"No Frills" is the sixth studio album by American singer Bette Midler, released on Atlantic Records in 1983. No Frills was Midler's first studio album in four years, following the movies The Rose, Divine Madness! and the ill-fated Jinxed!. The rock and new wave influenced album was produced by Chuck Plotkin, best known for his work with Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, and included three single releases; the ballad "All I Need to Know", a cover of Marshall Crenshaw's "My Favourite Waste of Time" and Midler's take on the Rolling Stones classic "Beast of Burden".
Nigerian vocalist Sade Adu has carved out a cosmpolitan niche for herself over the past decade, gathering together elements of cool jazz, samba, reggae, funk and pop all under the pastoral umbrella of her suede-and-velvet voice. A pop stylist with a musical universe all her own, Sade has endured and matured over the past decade, seemingly unaffected by changes in taste and fashion–a movement unto herself…
English-Irish teen-pop boy band formed during the British TV singing competition "The X Factor" in 2010. They finished third in the series and subsequently signed with Simon Cowell's label Syco Music. In November 2011 they released their debut album "Up All Night". The album went straight to number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, which made One Direction the first UK group in US chart history to debut at number one with their first album. Propelled to international success by social media, One Direction's four albums, Up All Night (2011), Take Me Home (2012), Midnight Memories (2013) and Four (2014) topped charts in most major markets, and generated hit singles including "What Makes You Beautiful", "Live While We're Young", "Story of My Life" and "Night Changes".
There's an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm from 2002 where Alanis Morissette is performing at a benefit concert that's eventually held at Larry David's home, where she sings a stripped-down acoustic arrangement of "You Oughta Know" with guitarist David Levita for an audience of wealthy Hollywood liberals. This may not have been the genesis of her 2005 album Jagged Little Pill Acoustic – initially for sale only in Starbucks stores, but released to mass retail in late July – but that performance not only offers a clue to the sound of this acoustic-based reinterpretation of her blockbuster breakthrough, but also to its target audience…