The Unprecedented Success of The Rod Stewart Songbook Series Continues...

The Unprecedented Success of The Rod Stewart Songbook Series Continues...

Thanks for the Memory... The Great American Songbook: Volume IV Enters the Top 200 at #2

Multi-Platinum Selling Predecessors Volume I ,Volume II, Volume III Have Sold Over 13 Million Copies Worldwide in Less Than Three Years

Volume III Joins Volume IV on the Top 200 Chart

Volume I Climbs the Catalog Chart to #2 and Volume II Re-Enters the Catalog Chart at #7

NEW YORK, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- J Records recording artist Rod Stewart celebrates the unparalleled success of the Great American Songbook series with the latest installment, Thanks for the Memory... The Great American Songbook: Volume IV entering the Billboard 200 Album chart at #2 on a first week Nielsen SoundScan total of 192,852 copies sold. The Songbook albums are a musical and cultural phenomenon, and are now the biggest-selling ongoing series of new music recordings in history.

Thanks For The Memory follows 2004's Stardust which was Rod Stewart's first ever #1 debut on the Billboard chart and earned Stewart the first Grammy of his career. Volume III re-enters the Top 200 Chart at #119 this week. The first two albums of The Great American Songbook series, It Had To Be You ... (released October 2002) entered the Billboard Top 200 at #4 and jumped to the #2 position on the Top Catalog Albums Chart this week from #52 last week, and As Time Goes By (released October 2003) having debuted at #2 on the Top 200, returns to the Top Catalog Albums Chart at #7 this week. Each of these albums has received Grammy Award nominations in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category and the first two volumes have been certified RIAA double-platinum in the US with combined worldwide sales of more than 13 million copies.

Comments Clive Davis, Chairman and CEO of BMG U.S: "After winning his first Grammy with Volume III, Rod once again captures these wonderful classics on Volume IV, breathes new life into them and truly makes them his own. His album entry at #2 with Volume IV is truly staggering and is an unprecedented target for every artist looking for a long term career."

The album's strong entry at #2 was propelled by an intense month of television, internet and radio exposure that built on the popularity of the previous three volumes. Stewart kicked off his television appearances on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," followed by "Larry King," "Good Morning America," "The View," "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," "Entertainment Tonight," "Access Hollywood," "Extra," "CNN Showbiz Tonight," and also received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Stewart also performed at the WLTW "Clear Channel" concert event at Madison Square Garden week of release and enjoyed an exclusive Sneak Peak Clear Channel online album premiere reaching over 380 stations nationwide. The single "I've Got A Crush On You" featuring Diana Ross was #1 most added impact week at the Mainstream AC format, and Rod Stewart has been artist of the month at Amazon.com where his album debuted at #1 week of release.

Produced by Steve Tyrell and Clive Davis, Thanks For The Memory... is highlighted by vocal duets featuring Rod with Elton John (having a blast on "Makin' Whoopee") with Chaka Khan (on Sam Cooke's "You Send Me"), and with Diana Ross (on the Gershwin's "I've Got A Crush On You. Volume IV follows 2004's Stardust...The Great American Songbook: Volume III, also produced by Tyrell and Davis, which won Rod's first Grammy this year for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.

Performing on the album Thanks For The Memory are a number of guest star appearances of major virtuoso instrumentalists who span several generations: guitarist George Benson on Harold Arlen's "Let's Fall In Love," trumpeter Chris Botti on "I Wish You Love," trumpeter Roy Hargrove on '"My One And Only Love," and Dave Koz on "Nevertheless (I'm In Love With You)."

Other solo performances by Rod on Thanks For The Memory include a pair of Irving Berlin standards, "Blue Skies" and "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm," Jerome Kern and Ira Gershwin's "Long Ago & Far Away," Vernon Duke's "Taking A Chance On Love," Rodgers & Hart's "My Funny Valentine," and the title song, Bob Hope's eternal theme, "Thanks For The Memory."

Source: J Records

CONTACT: Sarah Weinstein Dennison, +1-646-840-5672, sarah.weinstein@sonybmg.com, or, TV outlets, Kevin Beisler at +1-646-840-5675 kevin.beisler@sonybmg.com, both for J Records Publicity Department

Web site: http://www.jrecords.com/ http://amazon.com/

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