Rita Wilson Releasing Album, Says She's 'Always Felt More Comfortable With Music'
by Steve Mirkin, L.A. | October 26, 2011 2:15 EDT

Rita Wilson will join the slashie ranks -- aka, actor/musician -- this February with the release of her debut album. Wilson discussed the album, titled "AM/FM" (Feb. 7, Decca), during a surprise appearance at the Billboard/Hollywood Reporter Film & TV Music Conference on Tuesday (Oct. 25).

The bubbly Wilson, aka Mrs. Tom Hanks, was inspired by memories of growing up in Los Angeles, telling the crowd, "We used to sit in the back seat of our parent's car, hear songs on the AM radio and sing along."

Later on, when Wilson got her driver's license, the music had changed and moved to the FM broadcast band, where she heard the singer-songwriters that dominated L.A. music in the early '70s. Thus, one half of the album is dedicated to her versions of classic pop, and the other to the folk-rock songs of her teens.

Wilson views "AM/FM" as a move out of her comfort zone, though she's not exactly a novice when it comes to music. She appeared as Roxy in the 2006 Broadway revival of "Chicago," and was a producer of the film version of the ABBA-centric musical "Mamma Mia."

Still, most people making their first album would not have Jay Landers, known for his work with Barbara Streisand, as their A&R rep, or have Nashville powerhouse Fred Mullen producing. Wilson admits, though, that she did feel a certain amount of trepidation walking into the studio with such heavyweights -- and simply recording at all.

"So many people have tried to do it and came before me," she said. "I want people to think I deserve to be here, and not someone who woke up one morning and decided to make an album."

But those nerves quickly passed: "I've always felt more comfortable with music than acting," the "Sleepless in Seattle" actress noted.

Wilson said music has always been a part of her life and that listening to the radio growing up was an education.

"You could learn how to sing harmony by listening to the Everly Brothers' "[All I Have To Do] Dream," and learn about melody or songwriting by listening to Carole King. They were not only great songs, but great teachers as well."

Although Rita Wilson is well-known as an actress (It’s Complicated, Sleepless in Seattle, The Good Wife) and a film producer (discovered My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Mamma Mia!), few may be aware that her early show biz ambitions were actually musical. Born and raised in the Hollywood Hills (nearly above the Hollywood Bowl), Wilson harbored dreams of becoming a singer in the 60’s and 70’s after falling in love with The Beatles, The Mamas & the Papas, Janis Joplin, and The Supremes, among others. She even took a part-time job as a ticket-taker at what was then the Universal Amphitheatre as a way to see such popular acts of the day as Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, James Taylor, and The Eagles.

“I would watch these artists on stage and ache from wondering, ‘How can I get up there?’ How can I get to do that? ” Wilson recalls. “I had no idea how. I was a first generation American. We didn’t know anyone in the music industry. Acting and modeling kind of happened to me. I went with the flow because the opportunity was terrific and I could make a living, but I thought you had to play an instrument and be able to write songs to be a singer like so many of the ones I admired.”

Wilson has finally achieved her dream with the Decca Records release of her debut album AM/FM — an intimate, elegant, and beautifully sung collection of classics from the ’60s and ’70s that, taken together, make up the soundtrack to her life. “That time period was hugely influential on me as a kid and as a teenager,” she says. “I’d spend hours and hours lying on my bed, holding up the albums, reading the liner notes, and learning all the words to these songs that expressed exactly what I was feeling. They were like a little road map of human experience. Back then, we would even memorize the names of the musicians and photographers. There wasn’t a ‘thank you’ mentioned on a liner note that wasn’t studied and analyzed.”

Carefully curated by Wilson, her producer, Fred Mollin, and Decca Records’ Senior VP of A&R Jay Landers, AM/FM is filled with songs that resonate emotionally with Wilson. “I can remember where I was when I heard each one and what it meant to me,” she says. The album is essentially divided into two sections. The first half, “AM,” features songs from the ’60s that Wilson remembers singing along to on AM radio while riding in the back seat of her parents’ car and that recall the “lovely innocence and hopefulness of the time”: The songs include “All I Have To Do Is Dream,” (written by Vanessa Joy Amorosi, Mark Ronald Holden & Irmgard Klarmann), “Never My Love,” (written by Richard P. Addrisi & Donald J. Addrisi), “Cherish,” (written by Terry Kirkman), “Come See About Me” (written by Edward Holland Jr, Brian Holland & Lamont Dozier), “Angel Of The Morning” (written by Chip Taylor), “Walking In The Rain” (co-written by Phil Spector and songwriting team Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil for the Ronettes), “Wichita Lineman” (written by Jimmy Webb), and “You Were On My Mind” (written by Sylvia Fricker).

By the time Wilson got her own car (a Datsun 2000 Roadster) at age 17, popular music lived on FM radio. She became enamored with the folk-rock singer-songwriters who dominated those airwaves in the early ’70s and her favorite songs make up the “FM” half: “Good Time Charlie’s Got The Blues” (written by Danny O’Keefe), “Love Has No Pride (written by Eric Kaz & Libby Titus),” “Please Come To Boston” (written by Dave Loggins), “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” (written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King), “Faithless Love” (written by J.D. Souther), and “River” (by Joni Mitchell). “As I got older, I began to understand that not everything had a happy ending,” Wilson says, “so I was drawn to songs by women who wrote about how love was not always the dream fantasy; that there was pain and disappointment involved.”

“The song sequence on the album tells a story of a very innocent, idealized version of love in the ‘AM’ section, before it shifts to the ‘FM’ section and becomes more about the disillusionment that happens after you've had a couple of heartbreaks,” Wilson says. “It also was important to me to choose songs that could stand on their own melodically and iconically. The songwriters were a very important part of the story I wanted to tell. I was looking for an emotional connection and songs that told a story.”

Augmenting Wilson’s exquisite vocal performances are appearances by special guests Chris Cornell, Sheryl Crow, Jimmy Webb, Jackson Browne, Faith Hill, Vince Gill, and Patti Scialfa (who also produced “Come See About Me”). “When I was growing up, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, and Dolly Parton would all perform on each other's albums,” Wilson says. “I remember thinking how great it was that all these wonderful artists would help each other out. There was a camaraderie and connection between them that I thought was very cool. I’ve always loved the idea of an artistic community where people collaborated.”

Making AM/FM, which was recorded last spring at the legendary Capitol Records Studio A in Hollywood, is a natural progression for Wilson. Over the last few years she has appeared as Roxie Hart in Chicago on Broadway, served as a producer on the film version of the stage musical Mamma Mia!, and recorded the song “Lessons Learned,” by Grammy Award-winning songwriter Diane Warren for The Trap, a short film Wilson directed as part of Glamour magazine’s “Reel Moments” series. AM/FM came about through conversations Wilson had with Landers about selecting songs to cover for a potential theatrical show. After hearing a demo of Wilson singing “Wichita Lineman,” Landers suggested she make an album instead and Wilson happily agreed.

“I had been missing out, professionally, on the connection I had to music,” Wilson says. “I said to myself, ‘If this is a dream of yours, you’re either going to do it or not do it, but you have to make a choice.’ And I’d gotten to a certain point where the desire to do it overcame everything else. It was almost as if I had to do it or I would regret it. As scary as it was to jump off the ledge, I loved the process. I loved everything about it: the recording, the musicians, the hanging out, the creative discussions. I've always loved people who express themselves through music. To me, music is a universal way that people connect. I feel very grateful to be doing this.”

1. "All I Have To Do Is Dream" (written by Boudleaux Bryant)
"Growing up listening to songs like this, I inadvertently learned how to harmonize. I'd be on the beach and singing with my friends and we'd say, `Okay, you take the high part, I'll take the low part,' without even realizing that what we were doing was harmonizing. So I recorded this as sort of a `thank you' to all those artists for teaching me how to harmonize."

2. "Never My Love" (written by Richard Addrisi and Donald Addrisi)
"This song was so reassuring to me when I was younger -- the idea that you could fall in love with someone and honestly communicate your insecurities to them. You could say, `What if this happens? What if that happens? What if you fall out of love with me?', and the response could be, `Never, my love. That'll never happen.'"

3. "Come See About Me" (written by Holland-Dozier-Holland)
"It's a very, very covered song, but it's a great song. There can't be too many covers of it. I love that this woman is aching for this guy and making her feelings known. It's not clear whether she ever does get him to come see about her, and in that way the song is much more subversive than the melody suggests."

4. "Angel of the Morning" (written by Chip Taylor)
"As a woman listening to this song today, I see it completely differently than I did as a kid. When I was younger I thought, `This girl made the wrong choice -- she gave it up, and now the guy's dumping her.' But hearing it now, I see it as an older woman saying to some guy, `Don't worry, I'll drive myself home. I'll be your angel of the morning. I won't let you see me crying.' The lyrics might resonate for women who are searching for something that they're just not getting: that emotional connection. It's about the compromises that you make so you won't have to spend a night alone."

5. "Walking in the Rain" (written by Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, and Phil Spector)
"I love this song for its innocence. It's about dreaming what the guy you'll fall in love with someday is going to be like. I think we've all done a lot of fantasizing like that. I remember thinking, as a young woman, `Gosh, will I ever meet that person? Will I ever get the chance to have a soulmate?' For me, this song reminds me that if you never give up hope, you just might meet the right person."

