her four-octave range soars to E flat above C6 (high C), and Mariah Carey whose range (C3 to D7) is 4 octaves and 1 note. Whitney Houston has a 3 octave range (C3 to C6–she did C6 on How Will I Know), so Adam’s in good company :). I want to point out the notes are just based on his AI performances… we’ll have to keep watching to see where else he goes.

Thanks again for all the kind words and have a great night everybody!

Best, Michael

Posted in: Industry Perspective by nymichael / Tags: Adam Lambert