Scissor Sisters Sing With Elton

New York disco-pop outfit Scissor Sisters wrote, recorded and produced their 2004 self-titled debut in keyboardist-bassist Baby Daddy's Brooklyn kitchen. Two years later, the band is cutting its follow-up in its own state-of-the-art studio, aptly dubbed Discoball. And a longtime dream has been realized: The group's collective idol Elton John, himself a Sisters fan, collaborated on the new track, "I Don't Feel Like Dancing." "He's been so amazing and supportive and warm, and it's a really big deal for us," says Baby Daddy.

The as-yet-untitled follow-up, which the group is attempting to self-produce, will potentially include the song "Everybody Wants," which the band debuted onstage this past summer at Live 8. While the rest of the album, due late spring, is just taking shape, singer/lyricist Jake Shears says it will be a mishmash of upbeat disco songs, Sixties psychedelia and glam rock.

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Great Gatsby' Is a Crushing Disappointment
• 
  TV Why You Should Watch 'Happy Endings'
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter