Ballads

Could it be that everybody was wrong about Madonna?According to the conventional wisdom, Madonna is one of the era's premiere hype artists. More media manipulator than musician, her success has had more to do with marketing and well-orchestrated outrage than anything you could put on a compact disc. Sure, her singles are catchy and sound good in clubs, but her singing? It is to laugh.Well, stop snickering. With the release of the greatest-ballad-hits collection, "Something to Remember" (Maverick 46100, arriving in stores today)

Earl Coleman, 69, a jazz singer who recorded with Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins and Shirley Scott, among others, died Wednesday of cardiac arrest at his home in Manhattan. A deep-voiced performer of ballads, he was a product of the graceful early forms of jazz singing. He had absorbed Pha Terrell, Dan Grissom and Billy Eckstine, and their heavy, sophisticated ease. Though he was mostly a ballad singer, he also performed up-tempo material and blues pieces. And while his style was linked to an earlier era, he recorded and performed with members of the be-bop generation.

Burl Ives was a beloved balladeer who sang so convincingly of being a Wayfaring Stranger that he instead became a longtime friend.The rotund folk singer, Academy Award-winning actor and concert hall artist, once called by poet Carl Sandburg "the mightiest ballad singer of this or any other century," was 85 when he died yesterday. He had a history of circulatory problems and congestive heart failure.Last summer, doctors discovered that he also was suffering from mouth cancer and had undergone "a number of little surgeries in the last few months," said Marjorie Schicktanz Ashley, his longtime agent.

Vince Gill had an easily answered question for his audience Saturday night at the Baltimore Arena."Isn't it nice that country is hip now?" he asked teasingly at the end of one song. The sellout crowd roared back affirmatively.And if country is hip, then Vince Gill is probably its biggest star. Recently named the male vocalist of the year and entertainer of the year by the Country Music Association, Mr. Gill is perhaps Nashville's most talented artist.He is known mostly for having a gorgeous tenor, one of the most striking voices in pop music.

Don't expect sequined show girls or helicopters landing on stage. But if your idea of heaven is a simpler place and time, then "Brigadoon" may be the ultimate in escapist entertainment.The fact that this vintage Lerner and Loewe musical romance is dated is its principal charm, for "Brigadoon" is an 18th-century village stuck in time. The premise is that the minister, worried that his blissful village would be corrupted by the encroaching evils of civilization, prayed for a miracle to preserve Brigadoon forever from the outside world.

Bad love has been very good to Reba McEntire.Blessed with a voice that moves easily from a wounded-heart quaver to full he-done-me-wrong fury, she's a natural for songs about mismatched lovers, cheating spouses and unrequited passion. As a result, her albums boast more bad relationships than the average soap opera.But even by McEntire's usual standards of love-gone-sour, the songs on "Read My Mind" (MCA 10994, arriving in stores today) (( seem a tad extreme. Every song here, from the sassy "Why Haven't I Heard From You" to the maudlin "And Still," is built around a broken heart -- and while that may leave some listeners reaching for their hankies, it left me lunging for the eject button.

SO FAR SO GOODBryan Adams (A&M 31454 0157) What does it say about Bryan Adams that his best songs have all been raucous, guitar-driven rockers, while his biggest hits have all been sappy, sentimental ballads? That he may seem a tough guy on the outside, but deep down he's just an old softie? Maybe, but the answer suggested by his greatest hits collection, "So Far So Good" is a little simpler: He's just not rough enough to be a convincing rock and roller. No matter how much Keith Richards-style guitar he pumps into "The Summer of '69" and "It's Only Love," his voice lacks the sly, Jaggeresque snarl that would make the music seem dangerous.

If some Americans somehow are untouched by "The Bridges" phenomenon, it won't be because Time Warner isn't trying. Speaking about the book/record promotion strategy involving Warner Books and Atlantic Records, co-chairman Doug Morris of the Atlantic Group boasted, "We look forward to breaking new marketing ground in the service of such a terrific and exciting project."Here's the cross-marketing campaign, according to a spokeswoman for Atlantic Records:"The Bridges of Madison County" book and "The Ballads of Madison County" record will be packaged together on a home shopping channel to be determined.

Is this a great time for R&B singles?Absolutely. In fact, things couldn't be better commercially. For months now, the Billboard Hot 100 has been saturated with the sounds of black America -- not just rap and dance music, but funk, soul harmony and R&B ballads -- as acts like Janet Jackson, Vanessa Williams, Whitney Houston, Bobby Brown, SWV, Silk, Shai, H-Town, Jade and Boyz II Men crowd the upper reaches of each week's list. On a couple of occasions, black music accounted for as many as 18 of the top 20 slots.

Country music fans lucky enough to get tickets were treated to a double bill of top-flight talent as two of Nashville's most revered recording artists, Vince Gill and Mary Chapin Carpenter, pTC performed for a sellout crowd of 4,100 at the Naval Academy's Alumni Hall in Annapolis Friday night.Gill, a 36-year-old veteran who has broken into the record charts in a big way in the past few years with hits like "When I Call Your Name" and "Cinderella," is one of country's most gifted and distinctive vocalists.