Clay Aiken News Network

Clay Aiken – Are You Ready?

By musicfan123 · Comments (8)

Sunday, March 25th, 2012

Today is Sunday and fans of Clay Aiken have the opportunity to see Clay on TV two different times. Be sure and jump on ABC to see Clay sing the National Anthem at the Honda Grand Prix in downtown St. Petersburg. The race starts at 12:30PM, Eastern time… but be sure and tune in early in hopes of hearing Clay. At my home, the show starts at 9:30AM. Be sure and check your TV Guide.

And, don’t forget about watching Celebrity Apprentice on NBC at 9PM. I can’t wait to see Clay and the men hosting a beach party in the middle of Manhattan. Who will be “fired” this week?

Add another interview to your Clay Aiken calendar. It was announced on Saturday that Clay would be a guest on the show, Just Jenny. His interview is scheduled for Monday, March 26^th at 1pm.

Just Jenny is a show on SIRIUS/XM STARS channel 107. It is broadcast on Monday through Friday at 1pm Eastern Time.

The star of this show is Jennifer Hutt, a graduate of Tufts University and Hofstra University Law School. She is a mother of two children and lives in Long Island.

Jennifer is no stranger to the entertainment field. Her father, Charles Koppelman, was a well-known music producer who worked with many popular musicians, including Dolly Parton, Paul Anka, and Barbra Streisand. Her brother is a screenwriter, director and producer.

According to her Internet site, Jennifer has an:

…ease in front of a microphone or camera, but her approachable “everywoman” style explains her appeal: Jennifer connects with her audience, especially women, in a way few media personalities can. Additionally Jennifer is a contributor to CNN’s stream team…

I am looking forward to hearing Clay and Jennifer chat. It sounds like fun.

Saturday evening, Aubrey O’Day tweeted a great picture of Clay and herself with the Andretti Family. It seems the two singers flew into Florida to get ready for their appearance at the race. Michael Andretti was one of the apprentices and was “fired” by Donald Trump two weeks ago. It looks like the group was having a good time and enjoying a bit of downtime.

Have a great Sunday!! I am already excited!!

I look forward to hearing what you think of Clay’s adventures on TV today!!

Clay Aiken – Americas Greatest Movie Music

By musicfan123 · Comments (10)

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

On June 22, 2004, CBS aired a 3 hour special called “AFI – 100 Years, 100 Songs. Hosted by John Travolta, the countdown from the American Film Institute featured clips of 100 songs.

Clay Aiken joined Burt Bacharach, Celine Dion, Barry Gibb, Barbra Streisand, and Paul Simon who commented on the songs in the Top 100.

The 100 songs were chosen by 1,500 “industry experts”; songs were evaluated on quality of music and lyrics as well as their cultural impact and legacy. “Over the Rainbow” – the Judy Garland anthem from “The Wizard of Oz” – was voted the greatest movie song ever.

The top ten list of greatest movie tunes follows:
Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz
As Time Goes By from Casablanca
Singin’ in the Rain from Singin’ in the Rain
Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany’s
White Christmas from Holiday Inn
Mrs. Robinson from The Graduate
When You Wish Upon a Star from Pinnochio
The Way We Were from The Way We Were
Stayin’ Alive from Saturday Night Fever
The Sound of Music from The Sound of Music

Commenting on “Lose Yourself” by Eminem, Clay said:

“Movie music does not have to be soaring love ballads. Lose Yourself is definitely an example of a movie song that makes a movie much more hip and much more popular for today’s culture.”

When commenting on “Unchained Melody” from Ghost, Clay said his mother had a dream that Clay would record a cover of Unchained Melody and it would be a big hit. One week later, LeAnn Rimes came out with the recording and it became a big hit. The hopes of Clay’s mom were dashed. Clay also commented that he was in 4^th grade when Ghost was released and that he did not understand the significance of the hands on the potter’s wheel during the song.

Little did anyone know that Clay would record the very best arrangement of Unchained Melody seven years later. A big thank you to Clay and Ben Cohn.
Another of Clay’s comments brought a laugh when he shared that he tried hard to learn to spell supercalifragalisticexpialidocious.

100 Years, 100 Songs, with the American Film Institute, had an audience of 12.3 million people. How many of those people were fans of Clay Aiken?

