Clay Aiken Records Covers on His CD of "New" Songs

Clay Aiken Records Covers on his CD of "New" Songs


Clay Aiken is releasing a new CD, “On My Way Here”
that is being promoted as the American Idol
runner-up’s first album of original songs since
2003. Excerpts from official press release:

“EAGERLY AWAITED COLLECTION IS THE POP SUPERSTAR'S
FIRST ALBUM OF ORIGINAL SONGS SINCE 2003”

“The collection is the 29-year-old Raleigh, NC,
native's first album of original songs since his 2003
chart-topping, double- platinum debut Measure of a
Man.”

http://sev.prnewswire.com/entertainment/20080404/NYF06404042008-1.html

Contrary to this press release, there are 4 (possibly
5) covers that have been recorded on the CD, in
addition to the song “Lover All Alone” an original
song that was previously recorded and released on
iTunes in 2006 as a bonus track for Clay's last CD.
These are the covers on Clay's new CD, "On My Way
Here", songs that have been previously recorded on CDs
that have been released, sometimes by more than one
artist.

1. “The Real Me” is composed by Natalie
Grant and was recorded on her album “Awaken”,
which was released in March, 2005. The CD and single
are available on iTunes and Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Awaken-Natalie-Grant/dp/B0007PALDE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1206529718&sr=1-2

The song can be heard here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcWQIsG9Rqw

Natalie Grant is a well-known Christian
Contemporary/Adult Contemporary Artist who has won
multiple Dove Awards for female vocalist of the year,
the most recent win in 2008. “The Real Me” was
released as a single to radio and according to
Mediabase, has 11,997 radioplays.

http://www.mmr247.com/mmrweb/Reports/Reg/EMD.asp?SOngID=1373080&NumDays=3

In a Q & A with Billboard magazine’s Chuck
Taylor, Clay failed to identify “The Real Me” as a
cover:

"Taylor: The Real Me" was written by Natalie Grant,
who comes from the Christian world but is popular at
AC. Her songs tend to explore life's challenges and
offer a positive spin.

Clay: We first looked at that song as one of
four originals on the last album. The thing I
love so much about "The Real Me" is that when I
listened to it, I thought, "It's about God." Jaymes
heard a romantic song. Other people think it's about
their mom. Everyone is able to take their own message.
Natalie was kind enough to change a little bit of the
lyric so that it fits my life even better.”

Since Clay’s last CD, “A Thousand Different
Ways”, was released in September, 2006, and
“The Real Me” was recorded on Natalie Grant’s CD
“Awaken” which was released in March, 2005,
it appears that Clay is mistaken in claiming that TRM
was ever an "original song" that he considered for
ATDW.

2. “As Long As We’re Here” has been
recorded by Brooke Morton on her album “I’m On My
Way” (2007). The album and the song are
still available on iTunes. Here’s a video of Brooke
singing ALAWH:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDe2HcYVNr0

“As Long As We’re Here” was also recorded
by Kristy Starling on her album “Kristy Starling”
(2003) that is available through Amazon and
iTunes.

http://www.amazon.com/Kristy-Starling/dp/B00008V633/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1206537404&sr=1-1

You can hear her rendition here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-mukqXC0Kk

3. “Grace of God” is written by Don
Mescall and can be heard on his myspace here:

http://www.myspace.com/donmescall

This is another cover of a song that was recorded on
his CD “Innocent Run” that was released in the
U.K. in May, 2006. The CD and single are
available for download from the U.K. iTunes and the CD
is available as an “import” from Amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/Innocent-Run-Don-Mescall/dp/B000DNVNAK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1208386698&sr=1-1

”Grace of God” was also recorded by a U.K.
female trio called Hummingbird and released in the
U.K. on their CD “Tougher Than Love“, August,
2007. You can hear their version on their myspace
here:

http://www.myspace.com/hummingbirdmusic

The CD is available for sale from the U.K. Amazon
site:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tougher-Than-Love-Hummingbird/dp/B000QUUDOW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1208388130&sr=8-1

4. "Something About Us" is a song by Michael
O'Brien, a CCM artist. The video of him singing this
song was uploaded by him and used to be at this URL,
with a note that a "DVD is to come":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsmXMAJC3do but it was
removed by user.

“Something About Us” is the title track of a CD
that Michael O’Brien released in 2007.

http://www.amazon.com/Something-About-Us-Michael-OBrien/dp/B000MRA6H8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1207540062&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Something-About-Us/dp/B000TPXBVG/ref=dmusic_cd_album?ie=UTF8&qid=1207540062&sr=1-3

The album and single are also available for download
from iTunes.

5. " Everything I Don't Need" has been
recorded before. On Kipper’s myspace there is a web
edit of an album “This is Different” that he
produced with different artists. You can hear a clip
of the song “Everything I Don’t Need” that
starts at around 2:09.

http://www.myspace.com/kippermusic

Also, this:

http://kippermusic.co.uk/works/

"KIPPER MUSIC
Producer co-writer Artiste
Album: This is Different

Brand new original album featuring guest performances
from Sting, Curtis Stigers, Dominic Miller, Richard
Marx, Jason Rebello, Judie Tzuke, Joy Rose & many
more. Available on iTunes soon. Go in to any B&O
store and ask to hear some tracks. "

It is not clear if this album was ever released to
iTunes.

So, it appears that Clay’s new CD is being
misrepresented as consisting of original songs, since
there are several covers of songs previously recorded
and released by other artists. Clay Aiken
misrepresent himself? Some things never change.

I want to thank the anonymous contributor who wrote this blog.