Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Cyber Countdown for Aiken CD


The Very Best of Clay Aiken 2009 - Montage by Yollie950

Wildcard, 300th Blog Celebrated!

Fans Spread News of TVBOCA

Accompanying fan excitement and Cyberspace countdowns to the 3/31 release of "The Very Best of Clay Aiken" are sharp upturns in plays of the singer's previous performances of the 14 tracks at YouTube and via audio/video links throughout Twitter, Facebook, and the blogosphere.

Yollie950 featured concert and TV performances of the 14 songs in her new montage TVBOCA 2009. The video can be viewed in the above player and on YouTube where it is being rated, favorited, and shared in a whirl of emails spreading the word about the upcoming album.

Popular with fans, the playlist will be loaded with remastered highlights from Clay's mainstream and holiday albums -- Measure of a Man, A Thousand Different Ways, On My Way Here, Merry Christmas With Love -- and singles. They include:

Ashes
A Thousand Days
The Way Bridge Over Troubled Water
On My Way Here
This Is The Night
Solitaire
Here You Come Again
Measure Of A Man
The Real Me
Something About Us
Invisible
On The Wings of Love
Mary, Did You Know

Readers Choose Top Tracks

As soon as the CD was announced, the Carolina blog set up a sidebar poll for fans to vote their favorite choices for the new CD. Overnight the tracks were revealed, and our unscientific survey became even more inconsequential, ending at 7 p.m. Tuesday with 68 participants.

Many thnx to all who voted in the Carolina poll, the results of which are quite interesting and support the choices made by Clay and Sony-Landmark. Seven of the Carolina survey's best vote getters are also on the CD playlist. In order of popularity, they are "Solitaire," "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "Ashes," "Measure of a Man," "Something About Us," "Invisible," and "This Is the Night."

The seven tracks completing the new CD's playlist include "A Thousand Days, "The Way," "On My Way Here," "Here You Come Again," "The Real Me," "On the Wings of Love," and Mary Did You Know.

Carolina pollsters would have completed TVBOCA playlist with these seven songs: "Lover All Alone," "Everything I Don't Need," "Where I Draw the Line," "Broken Wings," "Lonely No More," and "Falling."

You can pre-order the CD at Amazon for $9.49 (eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25; Target, $9.49; and CD Universe, $9.00, among other sites.

If you want to know just how many days, hours, minutes, and seconds remain until the CD drops, a countdown widget now graces our busy sidebar. The art is cindilu2's graphic of the cover photo.

Here's to the "very best" of Singerman ... SOON!


Graphic by Amazing_CA, photo by PermaSwooned

NJU Associates Discover Clay

Always fan favorites, "Not Just Us" stories usually appear like a dessert near the end of an entry. This one, however, serves as an excellent transition between the current CD excitement and a 2003 event we honor this week. Chenoa shared this NJU incident at Clayversity last week:

I've just returned home after dropping at the airport three ladies who attended a three-day seminar here at our corporate office. I had picked them up at the airport Sunday night and while getting reacquainted with them on our 40-minute drive to their hotel, I had forgotten that my On My Way Here CD was still playing softly in the background.

It wasn't until one of the girls said, "OMG, who is that singing? He has the most beautiful voice. Please play that song again. It was "Sacrificial Love," and she commented that she was at that very point in her life.

She knew of Clay but had not followed his career and had never bought any of his albums; in fact, none of the girls had. They were all aware of his success on Broadway, his trips abroad for UNICEF, his Christmas album, but knew very little about his other albums.

Every time we got in the car to go to dinner or back to their hotel, we had to listen to "Sacrificial Love" and "Ashes." Just before boarding their plane I handed each one an OMWH album (which I was fortunate to find at WalMart) and encouraged them to follow Clay's career because, in my view, great things are on the horizon for this talented young man.


Clay performing at AI2 Wildcard Show in 2003.

Wildcard Returns to Idol Stage

A magical ingredient of American Idol and one CA fans hold dearly returns to center stage this week with Season 8's version of the Wildcard Show. Dropped for the past sevearl seasons, the Wildcard will be revived on the Fox show Thursday night.

Were it not for the Wildcard Show, in which selected contestants are given a second chance to make AI's Final 12, the planet would probably not have experienced the singing and acting talents, as well as the worldwide philanthropic endeavors, of Clay Aiken from Season 2 and Jennifer Hudson from Seasons 3.

In Clay's season, he came in behind Ruben Studdard and Kim Locke in his group and was sent home. As a Wildcard selection, Clay was invited back, returning to the AI stage where his rendition of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" earned him the American public's vote to continue in the competition.

The rules are a little different; but Thursday night when AI reinstates the Wildcard Show, I'll be watching ... and remembering Clay's Season 2 performance of
DLTSGDOM:


Clay advances to finals in AI2 Wildcard Show.

You can read more about American Idol's Wildcard phenomenon in these blogs: Clay Aiken News Network, There Was a Man, Truth Rules, and Shyeyewitness and Friends.

