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Willie Hutch

In the paper version of Unfair Park this week, I make mention of my interview with Willie Hutch, the Carrollton-born great who, during our 1998 chat at his Cedar Hill recording studio, recounted how he came to write the Jackson 5's immortal "I'll Be There." The story about The Mack, who died in Duncanville in 2005 at the age of 60, can be found here. But here are some links to versions of "I'll Be There" worth a spin during the holiday weekend.

From 1986 comes this proudly sloppy cover by The Replacements, joined during a Boston gig by the great Barrence Whitfield -- you'll get drunk just listening to the thing. Far more respectful (and tuneful) is this version recorded last Sunday night at the BET Awards, during which Tyler's own Jamie Foxx joined Ne-Yo to close the show with their take on the 1970 hit single. But most surprising and moving of all is this hard-to-find find from 1979: the Jacksons themselves, recorded during a concert in Amsterdam. Revelatory, even at this late date.

And don't miss this bonus Jacksons-related, locally connected track, which Pete pointed to earlier this week: Erykah Badu and The Roots' version of "I Wanna Be Where You Are," a hit in 1972 ... and a song later covered by Willie Hutch. Now, the circle is complete.

Amazingly, we still have stashed on the server Polyphonic Spree's "H-O-O-P-S Yes!," the '07 "anthem" penned for FC Dallas -- what do you mean you don't remember? Then perhaps you recall a time when Your Dallas Mavericks were "Rowdy, Loud and Proud," courtesy PPT; and who can forget Pantera's catchy contribution to the canon in honor of Your Dallas Stars? All of which I mention this morning only because Forbes brings word of the latest local sports team theme: "Swing It Around (Cowboy Town)," the working title for a Dallas Cowboys jingle-jangle set to debut at the Arlington EnormoDome come football season, but of course.

It'll be provided by a company out of Milwaukee called Banshee Music, whose Web site soundtrack suggests we should expect a song reminiscent of mid-'80s top-of-the-pops radio or late '90s country-rock; I imagine the Cowboys anthem will sound a lot like "Big Dogs," available under the "Sports Music" samples menu ... if you dare. Banshee refers to itself as a "sonic branding agency ... the last critical component of branding," and though the site doesn't list any of the musicians responsible for the songwriting (only "Grammy-nominated producers and hit-making songwriters"), the Forbes piece says the stable includes "former members of rock bands Arrested Development and the Foo Fighters" (I'm guessing Franz Stahl?). Here's Banshee's anthem for the Green Bay Packers: "G-Force Roar." This will not end well.

Yesterday, State Sen. Florence Shapiro sent out the following tweet:

Which directed our attention to this video from Our Boss's sister.

Alex Wolens

This morning, Arlington's Krystal Lenee took her eighth shot at American Idol.

The parking lots in front of the Cowboys Stadium were full up by 6 this morning, as people flocked towards the stadium, registrations in hand to try out for the next season of American Idol.

Some were dressed in flamboyant, eye-opening ensembles; others, in nightclub and house-party attire. Idol camera crews paced up and down the lines, rousing the crowd for good footage. But that was pretty much the extent of the activity from outside the stadium. There was very little singing: Many contestants, it seemed, wanted to preserve their voices for the judges. One girl courageously performed for a camera crew, but forget her lines mid-verse. The press wasn't invited indoors, so you'll have to wait until the show airs on TV to find out what happened once they got inside.

Check out more photos from the long line of future stars here in our slide show complete with would-be's bios, not to mention someone claiming to be impregnated with Zac Efron's love child, ahem. And, after the jump you'll find a brief video to set the scene.

The Star-Telegram has rounded up a few folks who attended The Jacksons' three-night stopover at Texas Stadium in 1984, to which I referred yesterday. Contained therein is a story that I will spend the better part of today and the next who-knows-how-long fleshing out, if only because I've finally found the premise for the book I never knew I wanted to write: The Night Michael Jackson Slept at Spanky's House. Mitch Mitchell (no, not that one) has the scant details, courtesy George "Spanky" McFarland 's 80-year-old widow Dorothy, among them:

"He asked us to turn off the air conditioner because he was cold. He sat in a rocking chair and watched television with us, covered in an afghan," Doris McFarland said.

In July.

So many questions. A one-act, at least.

