Blige gets a Christmas rush order

MARY J. BLIGE was looking forward to a nice holiday season. She planned to take a break from work on a new album due next year; do a little promotion for “Reminisce,” a hits compilation targeted for release in early December; and spend quality time with family and friends.

Then she played some of the new songs for Geffen Records executives. And they liked what they heard -- enough so that they asked her to scrap the hits album and rush completion of the new one for a pre-Christmas release. Goodbye “Reminisce.” Hello “The Breakthrough,” due Dec. 20.

That was just about a month ago, and Blige has been working overtime to finish the recordings and get in gear for a full-scale launch and promotion effort.

“A lot of work had to be done in a short time, but what can you do?” says a sanguine Blige, one of R&B;’s top stars since her 1992 debut “What’s the 411?” “If Jimmy Iovine [chairman of parent Interscope Geffen A&M;] is screaming ‘urgent,’ then you go with it.”

Despite the unexpected workload, Blige is thrilled.

“I didn’t really want to do a greatest hits anyway,” she says. “And the new material I’d been working on [since] last November was incredible to me.”

The title, she says, is a reflection of her enthusiasm.

“The overall theme is that it is a breakthrough,” she says. “Vocally I’ve expanded and lyrically I’ve come to a place where I understand more -- a lot of it was going to be personal anyway, because that’s my music. But people will definitely be able to relate to it.”

She cites “Enough Crying,” produced by Rodney Jerkins, as one highlight.

“I lived out a story like ‘Enough Crying,’ ” she says. “I was with a guy for four years and got the ring, but he never married me. And then there are songs like ‘The Breakthrough,’ happy, up-tempo.”

Other producers on the album include Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, the Black-Eyed Peas’ Will.I.Am, Bryan-Michael Cox and the Dre & Vidal team. Jay-Z makes a guest appearance, as does Brook -- Blige’s rapping alter ego.

“I did the rap on a couple of songs and people were shocked, saying, ‘I didn’t know you could do that,’ ” she says. “I’m Mary with my sneakers on. Brook is all done up, classy and ghetto and everything at once. And she can rap.”

A cornerstone to the album, though, is “One,” the U2 song she performed with the band during the Hurricane Katrina television special in September. It’s that version, with a chilling duet between her and Bono, that is being released.

If the change in plans means a lot of work for Blige, it might mean even more for the company, given the demands of a high-profile release added late in the year’s most competitive time.

“It’s like trying to turn a cruise liner on a dime,” says Geffen general manager Jeff Harleston. “The challenges are at the media outlets, at retail stores, getting in the sales programs, promotional activities, space in the new media environment, shooting a video and getting it on the channels at a time when traffic is at its peak. But we’ve been fortunate that Mary has a lot of goodwill in the community.”

KCRW builds

a London bridge

NIC HARCOURT gave “Morning Becomes Eclectic,” the flagship music show of public station KCRW-FM (89.9), an English accent when he signed on as host and station music director in 1998. Now he’s giving it a London address -- for a week, at least.

The show will originate in London from Jan. 2 through 6 for a special series of broadcasts focusing on English performers. It’s convenient for Harcourt, a Birmingham native who will be spending the holidays in England with family. But by broadcasting from there (as he’s wanted to do for several years), he believes he’ll be able to give listeners an edge on new music developments.

He’s currently setting up interviews and in-studio performances with some veteran acts that rarely come to the U.S. as well as some new ones that have not made it over here yet. Among the latter are singer Corrine Bailey Ray and Irish band Guggenheim Grotto, both of which have already become hits with KCRW listeners.

“These are artists who might come to Los Angeles in the future, and if they do, it will be in large part due to airplay we’ve given them,” he says. “But we can get them on the air early by being over there and bring that excitement to our listeners.”

Harcourt also sees this reflecting the growing reach of the station via the Internet and other new technologies. But the main goal is to expand the presentation for the home crowd.

“I never forget that 95% of our listeners are in Southern California,” he says. “This is directed to bringing the flavor back to here.”

Jones projects her music through film

RICKIE LEE JONES’ songs often have had the makings of films, with colorful characters and stories. But she’s never actually written music for film -- until now. Jones wrote the score for “Friends With Money,” an offbeat comedy written and directed by Nicole Holofcener and starring Jennifer Aniston, Catherine Keener and Frances McDormand.

“It’s strange and funny,” Jones says of the film. “I felt a real affinity for the characters and their lives. Jennifer Aniston was outstanding, very bent in this tragic, quiet way. In film you can write things you don’t really write in songs, but I like short vignettes in music, so this was right up my alley.”

Plans are for an early 2006 release by Sony Classic Pictures.

Small Faces

* The reunited Alice in Chains (with guest singers to be announced filling the place of the late Layne Staley) will team with longtime Seattle friends Heart for an edition of VH1’s “Decades Rock Live” series set to debut Feb. 15. Other additions to the series, which reaches across generations and genres in matching stars with special guests, include Sheryl Crow (April 17), Elvis Costello (May 19), Lynyrd Skynyrd (June 23) and Joe Cocker (July 21), each with collaborators to be scheduled.

* Rare ‘60s singles by the Beefeaters (who would become the Byrds) and the Stalk-Forrest Group (the precursor of Blue Oyster Cult) will be featured on “Great Lost Elektra Singles Vol. 1,” part of a series of reissues from the vaults of the Jac Holzman-founded label. The series kicks off on Jan. 31 with the release of 13 CDs, including full collections by acts ranging from Phil Ochs to impressionist David Frye, as well as “What’s Shakin’,” with performances by the Lovin’ Spoonful and Eric Clapton, the latter backed by Jack Bruce and Steve Winwood. The venture is being done by Collector’s Choice Records in conjunction with Rhino Records.