Let us all clap hands; it wasn't too good to be true! Word emerged recently that starlet Scarlett Johansson will indeed release her debut album this spring. And the nearly two-year-old rumors were spot-on: her publicist confirmed that it's a Tom Waits covers record. Titled Anywhere I Lay My Head (nabbed from the closing track on Waits' seminal 1985 album, Rain Dogs), the album will be released May 6 on Atco, a division of Warner/Rhino.
The 23-year-old actress (guess it's time to start adding "/singer") was on Paste's Arthouse Powerhouse 100 list in 2005 (check out the just-released 2008 Arthouse Powerhouse 100 here), and her pipes first got some of our attention when she sang "Brass in Pocket" in the unforgettable karaoke scene in 2003's Lost in Translation.
Since then, she's shared the stage with Jesus & Mary Chain at last year's Coachella and covered the Gershwin standard "Summertime" for Rhino's 2006 singing-celebs charity comp Unexpected Dreams: Songs From The Stars. Surely not coincidentally, Waits is a Gershwin fan, too—his 1978 live performance (mash-up?) of the Porgy and Bess tune with his own "Burma Shave" remains one of the most interesting reinterpretations of the oft-oft-oft-reinterpreted ditty.
Related links:
YouTube: Johansson's "Summertime" set to a montage of Lost in Translation clips
TomWaits.com
Stereogum: Tom Waits Talks ScarJo
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Scarlett Johansson - Anywhere I Lay My Head | CD COVERS