Watch the video below to see Clay’s part of the AFI show.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUUzhRJnC7g

Comments (10)

Categories : Clay History, Clay News

Tags : 100 Years - 100 Songs, AFI, American Film Institute, Barbra Streisand, Barry Gibb, Ben Cohn, Burt Bacharach, Celine Dion, Clay Aiken, Eminem, Ghost, LeAnn Rimes, Over The Rainbow, Paul Simon, Tried & True, Unchained Melody, Wizard of Oz

Clay Aiken – A Gift To Share

By musicfan123 · Comments (11)

Thursday, December 2nd, 2010

My Grown-Up Christmas List has been sung by many popular artists. It was originally recorded by Natalie Cole. Recently, it has been recorded by Amy Grant, Kelly Clarkson, Michael Buble, Barbra Streisand and Clay Aiken.

The song is about an adult who has a visit with Santa Claus. He does not ask Santa for anything material for Christmas. His wish is for only good things for humanity.

Today, as we listen to My Grown-Up Christmas List, we will celebrate the talents of many people. We are featuring four special people who have a gift that they share with the world.

Clay Aiken: What can I say?? Clay’s voice is amazing and his interpretation of todays song is “spot-on.” There are just no words………
David Foster: How can one person have so much musical creativity? David has written so many beautiful songs and My Grown-Up Christmas List is one of my favorites.
Linda Thompson-Jenner: Linda began writing lyrics for some of David Foster’s compositions in 1990. Besides writing the lyrics to “I Have Nothing” from the movie, The Bodyguard, Linda wrote the moving lyrics to My Grown-Up Christmas List.
SueReu: Sue has the wonderful talent of producing some of the most touching videos of Clay’s music. Her positive personality shines through as she manages to match the music with just the right visuals. Team-Clay should check out her ideas!

I hope you enjoy this touching video. It combines the talents of all four people listed above. You just might need a tissue!

My Grown-Up Christmas List

Do you remember me?
I sat upon your knee
I wrote to you
With childhood fantasies
Well I’m all grown up now
Can you still help somehow?
I’m not a child
But my heart still can dream

So here’s my lifelong wish
My grown up Christmas List
Not for myself
But for a world in need

No more lives torn apart
That wars will never start
And time will heal our hearts
Every man will have a friend
That right will always win
And love will never end
This is my grown up
Christmas List

May kindness rules our lives
Not just the strong survive
Sweet tears
For all the thousand years
On mind
This is the world I pray
We will all share some way
Help me begin
By reaching out my hand

No more lives torn apart
That wars will never start
And time will heal our hearts
Every man will have a friend
That right will always win
And love will never end
This is my grown up
Christmas List

Why does this illusion
Call the innocence of you?
Maybe when the time believe
We can find the truth
No

No more lives torn apart
That wars will never start
And time will heal our hearts
Every man will have a friend
That right will always win
And love will never end
This is my grown up
Christmas List

This is the prayer
That I will keep
This is my grown up
Christmas list
Christmas list

Comments (11)

Categories : Clay News

Tags : Amy Grant, Barbra Streisand, Clay Aiken, David Foster, Decca Records, Linda Thompso-Jenner, Michael Buble, My Grown-Up Christmas List, Natalie Cole, Santa Claus, Tried & True

Clay Aiken – Saturday Night News

By musicfan123 · Comments (10)

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

In this day and age, news comes from many different sources. On Saturday night, March 20^th, a message was left on FaceBook and it was picked up immediately by Clay Aiken fans.

Chris Walden, a German composer and arranger left the following message on his “Wall.”

“Chris Walden composer-arranger Clay Aiken’s album “Tried and True” with lots of big band and strings arranged and conducted by yours truly will be out June 1st.”

Although most of Clay’s fans were aware that June 1st was the targeted drop date, many were excited to see confirmation from Walden. However, we also know that no drop date is a done-deal in the fluid music recording field.

Decca Records seems to be surrounding Clay Aiken with the best of the best. Chris Walden has an amazing history in the music business.

