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Watch Brett Dennen Perform "Heaven" and "When Doves Cry"

August 25, 2009 2:07 PM ET

Singer-songwriter Brett Dennen, a Rolling Stone Artist to Watch, recently stopped by our studios to perform his new single "Heaven," off his 2008 album Hope For the Hopeless. On September 1st, Dennen will debut a new version of "Heaven," featuring former 10,000 Maniacs frontwoman Natalie Merchant, on AOL Music. Their duet will be available on iTunes on September 1st as well, and Hope For the Hopeless will go on sale for $5 on Amie Street starting September 8th, with $1 of each sale going to the Life is Good Kids Foundation.

Dennen also busted out a cover of Prince's "When Doves Cry," telling Rolling Stone he was inspired by a recent screening of Purple Rain in Brooklyn. Check out Dennen's acoustic rendition of the 1984 smash below:

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Song Stories

“He Will Break Your Heart”

Jerry Butler | 1960

A lightly swinging Latin-influenced, almost cha-cha groove and close harmonies decorated Jerry Butler's early soul hit "He Will Break Your Heart," delivering a stately warning that his rival would never love his girl like he did. The melody came to Butler as he was driving on the highway from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Philadelphia with Curtis Mayfield, and as Butler told Rolling Stone, "I just sang the melody and Curtis put the chords to it." The song's premise, Butler added, "was something that I'd lived ...The lyric was an experience rather than a revelation. Whereas music is usually a revelation."

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