Drum Roll Please: The five songs Simon Cowell never (EVER) wants to hear again at an audition are as follows:
- R. Kelly's 'I Believe I Can Fly'
- Etta James' 'At Last' ('I'm allergic to it,' he says.)
- The Righteous Brothers' 'Unchained Melody' ('Whoever said that was my favorite song was joking.')
- Jason Mraz's 'I'm Yours'
- John Legend's 'Ordinary People' ('It's never as good as the original.')

Cowell delivered his list Tuesday afternoon during a conference call to promote the Sept. 21 premiere of 'X Factor' on Fox. During the call, Cowell was his customary self, declaring the show's superiority to NBC's 'The Voice,' stressing the 'X Factor's' back stories, praising Antonio 'L.A.' Reid and taking pot shots at Nicole Scherzinger and Paula Abdul.

'L.A. Reid is a revelation,' Cowell said of his fellow judge's TV work to date, which will air taped shows up until the first week of November. 'Nicole was (odd) in a fantastically self-centered way and she wasn't even aware of it. In every city she changes her accent. In New York City, she has a Brooklyn accent; in Dallas she has a twang.

'With Paula, within five minutes of a shoot she's not aware that the cameras are not on any more and she's still prepared to argue.' Their reunion? 'It's like getting your old dog back from the pound.'

Listing the contestant's tales of struggles and successes as second only to talent, Cowell is bullish on the back stories that he feels will be crucial to the show's success. 'Can you be bothered to invest time in (the show)? It's more than a subtle difference. If you don't have (singer profiles), people will switch off.'

('The Voice') didn't do it as well as us. I kind of expected them to -- that's the nature of the game. It's a necessary part of the format. Anyone can mentor, but can you mentor and create a star? You have to recognize what we have done (in the U.K.), where our third runner-up One Direction is going to have the (fastest-selling) single of the year.

'I got frustrated (on 'Idol') when we weren't allowed to do things with the contestants on a weekly basis. That's why some contestants haven't done that well. (It became) a popularity contest, which is why you have to update the process and take risks.'

'Body and Soul' clip drops at 6 a.m. on MTV, VH1, MTV Hits and mtvU.
Fans of late British soul star Amy Winehouse will get a look at the final song and video the 'Rehab' singer filmed before her death Wednesday when Tony Bennett releases the clip for the pair's duet on the jazz standard 'Body and Soul.' The clip will premiere at 6 a.m. on MTV, VH1, MTV Hits and mtvU and then repeat on an hourly basis throughout the morning, after which it will be available online on MTV.com.

The track and video will drop on what would have been Winehouse's 28th birthday, and it will show the unique collaboration between the legendary crooner and the beehive-sporting retro soul singer who died July 23 of undetermined causes in her London apartment. The song and video were recorded on March 23 at Abbey Road Studios in London and the proceeds from its sale will be donated to the Amy Winehouse Foundation .

"We had a beautiful time recording together in the studio, and I knew that Amy was very happy with how she performed that day," Bennett said in a statement. "I thought she was absolutely brilliant, and this recording truly captures the essence of her unique artistry. She was a rare talent."

The video footage of the two singing together is bittersweet, with Winehouse looking healthy and alert, twirling her hair coquettishly as she matched him note-for-note on the standard. Wearing one of the plaid sweaters from her Fred Perry fashion collection, her hair in a signature bouffant, a smiling Winehouse held her own with Bennett, trading lines and sharing a warm hug at the end.

The recording session was filmed by Oscar-winning cinematographer Dion Beebe ("Chicago," "Memoirs of a Geisha") as part of an upcoming documentary on Bennett. The song will appear on the 85-year-old icon's Duets II, which also features him singing with Lady Gaga, Michael Bublé, Queen Latifah, Carrie Underwood and John Mayer.