Chris Walden was born on October 10th, 1966 in Hamburg, Germany. His mother was a talented soprano from Switzerland. Chris was surrounded by music at an early age through the many musicians who came to his parent’s home. At the age of 3, Chris started to play the recorder, and at age 5, he knew how to read music before he even learned the alphabet. Chris learned to play the piano at age 7 and the trumpet at age 13. In his high school years, Chris discovered jazz and big band music while playing trumpet in local school bands. Very soon, he started to write arrangements for those bands.

After graduating from high school, Chris was chosen to join the German National Youth Jazz Orchestra with which he toured for five years. The leader, Peter Herbolzheimer, encouraged Chris to write arrangements for the band and soon he assisted him with arrangements for many radio and record productions.

After receiving two master’s degrees in music, Walden conducted the RIAS Big Band in Berlin and the Frankfurt Radio Big Band. He served as musical director for the televised German Movie Award Show for four years and began composing for films and scored about 20 German films and wrote 400 arrangements for big band and symphony orchestra before immigrating to Los Angeles at the age of 29.

His move to the states proved to be an important step in his musical career as he has become an essential artist and composer in many prestigious productions. Chris has been nominated for four Grammys.

Some of Walden’s recent projects include

People’s Choice Awards Opening with Queen Latifah
Super Bowl XLIII National Anthem for Jennifer Hudson
David Foster and Friends, PBS special and DVD
Katie Holmes on So You Think You Can Dance
VH1 Divas Live
CNN’s “Heroes” with Christina Aguilera
Arranged music for Russell Watson and Myleene Klass

According to the bio on his website:

Chris Walden has scored more than 40 feature and TV films, and written arrangements for artists including Christina Aguilera, Michael Bolton, Faith Hill, Aretha Franklin, David Foster, Paul Anka, Sheryl Crow, Christopher Cross, and orchestras like the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, West Australian Philharmonic, Boston Pops, and many more. He has orchestrated for Barbra Streisand, Diana Krall, and Natalie Cole.

Since 1999, Chris has been leading his own big band which includes the top studio musicians based in Los Angeles. He has recorded four albums with the Chris Walden Big Band on Origin Records.

Asked if he misses his life in Germany, Chris said:

“There are a lot things that I like about the American life-style, but there are also many things that I miss from Germany. I can’t possibly list all the things that come to my mind, but I’ve always liked the openness and tolerance of people in the US. I’ve always had a problem with the sometimes narrow-minded mentality of Germans. On the other hand I’ve been annoyed with the sometimes short attention span and superficialness of Americans and I value the deep friendship I have with some of my old German friends.”

It sounds like Clay Aiken was fortunate to work with Chris Walden. He is a wonderful composer and arranger who seems to be able to find the strengths of each of his artists and brings that strength to the forefront. Clay’s new album is going to be wonderful!

Comments (10)

Categories : Clay News

Tags : Barbra Streisand, Boston Pops, Chris Walden, Chris Walden Big Band, Clay Aiken, David Foster, Decca Records, FaceBook, Germany, Origin Records, People's Choice Awards, Peter Herbolzheimer, SUper Bowl XLIII

Clay Aiken – The Talented Team

By musicfan123 · Comments (36)

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

The song is about an adult who has a visit with Santa Claus. He does not ask Santa for anything material for Christmas. His wish is for only good things for humanity.

Today, as we listen to My Grown-Up Christmas List, we will celebrate the talents of many people. We are featuring four special people who have a gift that they share with the world.

Clay Aiken: What can I say?? Clay’s voice is amazing and his interpretation of todays song is “spot-on.” There are just no words………
David Foster: How can one person have so much musical creativity? David has written so many beautiful songs and My Grown-Up Christmas List is one of my favorites.
Linda Thompson-Jenner: Linda began writing lyrics for some of David Foster’s compositions in 1990. Besides writing the lyrics to “I Have Nothing” from the movie, The Bodyguard, Linda wrote the moving lyrics to My Grown-Up Christmas List.
SueReu: Sue has the wonderful talent of producing some of the most touching videos of Clay’s music. Her positive personality shines through as she manages to match the music with just the right visuals. Team-Clay should check out her ideas!

I hope you enjoy this touching video. It combines the talents of all four people listed above. You just might need a tissue!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZtXmwMReso

My Grown-Up Christmas List Lyrics