Abdul introduces Jackson's all-star "Music Club"

By Jill Menze

NEW YORK (Billboard) - After dabbling in nearly every area of the music industry, Grammy Award-winning producer/musician and "American Idol" judge Randy Jackson is adding "solo album" to his already impressive resume, and he's bringing "Idol" colleague Paula Abdul along for the venture.

The Abdul-driven "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow" is the first single from "Randy Jackson's Music Club, Vol. 1," due March 11 via Jackson's new Concord Music Group imprint Dream Merchant 21. The 12-track collection showcases a diverse range of artists, from established vets like Mariah Carey, Travis Tritt and Richie Sambora to such up-and-coming talents as Barbi Esco and Kelli Selah.

For Abdul, whose last new single was 1995's "Crazy Cool," the collaboration with Jackson consummated several years of vague conversations about working together. But during July 2007 "Idol" auditions in San Diego, Jackson got specific.

"Randy kept saying to me, 'I've got the perfect song for you. It sounds like you, like now, it's like a nod to you and your past, but it's you now,"' Abdul says. "And he played it, and it was after the first two bars I knew it was a hit. I knew it was a total smash."

Jackson and Abdul premiered the single January 18 on Ryan Seacrest's KIIS-FM radio show in Los Angeles, and the song reached the Super Bowl audience in Abdul's pregame performance.

The track re-enters the Pop 100 this week at No. 57 and debuts at No. 80 on the Hot 100.

Jackson's album taps into a range of genres, from the duet of "Idol" alums Katherine McPhee and Elliott Yamin to Joss Stone and the Clipse's cover of Dionne Warwick's "Walk on By" to John Rich, Anthony Hamilton and Sara Watkins' countrified take of Michael Buble's "Home"

"I've never really wanted to do a solo record," Jackson says, adding that the melange of styles is a nod to his multicultural hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. "But I always said that if I did one, I'd love to do one like those Quincy Jones albums like 'Back on the Block' (and) 'Dude' ... They showcased new talent he was trying to break."