Paltrow cruises into vocal role
Huey Lewis encouraged her to make an album
USA Today
Los Angeles — Oscar winner, America's sweetheart, tabloid glamour girl, Gwyneth Paltrow has added yet another dimension to her enviable résumé: singer. Paltrow has recorded three songs on the soundtrack of her next movie, Duets, in which she plays an amateur singer competing in a national karaoke contest.
The single Cruisin', the Smokey Robinson hit that Paltrow sings with co-star Huey Lewis, is being released today on radio stations around the USA. (The entire soundtrack will be released Sept. 12.)
Though she had no formal training, Paltrow has been singing since she can remember. Duets were a part of her childhood, under the musical direction of her actress mother, Blythe Danner, who sang in jazz clubs in college.
"My mother and I would always sing and harmonize together," Paltrow says. " I was like 3 years old, imitating her jazz-singer way. I was singing that Sesame Street song 'One of these things does not belong,' but I put this jazzy spin on it. It was hilarious."
Now 27, she still puts her distinctive touch on well-known touch on well-known tunes. She does a sultry rendition of Cruisin', as well as the Temptations classic Just My Imagination and a witty version of Kim Carnes' Bette Davis Eyes.
"Gwyneth is as authentic a talent as you can find, musically speaking," says Dick Rudolph, music supervisor on Duets, which opens Sept. 15. "The way she phrases stuff, the girl's got it."
But Paltrow has no plans to pull a Jennifer Lopez and launch a new career.
"Huey very quickly was becoming my musical manager and advice giver," she says. "He would say, 'You have to make a record,' and I'd say, 'I'm just happy to sing with you, Huey.' I've got my hands full with my day job. I don't think I want to ever do a record. "
She took the part primarily to work with her father, director Bruce Paltrow (St. Elsewhere), an experience she called "phenomenal. He spoiled me."
Paltrow directed the movie just weeks after recovering from surgery for throat cancer.
"He's excellent now, knock on wood," his daughter says. "It's been a year and a half, and there's no recurrence of cancer cells whatsoever. "
Paltrow credits her close-knit family for her musical inclinations.
"We had those great sort of Woody Allen movie-esque Christmas parties, where somebody plays the piano and everyone gathers around it," she says.
"My mom's brother and father were opera singers. My mother's mother also has a beautiful voice. People wanted her to make records, but her husband wouldn't let her do it. I guess sometimes the man will hold you down."
No such obstacles these days for Paltrow. She says she is not dating anyone, though she remains close to ex-squeeze Ben Affleck, with whom she stars in the upcoming romantic drama Bounce.
In regard to former fiancé Brad Pitt's July 29 marriage to Jennifer Aniston, Paltrow is philosophical.
She was recently quoted in Vanity Fair as saying: "When we split up, something changed permanently in me. My heart sort of broke that day, and it will never be the same."
But, she says, ultimately things turned out as they should have.
"I really value that relationship and that time in my life because it's made me who I am," Paltrow says. "I'm a much better person having gone through that."
Thanks to Steve Clark of www.bttf.com and John Taylor.
