The first single from American Idol winner David Cook has been burning up the charts. Now, he has a new way to stoke its popularity: a lighter application for iPhones and iPod Touch devices.
Light On— which entered Nielsen SoundScan’s digital songs chart at No. 8 two weeks ago — will be available for purchase from iTunes this week for $1.99 with a “lighter” application that illuminates the screen of an iPhone or iTouch MP3 player. When users open the app and spark up the lighter, the full song plays.
“There’s a little semblance of rock mythos to it,” Cook says. “You get a lighter during a rock ballad and nobody burns their thumbs.”
Cook, 25, has had a heated schedule since taking the Idol title in May and signing with 19 Recordings/RCA. He quickly began working on a new album, a project he continued during the 2½-month Idols Live tour, which ended in mid-September. (He’ll appear with his new band on Saturday Night Live Saturday.)
“I wanted to be involved (in writing songs), and I have been, on a very base level, from the outset,” Cook says. “My name will be strewn all over this.”
Light On, a power ballad co-written by former Soundgarden and Audioslave singer Chris Cornell and producer Brian Howes, doesn’t necessarily reflect the entirety of Cook’s 12-track self-titled album, out Nov. 18. Cook’s voice on the song eerily channels that of Cornell, whose version of Billie Jean he performed during Idol.
“The single is a pretty good indicator of the median,” Cook says. “There are definitely songs on this record that are heavier than Light On. There’s heavy stuff and soft, intimate songs. But there are also songs that really incorporate the idea of ‘Keep it simple, stupid’ with some guitar, some piano and that’s it.”
Cook’s coronation song, The Time of My Life, which remains No. 1 on USA TODAY’s adult contemporary airplay charts, is included — but as a bonus track.
“I really wanted to show what kind of artist I am going to be for the next five or 10 years,” he says. “And I am not 100% sure that (Time) fits the record.”
He says he’s satisfied with the end result.
“We put together an amazing record in a very short amount of time,” Cook says. “(It) attains all the goals that I have set for it. I want this record to be important. I want this record to outlast me, if at all possible.”
Source:USA Today