This marks the 300th entry of the Carolina On My Mind journal. Since the initial post on July 13, 2006, visitors from 105 countries have found their way to the blog. Thank you for your visits, the many kind comments you leave, and those who follow or link to the Carolina journal.

Below is a clickable of Amazing_CA's graphic:

Have a wonderful week, Clay Nation!

Caro

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24 comments:

SueReu said...

YAY YAY YAY!! I can't wait to hear the remastered versions of those songs.

LOVED the NJU story (Clay does have an amazing voice)

LOVED the blends & montage

and of course LOVED DLTSGDOM!!!

Thanks Caro!

Anonymous said...

This is awesome Caro. Thanks for the blog. I can't wait for this CD.

---CLM

Melanie said...

I've been a little behind on reading your blogs but thanks for posting all of them. I always go back and read them all. :)

Ashes said...

Congratulations on #300! A grand blog it is too.

- Yollie's TVBOCA montage is awesome, perfect clips of Clay Aiken singing the song list.
Woo Hoo for the NJU's story, that's all that's needed..to hear Clay sing.

Ah the AI Wilcard of 2003.
I'll be forever grateful to AI for that for bringing Clay to me/us!

Anonymous said...

awww love the NJU story and for the rest of your blog, I bow down to you!!!

love, shy

Anonymous said...

I loved hearing the story about the NEW Clay fans. I think if people hear Clay, they are hooked!!

Thanks for another great blog.

PaulaBear said...

I just can't wait to get this CD! What a great choice of songs. I wonder how they will sound remastered. How can you improve on perfection??!!

Anonymous said...

Not sure what they will do to make the songs sound better, but I'm looking forward to the new CD and remastered songs. Love yollie's montage and ACA always has wonderful graphics!

Anonymous said...

Hoping that many more NJU's will hear Clay's beautiful voice once this fabulous new CD is released!

Anonymous said...

The playlist for this new CD is fantastic! I can't even imagine how they could improve the sound...Clay's voice is so perfect already!

Anonymous said...

I love that story about the way Sacrificial Love may have made a fan. That song is truly amazing in lyrics and meaning. When I heard him sing that for the first time, I played it over and over marveling at it.

katy said...

Great blog and am anxiously waiting for the cd and hearing the remastered versions.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Caro - 300 blog entries! I have enjoyed reading each and every one of them!

I am so very thankful for Wildcard week on American Idol for it gave us our beautiful singer man! That was quite the performance he gave that night!

Have a great day!

Hugs,
Sandy :)

Anonymous said...

I love that montage. Clay has some very talented and dedicated fans. So creative with their blogs and videos!

Anonymous said...

Wish I were seeing Clay on my TV tonight......so many great memories!!

ImGranny said...

Great blog! I can't wait to get the CD.

Anonymous said...

So amazing to relive the wildcard days with Clay Aiken! Thanks Caro!

barb 55 said...

Thanks for sharing the wonderful montage by Yollie and beautiful graphic by Amazing CA!

Enjoyed so much seeing the video of Clay sing DLTSGDOM. Sure brings back great memories from AI2.

I can't imagine if there had not been a wild card pick for that year.

Wouldn't it be great to see him invited back as a guest to perform on AI8?! Wishful thinking!

Love and Hugs,

Barbara

Anonymous said...

I loved the NJU story! If only more people had the chance to hear Clay singing, more people would have the same reaction as the woman in the story. Thanks for posting it! --VoxAngelicus--

Allegra said...

Caro,

Wildcard week is full of so many wonderful memories. It was so much fun to revisit.

I can't wait for that Playlist CD--so many other memories--favorite songs in the past, and even memories of going out to buy that Clay Aiken CD first thing Tuesday morning. I never did make it to any CD Release parties.

Thanks for the link to me blog. :)

Allegra/EE

Jannet said...

So in otherwords... these are just gonna be the same ole' songs... except they're gonna sound better?

I didn't realize the old one's were broke...

But I'm still really excited about how excited the rest of you are!!!

Caro! This was an extremely lovely and beautiful blog, as ALWAYS! And of course I'm just being me... as always. Luv U

PaulaBear said...

Still counting the days until "The Best of Clay Aiken"!!!

T said...

Awesome blog Caro! I always love reading your blogs especially the NJU story.

The opening montage was great! Just listening to Clay and the song lists gave me goosebumps again. Cindilu2's cover graphic is beautiful.

Never get tired of watching the AI wildcard 2003 with Clay singing DLTSGDOM. What's impressive is that Clay got chosen by the viewers who voted for him and not the judges to be on the Top 12.

Thanks Caro for another well done blog. Keep it going!

Anonymous said...

Hi Caro,

WOW!!!! 105 countries, a BIG CONGRATULATIONS.

I loved every bit of this entry as always. Loved going down memory lane, I just can't get enough of our Clay. Watching the wild card show, and DLTSGDOM...Just Love It!!!

Can't wait for TVBOCA!!!!!

Have a Grear Day, and Thanks Again for everything.

Hugs,
Marlyne