6. "Wichita Lineman" (written by Jimmy Webb)
"This song is like an Edward Hopper painting -- so evocative of loneliness. It's got one of the greatest lines ever written: `I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time.' The lyrics say so much about communication, about what you choose to say and not to say. And it's about the people you take for granted, whether it's the Wichita lineman or somebody serving you a cup of coffee. Everyone has these lives, and they're all meaningful and important. They all have longing and people they love. It's about human experience and how we're all connected, we're all the same. This was the first track we recorded and the first time I met Jimmy Webb. Here's one of the greatest songs ever written, and the songwriter is playing piano for me. I was humbled. I still am, and forever grateful."

7. "Cherish" (written by Terry Kirkman)
"Terry was the lead singer for the Association but also wrote `Cherish.' He came to the studio while we were recording, which was nerve-racking. When you're playing something you've recorded for the person who wrote it, you hope that they'll like it. I was so pleased because Terry said, `I've always wanted to hear the song this way.' I think he liked the simplicity of our version."

8. "You Were On My Mind" (written by Sylvia Tyson)
"There's a line in this song that goes, `I went to the corner just to ease my pain.' When I was a kid I always thought they were talking about Oakcrest Market, which was a neighborhood store on Cahuenga in Hollywood. We used to say, `I'm bored, I'm not feeling good, I'm going to go down to Oakcrest, get a fudgesicle and read an Archie comic behind the ice cream cooler.' That's what the song meant to me back then; that was how you eased your pain. You'd go down to the store and get a Coke. We used to take bottles and cash them in so we could buy candy with them."

9. "Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues" (written by Danny O'Keefe)
"This song is about people who can't escape their own patterns of unsuccessful behavior and create a better life for themselves. In the original song, Charlie is a guy, but to me it's a female Charlie. We all know those party girls who are past their prime. Everybody's leaving town, and they're left behind because they made all the wrong choices or they just don't want to change. They're saying, `No, no, no, I just want to party, I want to have a good time, I don't want to have any responsibilities.' Sometimes people live so much in the moment, they aren't aware when life is passing them by."

10. "Love Has No Pride" (written by Eric Kaz and Libby Titus)
"As a young woman driving around and listening to this song, I heard it as a lesson: Be careful, because you can make mistakes, and you might make that one last mistake that there's no coming back from. To me the song is asking, `How far do you take it?' The romantic in me said, `I would do anything. Love would have no pride.' But there's a difference between what you think would do and the reality of what you'd actually do. When you're young, everything is so black and white. But as you get older, everything becomes a lot more gray. You become less convinced of the need to be right."

11. "Please Come To Boston" (written by Dave Loggins)
"When I first heard this song I thought, `What's with this girl?' In my mind she's got this gorgeous musician boyfriend who's left Tennessee and said to her, `Hey, I'm up here in Boston. Come up here. You're an artist too. You can sell your paintings, I'll play music, and we'll start our life together.' And she says, `No, no, you're coming back to Tennessee.' Then he gets to Denver and he's singing, `We'll move up into the mountains so far that we can't be found, and throw "I love you" echoes down the canyon'--so not only is he a musician; he's a romantic too. And she still tells him, `No, I'm not going.' Then he asks her to come to L.A. because now he's made it; he's got a house that looks over the ocean and a view of the city. Here's this guy saying, `I've made it and I still love you, and I want you to come be with me in L.A.', and she just says `No' again. I thought to myself, `You're an idiot, woman.' But I also felt sorry for the couple in the song, because why can't they work it out? As I got a little older I realized that maybe she didn't want to leave her comfort zone. Maybe she didn't want to test her abilities or talent as a painter. There wasn't anything keeping her there other than her own insecurities and her own inability to take a risk. At the same time I thought, `Why does the woman have to always follow the guy around? Why couldn't he just come back and be happy in Tennessee?' Today the song seems much more complex, more about choices and compromises that you have to make as you get older. I love it because it's like a tragic love story. It's about people who love each other but just can't be together."

12. "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" (written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King)
This song was so important to me as a young woman, and the lyrics are so universal and timeless. They don't belong to just one particular phase of life. For a woman of any age, there's the vulnerability that comes with saying, `Okay, this feels really good and I'm going with it, but I've been here before. Is this guy going to be here tomorrow or not?' I have a lot of friends who are single and they're still dealing with that experience. `Look, we're here, we're in this moment. Will you love me tomorrow?' Sometimes there isn't a clear answer."

