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Starbucks Coffee Company today announced the release of two exclusive CDs, both of which were produced by Starbucks Hear Music™ in collaboration with Joni Mitchell. Joni Mitchell Artist’s Choice™ and Joni Mitchell: Selected Songs are exclusively available at Starbucks Company-operated stores in North America.
Joni Mitchell Artist’s Choice consists of 18 of Mitchell’s favorite songs and features song-by-song commentary written by Mitchell. As her celebrated forays into the genre would suggest, jazz figures prominently in Mitchell’s selections. Among the album’s surprises are Chuck Berry’s “Johnny Be Good” and the New Radicals’ “You Get What You Give.”
Joni Mitchell: Selected Songs is a collection of Mitchell’s songs, all of which were selected for inclusion on the album by a broad range of friends and fellow musicians who have been influenced by Mitchell. Participants include Prince, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, and Chaka Khan.
For the first time since Starbucks Hear Music launched its popular Opus™ series in February 2001, world-renowned artists were asked to choose their favorite song from a fellow musician’s catalogue and their picks formed the album.
“By the end of the 20th century it seemed to me that the muse had gone out of music and all that was left was the ‘ic,’” says Mitchell. “Nothing sounded genuine or original. Truth and beauty were passe. I got the picture. I quit the business. I volunteered to take part in the Starbucks Hear Music project in order to force myself to review the songs and compositions that, over the course of my life, really got to me. I was about to receive an honorary doctorate in music and I needed to remember what it was that I had once loved about it.”
“We are honored to have had the opportunity to team with Joni Mitchell, a true music legend, to offer our customers, who are passionate music fans, the chance to learn more about her musical inspirations and the impact she’s had on other world-renowned musicians,” says Ken Lombard, president, Starbucks Entertainment. “We are delighted to be able to offer our customers unique perspective on Joni Mitchell’s talent and musical legacy.”
Founded in 1990, and acquired by Starbucks Coffee Company in 1999, Starbucks Hear Music is the voice of music at Starbucks.
In 2004, Starbucks Hear Music launched a 24-hour digital music channel with XM Satellite Radio (XM Channel 75), the Starbucks Hear Music Coffeehouse in Santa Monica where customers can select from over 15,000 CDs or burn their own custom mixes, and the Starbucks Hear Music media bars, a service that offers custom CD burning at select Starbucks retail locations in Seattle and Austin.
