Shut Up and Buy
In one of the year's most audacious marketing moves, Paula Abdul's
second album, Shut Up and Dance (to be released April 24), consists
entirely of extended versions of songs from her five-million-selling
debut album, Straight Up. Since it's unlikely that an all-new Abdul
album will be out before 1991, Virgin hopes Shut Up will appease her
fans — and sell as well as similarly remixed albums by Bobby Brown and
Jody Watley.
The Big Chiller
Priority Records gets this week's Crassest Baby Boomer Marketing
Award for Vietnam: Rockin' the Delta, a 14-track compilation of
foxhole requests (''Nowhere to Run,'' ''Hanky Panky,'' ''These Boots Are
Made for Walkin','' etc.) complete with choppers-over-the-jungle cover
art. For their next package, we suggest Panama: Rockin' Noriega,
featuring ''You're No Good,'' ''I Fought the Law,'' and other songs that
U.S. troops blasted at the Vatican Embassy in Panama City to taunt the general-in-hiding.
Heart and Cole
Suddenly, pop stars are getting a kick out of Cole Porter. A
Dionne Warwick album of Porter standards will be released in July,
and 22 artists — including Fine Young Cannibals, U2, David Byrne,
Sinead O'Connor, Neneh Cherry, Debbie Harry, Iggy Pop, Erasure, and
the Neville Brothers — will perform the legendary songwriter's tunes on
Red Hot & Blue, a tribute album due in September. (The same artists
will appear in a TV special on Dec. 1, complete with song videos
directed by the likes of Jonathan Demme and Diane Keaton.) Sales of
the album will benefit AIDS-related organizations in the U.S. and
England.
Pump Down the Volume
Sony has introduced new Walkman headphones that reduce ''audio
leakage'' — that is, allow you to crank up the music without bothering
anyone near you. The headphones will hit the Japanese market this
month; no word yet on when they'll appear in the U.S.
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