13. "Faithless Love" (written by J.D. Souther)
"I first met J.D. Souther in the `70s, when I was working at the Universal Amphitheater. I thought to myself, `Holy crap, you've written some of the best songs I've ever heard in my life.' I didn't understand how he could write poetry that was so visual to me. `I'm standing in a hall of broken dreams.' The imagery in this song is just so powerful. `The night rolls in like a cold, dark wind' -- we all know that feeling of loneliness. I always thought of it like, `Everything's fine, everything's great. But now I'm alone at night in my bed, and I'm scared. I know it's something in me, so how do I fix it? How did I get here, and how can I change it?' I love the complexity of emotion in this song and, melodically, it's just stunning."

14. "The River" (written by Joni Mitchell)
"I think `River' is about being conscious of what your limitations are but having no control over them, and how that gets you into trouble. It's about the moments when you've said the wrong thing and then wish you could take it back.
There's nothing worse than being alone at Christmas, detached from the happiness that everyone else is experiencing, knowing that you're nowhere near being able to access that happiness. I think we've all had moments of feeling disconnected. We've all had that feeling of, `I totally blew it, it's all my fault. I'm not getting that one back. Why didn't I keep my mouth shut?'"

Spotify is doing a track by track of all my songs and tells the story of why I chose the songs. Visit @Spotify for an exclusive first listen of AM/FM in full along with my own track by track commentary: http://spoti.fi/JLkLWf

On iTunes if you buy the album you will get a bonus track of a NEW original song by Patti Scialfa called Every Perfect Picture.

Here here.

I downloaded this from Amazon for $6.99, and then got the bonus track from I Tunes for 99 cents.I saved $2.00. Hey, 2 bucks is 2 bucks!
The negative is you don't get the digital booklet.

Anthony (and everyWAN),

Amazon does have a version with a digital booklet, and it comes with the exclusive bonus track "Prisoner In Disguise":

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007YQ6EJE/?tag=imwan-20

Anthony (and everyWAN),

Amazon does have a version with a digital booklet, and it comes with the exclusive bonus track "Prisoner In Disguise":

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007YQ6EJE/?tag=imwan-20

NYC Newsflash. I'll be joining Rita Wilson Thursday night (May 10th-tomorrow!) on stage at Joe's Pub where she is playing in support of her fantastic new album AM/FM on which she and Vince Gill sang a gorgeous version of Faithless Love. I'm thrilled every time I hear a new record of any of my songs but this one is really unique and besides Rita's longing and tender singing, Vince, one of the truly most musical singers anywhere thought of some beautiful harmony twists that hadn't even occurred to me, as many times as I have sung it (harmony and melody). Anyway, it's a beaut and I'll do my best to harmonize on a couple of my tunes with my friend Rita, who turns out to be a real songbird that you must hear.

RITA WILSON

“AM/FM” (Decca)

“AM/FM,” the debut album of Rita Wilson (Mrs. Tom Hanks), is a charming, nostalgic throwback to the soft rock of Los Angeles in the 1970s and early ’80s, when the music conjured a posthippie romantic lotus land. In the early ’70s Ms. Wilson, now 55, was attending Hollywood High School. She was a decade younger than musicians like Jimmy Webb and Jackson Browne, who appear on her album, along with Sheryl Crow and Faith Hill. On “AM/FM,” a gentler echo of the sound and style of albums by Linda Ronstadt, Karla Bonoff and Nicolette Larson, Ms. Wilson sings 14 personal favorites, most of them hits from the 1960s and ’70s.

An unpretentious singer with a sweet, steady voice, Ms. Wilson lacks the forceful delivery of Ms. Ronstadt but imbues everything she touches with the kind of plaintive, unvarnished simplicity and understatement associated with Alison Krauss, who has a purer voice. There is not a forced or flat note. Fred Mollin’s production, with its spare arrangements and creamy strings, is in perfect step with Ms. Wilson’s appealing vocals.

The opening cut, “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” sung with the rocker Chris Cornell, establishes the album’s mood of fond remembrance. The songs from the late ’50s and ’60s, like “Walking in the Rain,” “Never My Love” and “Come See About Me,” tend to be hopeful and innocent, and those from the ’70s, like “Faithless Love” and “Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blues,” more careworn and disillusioned.

The best point of comparison between then and now is the classic Eric Kaz and Libby Titus torch song “Love Has No Pride,” which was memorably recorded by Ms. Ronstadt, who wailed it; Bonnie Raitt, who toughened it up; and Rita Coolidge, who crooned it. Ms. Wilson’s version is quieter and less fraught than its forerunners and distills the album’s retrospective attitude of looking back from a point of grown-up serenity. The view is lovely. STEPHEN HOLDEN