CharleyPride.com

From the recording sessions of the still-unreleased album Willie, Jimmy and Charley

Last we saw Charley Pride he was the high point of my friend Elvis Mitchell's made-for-HBO documentary The Black List, Vol. 2. But this morning in a brief concert preview, the Edmonton Journal provides further proof, if any is necessary at this late date, of his greatness. Tomorrow, the 71-year-old longtime North Dallas resident is scheduled to perform at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, a show that is sold out. Which is how Jacqueline Sharp wound up paying $1,210.71 on a scalpers' Web site for a couple of ducats to the show, or 10 times face value. Clearly, a very big fan.

But a couple of months back, Pride heard about this outrage and flew from Dallas up to Canada and went directly to Sharp's workplace to refund her the difference -- $933 out of his own pocket, just like that, with the added promise of dedicating a song to her at tomorrow night's show. Said Pride, "It doesn't feel good, that's why I'm here. I don't think it's right. I wouldn't like paying that much money to see myself." Having played poker with Pride once, I can say this: The man doesn't just throw away money.

Patrick Michels

The only act in the world that can follow George and Reba.

Cowboys Stadium is still recovering from Saturday's inaugural all-day country mega-show, but the Jonas Brothers faithful are just counting down the days till June 20, when Arlington gets to bro down at the trio's world tour kickoff.

Earlier today, the three held a press conference in the house that Jerry built to show off their concert stage being assembled on the arena floor and answer questions about their new album.

Take a thrilling walk with the Jonas Brothers as they sit at a press conference, walk down an aisle in Cowboys Stadium and answer reporters' questions in our slide show here. There's more on what the Jonases had to say on DC9.

Patrick Michels

That's Steve Kudlow above -- otherwise known as "Lips," frontman for Canadian metal band Anvil, subject of an eponymous rockumentary now showing at the Magnolia. Last night, on opening night, the band came to Dallas for what its members (Lips, drummer Robb Reiner, bassist Glenn Five) refer to as "The Anvil Experience": the movie, followed by Q&A, followed by another screening, followed by an abbreviated performance during which they knock out a few chunks of metal (including "White Rhino," all drum solo, and the band's anthem, "Metal on Metal") before it's "Good night, Dallas, fuck, yeah" and out the door. (Update: see for yourself in our slide show.)

Right about now, matter of fact, the band ought to be landing in Los Angeles, where tomorrow night, with Jackass Steve-O, it'll present at the MTV Movie Awards -- a far cry from the pre-release anonymity in which Anvil toiled following its brief taste of mid-'80s fame as beloved and then entirely forgotten progenitors of thrash-metal. Kudlow and Reiner, friends and bandmates for nearly 40 years, are finally the stars they thought they'd be when they were slightly closer to bar mitzvah age. Last night, before our Q&A, Kudlow was on the phone with director Sacha Gervasi, telling him that Howie Mandel's been trying to get hold of him. "He says we're, like, second cousins, man," Kudlow shouts into the cell. "What the fuck's that about, man?"

Not long ago I found my VHS copy of Ninth Life, director Ken Harrison's made-in-Deep Ellum noir-thriller that -- hey, quite the coincidence -- celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. We really oughta have a celebratory screening and invite some of the stars, among them Kim Pendleton and Matthew Posey. But while we ponder that possibility, the folks at Folkstreams -- which bills itself as "A National Preserve of Documentary Films about American Roots Cultures" -- today posted to YouTube an excerpt from one of Harrison's earlier works, a '74 doc about Prince Albert Hunt, a singer and fiddler from Terrell killed outside a Dallas nightclub in '31. Here 'tis.

Update at 4:52 p.m.: Angela Hunt just posted the following note in the comments: "He's my great-uncle. Really."

Fort Worth-born horn player Jim Price is usually a footnote in most Rolling Stones histories; his contributions to the canon -- he appears on Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main St. and Goats Head Soup -- seldom merit mention, save as a sideman to sideman Bobby Keys, the Slaton, Texas, native oft considered "the longest-standing member of the Rolling Stones' auxiliary musicians."

But as we wind down the work week, let us take a moment to celebrate the trumpet playing of Jim Price, if only to point your direction toward a highly coveted (and recently remastered) Stones love-you-live offering on which he appears throughout: Get Your Leeds Lungs Out: Revisited. It's an essential, invaluable collection of never-fresher standards taken from a soundboard at the University of Leeds on March 13, 1971. Stones completists consider it the only live album worth a damn, so you'd best act now before it scampers back into the shadows. And, among the cuts: "Love in Vain," the Robert Johnson side cut at 508 Park Avenue in downtown Dallas in June 1937.