New Michael Ball CD, "Music," Due in Stores in October

- Playbill, Andrew Gans, 20/09/05-

Michael Ball, who will return to Broadway this season in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White , has recorded a new CD of pop tunes.

Entitled "Music," the Universal Music TV recording is set to hit stores in the U.K. on Oct. 17. Ball's disc features pop songs from the last three decades. Song titles include "Music" (John Miles), "The Show Must Go On" (Queen), "Fields of Gold" (Sting), "You Raise Me Up" (Secret Garden), "Everlasting Love" (Love Affair), "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (Simon & Garfunkel), "And I Love You So" (Perry Como), "Desperado" (The Eagles), "Life on Mars" (David Bowie) and "Sometimes When We Touch" (Dan Hill). The recording also boasts "I Am Loved," a new song penned by Ball, Nick Battle and Tim Woodcock.

About the CD's title song — John Miles' "Music" — Ball writes in the disc's liner notes, "John Miles' seminal record of 1976 was in the charts forever.  Anyone who loves music like I do is drawn to this song because it says really simply – 'music is my first love/and it will be my last/to live without my music/would be impossible to do/in this world of trouble/my music pulls me through.'  It's a sentiment I firmly believe in and I think most people who care about music and who are passionate about music believe it has an extraordinary power over people."

Michael Ball made his Broadway debut as Alex in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Aspects of Love , a role he created on the London stage. His other London stage credits include The Woman in White, The Pirates of Penzance, Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, Passion and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang . Ball's numerous, best-selling solo recordings include "Centre Stage," "Christmas," "Live at the Royal Albert Hall," "The Movies," "The Musicals," "First Love," "Always" and "Michael Ball." He can currently be seen in the New York City Opera production of Patience .