Soundtracks with moving renditions

Sparkle, the original motion picture soundtrack by Various Artists: Much has already been written about how the late Whitney Houston squandered her fantastic voice. But then it has also been said that she had finally gotten her life together and was working on improving her singing. Here in Sparkle, the mother-and-daughter drama loosely based on the story of The Supremes, is proof that her efforts were working. Whitney sparkles like the old days in the soundtrack with a moving rendition of the old inspirational, His Eye Is On The Sparrow. Her peg is more Aretha than Whitney but it sounds great.

I do not know when Sparkle will hit the local theaters but I am sure that a lot of fans here are curious about Whitney’s last film appearance. She plays mom to American Idol (AI) Jordin Sparks. Pretty and blessed with a sweet voice, the young girl holds her own very well as the lead singer of a girl trio. She does Jump and Something He Can Feel with Carmen Ejogo and Tika Sumpter. She also gets to sing Celebrate, a bouncy duet with Whitney. Also included are I’m A Man by Ceelo Green; Yes, I Do by Ejogo; Running by Goapele; and Jordin’s solos, Look Into Your Heart, One Wing and Love Will.

The Music of Smash by the cast of the TV series: This should have been a double disc or even triple disc album, given the number of songs used in the show. Maybe, even better, there should have been two separate soundtracks because Smash is a musical within a musical. One for Smash itself, which is about the people creating a musical and another for Marilyn, the musical. There were plenty of new originals composed for both and the covers of popular tunes were so well-produced. So Katharine McPhee’s wondrous version of Beautiful is here but fans miss out on Megan Hilty’s Happy Birthday Mr. President and other goodies.

AI finalist McPhee as the ingenue tapped to play Marilyn gets to do Touch Me, Shake It Out, Brighter Than The Sun and The 20th Century Fox Mambo; there are also Stand with McPhee and Leslie Odom; Who You Are, Lets Be Bad and Crazy Dreams with Hilty, who is the other Marilyn; Haven’t Met You Yet with guest star Nick Jonas doing a take on Michael Bublé; Mr. & Mrs. Smith and History Is Made At Night with Hilty & Will Chase; and the show’s theme Let Me Be Your Star with McPhee and Hilty.

Rock Of Ages, the original motion picture soundtrack: We all know it. Although it looks and sounds like a rock spectacle, the screen version lacks the charm and innocence of the stage musical on which it was based. However, the soundtrack works beautifully and the album comes across as a fun anthology of classic rock sounds from Dep Leppard, Poison, Survivor, Pat Benatar, Journey and other glam acts. It is also quite a bonus to discover that Tom Cruise can sing rock. Everybody wanted the guy to flop as a rock star but he does not in the album. 

Check out Paradise City and Pour Some Sugar On Me by Cruise; Hit Me With Your Best Shot by Catherine Zeta-Jones; Waiting For A Girl Like You, More Than Words and Heaven by Diego Boneta and Julianne Hough; Can’t Fight This Feeling by Russell Brand and Alec Baldwin; plus I Want To Know What Love Is, Rock You Like A Hurricane, Every Rose Has Its Thorn, Any Way You Want It, Harden My Heart, Wanted Dead Or Alive, Don’t Stop Believin’ and other famous rock tunes.

Think Like A Man, music from and inspired by the film. I never saw the movie based on a bestseller by Steve Harvey and which starred Chris Brown, yes, Rihanna’s ex also acts, and Gabrielle Union. So I do not know how the songs in the CD were used. But I just now found out that it has a very good R&B soundtrack that can stand independently of the picture. 

Strange that it does not have anything by Brown but it has new originals like Think Like A Man by another AI finalist Jennifer Hudson and Ne-Yo featuring Rick Ross and classics like Never Too Much by Luther Vandross. Best of the batch is Tonight (Best You Ever Had) by John Legend and Ludacris and I felt nostalgic hearing the old That’s The Way Of The World by Earth, Wind & Fire.