This Rocker Is in Full Crooner Mode

Playing a lot of new music for his guests during a vacation cruise around Sicily and Capri recently, J Records Chairman and Chief Executive Clive Davis says he got the strongest reaction from the rough mixes of an upcoming album by a newly signed artist.

The album is a collection of American pop standards including George and Ira Gershwin’s “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” the Jerome Kern-Dorothy Fields chestnut “The Way You Look Tonight” and others including “These Foolish Things,” “Moonglow” and “I’ll Be Seeing You,” all done in straightforward, traditional settings.

“There were about 20 people on the yacht from different areas of the world, and not many knew each other,” Davis says. “But the most unifying and uplifting and entertaining evenings were the ones where I put on this record, even in a rough state. To see its emotional impact, to see people singing along--it was infectious.”

The singer?

Rod Stewart.

The still-untitled package, due Sept. 30, marks the first teaming of Stewart and Davis. The singer joined J after parting ways late last year with the Warner Music Group family of labels, his musical home for more than two decades. Davis is known for a hands-on approach that’s resulted in one of the music business’ most impressive resumes, from Whitney Houston’s biggest hits to Santana’s “Supernatural” to Alicia Keys’ 2001 breakthrough.

“I’ve been working very closely with Rod and [producers] Richard Perry and Phil Ramone,” says Davis, the album’s executive producer. “I’m a song man. I love the idea that great songs that have been memorable in people’s lives can be reinvented and have life long beyond when they were written.”

Davis has had input about arrangements and approach, and also is in the process of recruiting some big-name instrumental soloists.

But Davis says he wants nothing to detract from the songs or from Stewart’s voice--and gives the singer full credit for the concept.

“This actually began in 1983,” says Arnold Stiefel, Stewart’s manager. “Rod and I were having dinner as I just became his manager and he said, ‘I’d like to make an album where I get to sing the songs my parents loved when I was growing up’ ” in Scotland.

The marketing plan being drawn for the album will by and large not treat this as a pop project. Stiefel and Davis describe an unprecedented campaign that will cross genre and age demographics. Rather than spend money to make videos, the first priority will be TV commercials and a network special, currently in negotiations.

The key, Stiefel says, is simply for people to hear the music. “When he’d play some of the roughs, people would say, ‘Why hasn’t he been doing this all along?’ ”

BOSS TOUR: The recent announcement that Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band would play the Forum in Inglewood on Aug. 24 raised a couple of issues.

One is why the show is at the Forum--now rarely used for rock concerts--rather than the newer Staples Center, which Springsteen opened with shows in October 1999. The other is why this performance is being promoted jointly by the Nederlander Organization and House of Blues Concerts without any participation by Avalon Attractions, which has been involved with nearly every Springsteen show in the area for more than 20 years.

Neither representatives for Springsteen nor the promoter would comment, but business insiders attribute the Forum move to both an aesthetic preference--the star is said to have found Staples too cavernous and was uncomfortable with its emphasis on luxury skyboxes--and its lower cost.

The break from Avalon is clearer. The company, run by founder Brian Murphy, is now owned by mammoth Clear Channel Entertainment, which rejected the business arrangement Springsteen has set for the tour. In standard concert tours, promoters guarantee the act a fee for each show (as much as $500,000 for an artist of this level) and keep whatever ticket sales top that. Instead, Springsteen is taking all ticket revenues and offering promoters a flat fee of $5,000, which leaves concessions as their primary source of revenue.

“Philosophically, promoters don’t like to look at themselves as people who are merely hired to put on concerts,” says Gary Bongiovanni, editor in chief of concert business monthly Pollstar. “They prefer the approach that they take financial risks to give a guaranteed payment to the artists, and if they do a good job, they make money.”

MINE EFFORT: Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson, who both performed at the recent Buckingham Palace celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s 50th year on the throne, will headline the second annual “Open Hearts, Clear Mines,” a Sept. 18 gala at the Century Plaza Hotel in Century City benefiting the Adopt-a-Minefield effort to find and dispose of land mines around the world. Jay Leno will emcee, and other entertainers will be announced.

People who bought tickets or donated to the event last year recently received a letter promoting this one from McCartney and new bride Heather Mills, who has long been active in the land-mine cleanup effort.

Anyone who went last year knows that tickets don’t come cheaply, starting at $500 for each of a limited number of single seats and running as high as $100,000 for “partner” packages that include two tables of 10, two seats at the head table and admission to a VIP reception. For information, call event coordinator Levi, Pazanti & Associates at (310) 201-5033.

SMALL FACES: Shawn Colvin has recorded a version of the Beatles’ “In My Life” for a soundtrack album for the NBC-TV series “Providence.” The Chantal Kreviazuk-sung version of the song that serves as the series theme also is on the album, along with songs by Marc Cohn, Dar Williams, Eva Cassidy, Andrea Bocelli and Beth Nielsen Chapman, among others. The album is due Aug. 6 from MCA Records Nashville....

Paul Oakenfold, the Crystal Method and Photek have each remixed excerpts of James Newton Howard’s score to the upcoming movie “Signed.” The tracks won’t be on an album or sold as singles, but will be streamed online at Launch (www.launch.com) starting later this week....

Although now concentrating on his solo career, L.A. musician Stew reconvened the band the Negro Problem for a new album, “Welcome Back,” due Sept. 3. The band includes Stew and co-founder Heidi Rodewald, with TNP alums Probyn Gregory and Lisa Jenio. Gregory, meanwhile, remains in the Wondermints, which continue to back Brian Wilson (and will appear at the Sept. 18 Adopt-a-Minefield benefit), and have a new album, “Mind if We Make Love to You,” due Sept. 10.