Tagged: 1003906

Filed under: News The Vatican's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, has released a list of its top ten rock and pop albums, and among them are seminal albums by the Beatles , Oasis , Pink Floyd , Michael Jackson and U2 . L'Osservatore Romano, as the Daily Telegraph explains , was once considered the "staid and stuffy journal of goings-on at the Vatican," but has recently tried to change its image in order to "strike a more contemporary tone," opining on the 'Harry Potter' series, ' Avatar ,' [...]

Filed under: News , Grammy Awards Leonard Cohen and Michael Jackson were awarded special Grammys honoring lifetime achievement in a separate ceremony at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles Saturday. The 75-year-old Canadian songwriter and the late pop star were named alongside country great Loretta Lynn , the late crooner Bobby Darin , jazz trumpeter Clark Terry, blues guitarist David "Honeyboy" Edwards and classical pianist Andre Previn. Several of the awards were accepted by others on behalf of [...]

It seems every positive Michael Jackson story is followed by something bizarre and twisted. Just as the concert rehearsal film ' This Is It ' premiered around the world to record numbers, a report surfaced saying that an autopsy photo of the King of Pop could be released soon. Gerald Posner, a writer for the Daily Beast , says he was contacted by a London photo agent -- a man who had previously tried to sell him photos from Princess Diana's fatal car accident -- claiming to have a picture from Jackson's autopsy. [...]

Filed under: Clash of the Cover Songs The Rules for Battle: Each week, we pit versions of the same song by two different artists in a head-to-head death match for musical supremacy. (Sometimes it will be the original recording vs. a cover version; other times it will be two different covers.) Then it's up to you to decide: Listen to and vote on which version you think should emerge victorious and which should be sent packing. May the best band win! [...]

Filed under: News , Holy Hell If record label bosses get their way, they would be able to penalize artists for drug use just like pro sports leagues. A new contract clause named after Michael Jackson could become commonplace in the music business in the wake of the singer's drug-related death. According to the Guardian , music executives are at work on industry-wide guidelines, titled "The Jackson Clause," as a means to allow record labels to suspend self-harming artists until they seek treatment to recover from substance abuse and [...]

Filed under: News , Holy Hell If record label bosses get their way, they would be able to penalize artists for drug use just like pro sports leagues. A new contract clause named after Michael Jackson could become commonplace in the music business in the wake of the singer's drug-related death. According to the Guardian , music executives are at work on industry-wide guidelines as a means to allow record labels to suspend self-harming artists until they seek treatment to recover from substance abuse and other woes. [...]

Filed under: News , New Music , Holy Hell Love it or loathe it , Michael Jackson 's posthumous single 'This Is It,' which debuted online Monday at midnight, seems destined to be a smash. That news should make crooner Paul Anka happy, as he's set for an influx of cash now that Jackson's estate has acknowledged his co-writing credit and agreed to give him 50 percent of the song's publishing rights. "They did the right thing," Anka told the AP [...]

Filed under: News , New Music , Movies Well, it was only a matter of time. The first of what is believed to be many posthumous Michael Jackson releases is set to debut Oct. 12. The song, 'This Is It,' is the title-track to the upcoming feature film documenting Jackson's rehearsals for his 50-date London residency. Two versions of the new track, one featuring Jackson's brothers on backing vocals, [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News The 2009 MTV Video Music Awards began Sunday night with a tribute to Michael Jackson that featured a heartfelt speech from Madonna , a video montage with dancers and a performance by Janet Jackson . The telecast started as Madonna walked onstage with no introduction and launched into a speech about the late King of Pop. She listed the parallels between their lives, saying she thought Jackson's childhood stardom was a worse fate than the loss of her mother when [...]

Filed under: Twisted Tales The song imagined a feud between Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney . The point of contention was a girl they both had their eye on. In reality, there was no feud and, no surprise, no such girl. During the recording of 'The Girl Is Mine,' the King of Pop and the former Beatle watched cartoons and clowned around, throwing things at each other. Producer Quincy Jones called Jackson by his affectionate nickname, "Smelly." About a year earlier, Jackson had stayed with [...]

