Pearl Jam Step Up for Bridge Benefit

Pearl Jam is the first band to sign on for Neil Young's Thirteenth Annual Bridge School Benefit concert, according to a spokesperson for the Godfather of Grunge. The event will be held this year at Mountain View, California's Shoreline Amphitheater on October 30 and 31. Other artists whose names have been mentioned in connection with the concert include Steve Earle and Patti Smith, but the spokesperson said that no other acts have been confirmed for the event so far.

In other Pearl Jam news, the band's Rumor Pit on the Sony Music Web site reports that they have snagged a new producer for their forthcoming album. The group has tapped Tchad Blake (Los Lobos, Crowded House, Fishbone, Sheryl Crow, X, and Tom Waits) to twirl the knobs. Blake and the boys will get down to work in September, but don't yet have a release date scheduled.

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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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