USA: Mick Jagger will soon be releasing a new album that charts the best songs of his solo career

He is best known as the lead singer of the legendary rock band, the Rolling Stones. But in a new album to be released early next month, Mick Jagger seeks to bask instead in the best songs from his solo career. "The Very Best of Mick Jagger", a 17-track collection, is the first compilation of the musician's solo hits. Spanning three decades, the album's earliest track is "Memo From Turner," an R&B burner that was featured in the 1970 film "Performance". The most recent track, "Old Habits Die Hard" is from the soundtrack of the 2004 film "Alfie". The album also includes three unreleased singles -- "Charmed Life", with Jagger's daughter Karis on backing vocals; "Too Many Cooks (Spoil The Soup)," produced by John Lennon and recorded by Jagger in 1973 and "Checkin' Up On My Baby", recorded with The Red Devils, an L.A. blues band. In an interview with Reuters Television, Jagger said that the process of choosing the songs for the album was difficult and that he would often hear complaints from someone or the other about a song that he wasn't able to include. Jagger feels that the process of putting together the album gave him a chance to reflect on his long musical journey. "It reminds me of different times and different people - who inspired this one, who plays on this one, and then you can hear in the recordings, which period it's all from. It does take you back - some of them more than others - but yes, it does," said Jagger. When asked whether he considered any period of his career his favorite, Jagger said that he didn't have one such, but that he did feel more attached to the beginning of his career. "When you're young so much happens so quickly and it is sort of telescoped into this very small time frame. But many things happened, so you are always amused by, when you look back at it, you're always very amused by your very young years, because it's like things that you're trying to do but they're not really being achieved. You think you're doing them at the time but you're really not, and that's always sort of endearing," said Jagger. Reflecting on rock n' roll today, Jagger said that he wasn't disturbed in any way by the elaborate manufacturing process that goes behind many of the bands. He said that there has always been one group of musicians that is more individualistic and eclectic, while the other is more manufactured. "Maybe, you could admire pop manufactured singers, that's a trick in itself. There's nothing wrong with this trick. It's been going on for a long time. But I think there's always people out there that come up and have talent and also they don't always approach the business in the same way, the same planned way that other people might," said Jagger. Well known for his high-powered performances on stage, Jagger said that he likes to keep it energetic and that he tries not to do shows when he is unsure of his energy levels. Right now, Jagger is putting some of his energy behind the cause of Darfur, Sudan. Over the past four years, the conflict in this region has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and uprooted 2.5 million people. Jagger has financed "Living Darfur", the first pop video to be shot in a refugee camp in Darfur. He is reported to have spent 25,000 British pounds (50,000 USD) on the video. The star-studded effort includes Matt Damon, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, actress Scarlett Johansson and supermodel Elle Macpherson. Of his motivation to fund the single and highlight the cause of Darfur, Jagger said, "Politicians get bored, they have other things to do. They want to get re-elected, they have other immediate things on their hands and you just. All you can do in a very small way if you're a celebrity, in some of these things, is to keep the thing in front, in the agenda, keep it in the public agenda, keep it in the political agenda as much as you can." While "Living Darfur" was released in September, Jagger's solo album will hit stores on October 2.

ITN Source | October 4, 2007

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