Aida

03/23/1999 3:00 AM, LAUNCH
Bill Holdship

T'was a time when Elton John was almost the Beatles of his era--a brilliant pop tunesmith who crossed generational barriers and could rock nearly as well as he could produce beautiful ballads. He also kept brilliant company in those days--John Lennon, Iggy Pop...cool guy.

Elton concentrates more on the "beautiful" ballads these days, even rewriting them for dead princesses, while Disney's The Lion King--and his partnering with Tim Rice--transformed him into a musical show composer, first for film and then on Broadway.

Aida is an attempt to repeat that success; the musical (based on the tragic story of a love triangle between a Nubian princess forced into slavery, an Egyptian princess, and the soldier they both love) seems to be headed for Broadway, although an early road version has been less than successful and the show is currently being retooled.

In the meantime, this disc features music written for the show--but interpreted by some of "today's biggest hitmakers." Time was, however, that Elton John wouldn't have been associated with most of the MOR dreck on display here--including, but not limited to, Boyz II Men, fer godssakes. Sting turns in a particularly vile reggae turn on "Another Pyramid," while Tina Turner's horrible "Easy As Life" may be the worst thing she's ever done. And those are two of the names you may think of as "tolerable" in the past; even James Taylor doesn't shine here.

You already know the hit--"Written In The Stars," a duet with LeAnn Rimes (where's Kiki Dee when we need her?). Nice ballad, that, although Elton's other two duets (with Janet Jackson and Lulu) are pretty generic.

In fact, the only track here that's really memorable--in the same way that El's music used to be memorable--is, of all things, the Spice Girls' fun, sexy, uptempo, and comical "My Strongest Suit," which is actually about gettin' naked. Yee-hah!

Too bad Iggy wasn't available.