WAS TAYLOR SWIFT'S 'SHAKE IT OFF' GIBSON INSPIRED ?

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THE GLORIOUS CORNER

Story By: G. H. HARDING

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Weird Al Yankovic

PARDO PASSES --- Don Pardo, whose voice was heard on game shows, soap operas, news shows, Saturday Night Live and a famous recording by Weird Al Yankovic, has died at age 96.

No details of his death were available.

Dominick George Pardo was born on Feb. 22, 1918, in Westfield, Massachusetts. He began his career in the late 1930’s at a small Rhode Island radio station. He began his career with NBC in 1944 at a radio station affiliated with the network.

He moved to television in the 1950’s as announcer on game shows such as Concentration, Judge For Yourself, Choose Up Sides, Charge Account, Wheel of Fortune, The Colgate Comedy Hour, Winner Take All, The Price Is Right, Remember This Date and the original Jeopardy! with host Art Fleming.

He joined SNL in 1975 and participated in some sketches, including a song with Frank Zappa called "I'm the Slime."

According to biography.com, he was given a lifetime contract from NBC.

During the run of The Price Is Right with host Bill Cullen, he made occasional on-air appearances. And, in a 1998 interview, he talked about being one of the first to announce the assassination of President Kennedy on the air.

In 1984, he had the main role as the announcer on the Weird Al Yankovic song “I Lost On Jeopardy!,” a parody of a Greg Kihn tune. The song debuted on the Billboard charts on June 30, 1984 and peaked at #81 in a three-week stint on the charts.

He introduced the contestants, but his speech to Yankovic later in the song that parodied the many prize announcements he made on Jeopardy! through the years was hilarious. “That's right Al, you lost. And let me tell you what you didn't win: a 20-volume set volume of the Encyclopedia International, a case of Turtle Wax, and a year's supply of Rice-A-Roni, the San Francisco treat. But that's not all, you also made yourself look like a jerk in front of millions of people. You brought shame and disgrace to your family name for generations to come. You don't get to come back tomorrow. You don't even get a lousy copy of our home game. You're a complete loser!”

In recent years, he had roles in Radio Days and The Simpsons. He has been inducted into the Rhode Island Radio Hall of Fame and later the Television Academy Hall of Fame, one of the few announcers to be so honored.

He is irreplaceable. Al Roker has said that when he first heard Pardo say his name on the late-great Live At Five, it sent chills down his spine.

The loss to SNL is huge as his voice literally launched each show and his introductions were indeed a highlight. I met him once years back at an SNL taping and he couldn't have been more gracious. Huge loss for sure. RIP Don.

SEGER RETURNS --- Bob Seger has sold an astonishing 43.5 million albums in the U.S. placing him in the top 40 artists of all time. He will release a new album Ride Out, only his second studio album since 1995.

Seger took ten years off from the business to spend time with his wife and two young children, returning in 2006 with Face the Promise. Since then, he has only toured sporadically.

However, on what's left of album-oriented radio these days, you hear at least two of his songs daily.

Seger said "I feel really good about this record. This album touches on how I think a lot of us feel about finding our place in a more complicated world – from how we appreciate things as simple and pure as love, to navigating through the corruption and violence that permeates the news. It sums up a lot of feelings I have about a variety of subjects."

The album's first single, John Hiatt's “Detroit Made,” was released to radio last weekend. He's been performing the song in his concerts this summer along with his own composition, "All the Roads," and a cover of Woody Guthrie's (via Billy Bragg and Wilco) "California Stars."

U2 UPDATE --- U2 fans may get their hands on a new album before the ball drops on New Year's Eve, possibly as early as next month. Reports circulated a few months ago that U2 were delaying the album until 2015 so they would have enough time to work on material with producer Paul Epworth (Adele), but a spokesperson for the band has told Rolling Stone that the timing is inaccurate: "We've always said an album is expected this year."

The news is consistent with reports in the Irish media that the album is coming out within the next few months, and Universal Music Venezuela and Universal Music Colombia briefly posted tweets saying the album was coming out in September.

Whatever the near future holds, U2 seem to be hard at work. The French newspaper Nice-Matin reported that the group shot a new video in Nice, France, the other week, and the Irish Times quotes a source saying there will be a single in September, an album in September or October and a tour announced in December, with dates beginning in April of next year. "It is believed," says the article, via U2 fan site atu2.com, that "the band will release it with little of the fanfare usually associated with a new U2 album."

Earlier this year, U2 attempted to launch a new album with great fanfare, debuting their new single "Invisible" during a Super Bowl commercial and allowing fans to download it for free on iTunes. They also played the song on the roof of Rockefeller Center during the first Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon.

The song charted around the world, but it wasn't a huge smash and weeks later, word began to spread that the album was pushed back yet again.

U2 have been working on a follow-up to 2009's commercially disappointing (yet, creatively brilliant) No Line on the Horizon for about five years. They originally planned on releasing material from the No Line sessions on a disc called Songs of Ascent, but that plan was ultimately scrapped.

The band has since recorded with producers Danger Mouse, Will.i.am, David Guetta, RedOne, Paul Epworth and Ryan Tedder. When the new album is released, it will be the longest they've worked on a single LP.

Earlier this year, U2 spoke with Rolling Stone's David Fricke about the new album. "We really want the songs to be right," said The Edge. "That's the only reason why we're not on tour – because we're so good at starting, not so good at finishing. That's always the way it's been."

Taylor Swift

CLOSING NOTES --- We're still loving the new Taylor Swift song ("Shake It Off"), but that video is indeed inspired by Debbie Gibson’s “We Could be Together,” as PR-pasha David Salidor posited the other day. BTW: Gibson will indeed be on the East Coast for the October 23 Long Island Music Hall of Fame awards. She’s being inducted at Brian Doyle's Paramount Theatre in Huntington …

September 24th is the premiere of the play Comedy Is Hard with Micky Dolenz and Joyce DeWitt headlining at The Ivoryton Playhouse in Connecticut.

SIGHTINGS: GMA's Robin Roberts and Dan Abrams at the Nomad Hotel in midtown for a closed-door event ... WOR's Tom Cuddy in Tribeca ... PR-man Randy Alexander leaving the downtown headquarters of Premiere radio with Mike McCann with Jade Starling ...