POP MUSIC

SMALL FACES: On the heels of her five Grammy nominations, Joan Osborne has contributed a new acoustic ballad, “Strenuous Acquaintances” to the soundtrack for “Mr. Wrong,” the upcoming movie starring Ellen DeGeneres. The album, due Feb. 6, also features Amy Grant’s remake of 10cc’s “The Things We Do for Love” (the first single), a Chris Isaak version of Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” a Joan Jett recording of the J. Geils Band’s “Love Stinks” and contributions from Sophie B. Hawkins, the Wild Colonials, Faith Hill and Ben Folds Five. . . .

In other soundtrack news, Bjork is recording a song for “Stealing Beauty,” an upcoming Bernardo Bertolucci film set in Tuscany and starring Jeremy Irons and Liv Tyler, and Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach are set for a Feb. 9 recording date in New York to work together on “God Give Me Strength,” which they co-wrote for Allison Anders’ “Grace of My Heart,” a romance set in the old Brill Building songwriting community. . . .

The Cure has finished its first studio album in four years, with a May 6 release planned. . . . UB40’s Virgin-distributed Kuff label will release a new album by the Specials, the key early-’80s “two-tone” band, in May or June. . . .

Voice of the Beehive--featuring sisters Tracey and Melissa Beland--has ended its expatriate life in London and moved back home to L.A., with an album coming from Discovery Records. XTC’s Andy Partridge co-wrote one song on the collection.