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What does it say about the state of the music industry that the opening performance of last Sunday's Grammys was neither a pop smash nor a headline-making reunion — but a ''duet'' with a dead guy? We like Alicia Keys and Frank Sinatra just fine, but watching her mimic his mothballed Rat Pack mannerisms on ''Learning the Blues'' was just plain uncomfortable. We didn't even get a fancy hologram, like the computer-generated Elvis who joined Celine Dion on American Idol last year; Keys simply gazed admiringly at a black-and-white projection of Ol' Blue Eyes, but she might as well have been singing along with a YouTube video. Not that we're trying to give future Grammy producers any ideas.


Posted Feb 15, 2008 | Published in issue #979 Feb 22, 2008 | Order Article Reprints