Nellie McKay Gets Pretty

Avant-cabaret singer-songwriter Nellie McKay is set to release her sophomore effort, Pretty Little Head, on October 18th. The follow-up to her double-CD debut, Get Away From Me, which Rolling Stone dubbed one of the Best Albums of 2004, will feature duets with Cyndi Lauper and k.d. lang.

Songs on the outspoken artist's Pretty include "Cupcake," which McKay says is about gay marriage, and "The Big One," "about a tenants' rights activist." Alt-country crooner lang sings on "We Had It Right," while Lauper, with whom McKay performed at the Great Wall of China last fall, guests on "Beecharmer."

"Cyndi's a legend," says McKay, "and I'd like to consider her a friend."

McKay, who plays piano, cello and synthesizer on the new album, is also preparing to star opposite Alan Cumming and Edie Falco in a new production of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's The Threepenny Opera. The musical will open on Broadway in April of 2006.

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Song Stories

“Tonight's the Night”

The Shirelles | 1960

The lead cut and title track from this girl group's debut album, "Tonight's the Night" was written by 19-year-old bandmember Shirley Owens, who sings lead, and producer Luther Dixon. The band from Passaic, New Jersey met in high school, first calling themselves the Pequellos. The song's frank thoughts about sexual and emotional surrender was racy for the time, but that didn't stop the Chiffons from cutting a similar version immediately after the original came out. "We were the first female group to write some of our own material," band member Beverly Lee recalls. "We did have some say-so in our writing."

More Song Stories entries »

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