Filed under: News , R.I.P. , Holy Hell While so much about Michael Jackson 's life and death remains a mystery, there are certain facts that everybody just knows by heart. One of them, sadly, is his ill-fated advertisement for Pepsi. The accident was well-chronicled but really seen -- until now, as Us Weekly revealed exclusive footage showing the entire incident. The video is graphic and quite clearly shows some of the second and third degree burns that Jackson suffered as a result of the [...]

Filed under: R.I.P. , Schwag Hag Item: 1984 Michael Jackson Thriller Vintage Doll Price: $300 Description: Here is your chance to get a rare vintage 1984 Michael Jackson Thriller doll. This has been in dry storage for 25 years. The box is in mint shape and handled for the first time since packaged by the factory in China. The doll has never been out of the box and has the original factory seal. IT would [...]

Filed under: News , Exclusive Everything leading up to the Michael Jackson memorial service at Los Angeles' Staples Center had an air of surreality most people had never experienced. Lottery winners and press members picked up their wristbands and tickets at Dodger Stadium beforehand, and embarked to a movie-like scene in downtown L.A. Tuesday morning, with literally as many as 20 officers at a time standing on street corners, and emergency vehicles lined up and down the block in preparation for the worst. Inside, it was even [...]

Filed under: News Like much of his life, Tuesday's Michael Jackson memorial service looks to be an over-the-top spectacle attended by thousands of fans and throngs of media. News outlets are reporting that after a private service for family members at the Forest Lawn cemetery in Hollywood Hills at 11AM ET, Jackson's body will be transported to the Staples Center for the public memorial. The lucky 17,500 fans who won tickets to the memorial -- 10,000 in the Staples Center and 7,500 across the street at the Nokia Theater -- have [...]

Filed under: News , R.I.P. , Holy Hell The tributes to Michael Jackson will surely keep coming, but we're betting none will top the Iowa State Fair's homage to the King of Pop for surreality. Now, it's not traditional State Fair, um, fare like fried Twinkees or Snickers in deep batter, but it's not far off. The Des Moines Register reports that the fair is planning to honor Jackson with a butter statue. That's right, a likeness of the King of Pop made of dairy. [...]

Filed under: News As the shock of Michael Jackson 's death on Thursday dissipated, the U.K.'s record buyers paid tribute to him in the most public way -- by sending the King of Pop all the way back into the top of the U.K. album charts. It only took two days for the best-of compilation 'Number Ones' to catapult its way to pole position. Prior to Jackson's death it was at No. 121 in the week's chart. Four more of Jackson's albums made it into the Top 20, [...]

Filed under: I Freakin' Love This Song 'Wanna Be Startin' Somethin,'' Michael Jackson From 1982's 'Thriller' It's hard to put my finger on exactly why I freakin' love this 'Thriller'-opening track. I think it's mostly because this song is weird. Weird, frenetic genius. I won't bore with superlatives about how much the album 'Thriller' shaped my musical childhood. It pretty much defined it. Years of obsession with Michael Jackson and literally everything he did. I taped all of his videos off of MTV and had [...]

Filed under: News , Video , Exclusive On Friday night, Raphael Saadiq did as many musicians did just 24 hours after Michael Jackson died at the age of 50: paid tribute to the King of Pop. "God, Thank you for giving us Michael Jackson," he said. "And thank you, Michael, for giving us real music. Your legend can never die." Saadiq then covered 'I Want You Back' at his gig at the Tokyo Blue Note. Watch the performance after the jump.

Filed under: News , Exclusive R&B singer Eric Benet tells Spinner what many have said in the past 48 hours, following the death of Michael Jackson at the age of 50: "The world just lost the greatest." "Since the invention of recorded music there have been very few 'greats,'" Benet tells Spinner. "The wonder of Michael Jackson's life and artistic genius has surpassed that of any iconic figure in entertainment history. There was no demographic, culture or soul that his artistry couldn't reach. My 17-year-old daughter often spends [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News , R.I.P. They may have been in a field somewhere in deepest rural Somerset, but the Glastonbury set were still able to pay tribute to Michael Jackson , who passed away suddenly on Thursday. Savvy stallholders had Michael Jackson tribute t-shirts on sale by Friday, while fans created messages to the late King of Pop on flags, banners and anything else they could scrawl a message onto. Pharrell Williams of N.E.R.D. paid tribute, telling [...]