Michael Ball If Everyone Was Listening

MICHAEL BALL, double Olivier Award winner and multi-platinum recording artist, is delighted to announce the release of 'If Everyone Was Listening...', his 19th studio album. His most personal record to date, the album contains 15 hand-picked tracks that Michael chose to record himself. A mix of individual classics, award winners and chart toppers spanning the last 40 years, the collection is a snapshot of the music he plays on his Radio 2 show, 'Sunday Night With Michael Ball'. Taking its name from the 1974 Supertramp song (a favourite of Michael's growing up) the album includes the Everly Brothers' classic 'Let It Be Me', which Michael recorded - to stunning effect - with vocal group The Overtones. Bob Seger's 'Still The Same', Anne Murray's Grammy-winning 'You Needed Me' and John Martyn's enduring 'May You Never' all receive sensitive interpretations, while Michael indulges his sassy side with a rollicking reworking of 'Bad Things', the theme song to the TV vampire drama, True Blood. Some of the song choices were inspired by Michael's love of country music and its current stars, including Alison Krauss, whose sublime 'Simple Love' is one of Michael's favourite songs. Another little known song to get the MB treatment is Jake Owen's 'What We Ain't Got' which sits alongside a solo rendering of Lady Antebellum's duet 'Need You Now' and the quirky 'Stuck Like Glue', originally by Sugarland. Other tracks include the Joshua Kadison song, 'Jessie' on which Michael sings all the harmonies himself, the powerful and almost spiritual 'Angel' by Sarah McLachlan, 'The Climb' (previously performed by Miley Cyrus and Joe McElderry) and of course a musicals number; in this case the Oscar winning 'Falling Slowly' from Once, the album's closing track.