In some behind-the-scenes footage of the sessions, Winehouse discussed getting the call to record a song for the album. "The first time I met Tone was ... can I call him Tone?" a smiling Winehouse said in the interview segment. "Should you ask him first really, before you start? ... OK, first time I met Tone I would say I took my dad and my stepmother and my boyfriend to see him at Royal Albert Hall and we went both nights."

Amy went on to describe her father Mitch's reaction to the news that his daughter would be singing the song made popular by such icons as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. Mitch, a budding lounge singer who released his debut album earlier this year, told her, "Oh, it's only my favorite song in the world, oh my God, do you even know it?" Amy recalled, doing a bit of a silly impression of her pops.

"I was like, 'Of course I know it, Mitchell, I'm your daughter, of course I know it.' It was really exciting that he chose that song, because I do love it. It's such a beautifully written song and it's a song you can do a lot with, so I was really excited to sing that."

Winehouse was particularly happy with the big ending on the recorded version and the way her voice blended "perfectly" with Bennett's. "It couldn't have been better," she smiled.

MTV News caught up with Winehouse's goddaughter, Dionne Bromfield, on the pre-show black carpet at last month's 2011 VMAs. "It's sad to know that they're paying a tribute to her death," Bromfield said of the Bruno Mars-fueled nod to her musical inspiration. "Unfortunately it has to be this soon. I didn't think it would be this soon at all."

Bromfield, who has released two albums on Winehouse's Lioness Records label, said the late singer was her musical godmother as well. "She taught me how to play instruments. I never knew how to play guitar or piano until Amy started to teach me. She taught me to write." As for what she hoped people would take away from the tribute, Bromfield added: "Just the real Amy. ... Not everything else, just her music."

Amy Winehouse and Tony Bennett's "Body and Soul" video premieres Wednesday at 6 a.m. on MTV, VH1, MTV Hits and mtvU.

A prescription drug used to treat alcohol addiction might have contributed to Amy Winehouse 's death, the singer's father said Friday.

 

Taping the debut episode -- set to air Monday, Sept. 12 -- of Anderson Cooper's new talk show, Mitch Winehouse revealed that Librium had been found in his daughter's bloodstream, as well as traces of alcohol. Mitch believes his superstar daughter, who died on July 23 at the age of 27, suffered a seizure brought on by alcohol detox, and that "there was nobody there to rescue her," according to the AP.
 
"Everything Amy did, she did to excess," Mitch said. "She drank to excess and did detox to excess."

Despite her public bouts with drugs and alcohol, the beehive-rocking soul great had been making progress with her recovery, Mitch added. With a doctor's help, she was enjoying longer periods of sobriety, although treatment sometimes brought about seizures.

While Mitch admitted he's only speculating about the cause of death, more answers may come next month, when a full inquest is due to begin. Regardless of what led to his daughter's premature passing, Mitch insists the 'Rehab' singer wasn't defined by her demons.

"When she wasn't drinking," he said, "she was absolutely on top of the world."

Song was removed from airwaves for anti-gay slur.
Canadian broadcasters can go back to playing Dire Straits ' 1985 hit, 'Money For Nothing,' the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) announced yesterday.  The song was pulled from national playlists in January after a single listener complained about the use of the word "faggot" on Newfoundland radio station CHOZ-FM.

"Money For Nothing" was immediately deemed a breach of the Human Rights Clauses of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' (CAB) Code of Ethics and Equitable Portrayal Code. The decision caused public outrage in support of the classic song.

"It made us look silly in the eyes of the broadcast community around the world," writer/broadcaster Alan Cross, a 30-year veteran of the Canadian radio biz, tells Rolling Stone . "I talked to people from the U.S. and the U.K. and they were like, 'What's wrong with you people? Don't you get it? It's a joke. It's a satire. You didn't understand the context?'"

The new decision was based on what CBSC calls "considerable additional information" – such as learning that alternative versions of "Money For Nothing" have existed since 1985, proving "the band and the composer considered that there was a less offensive way of presenting the song to the public long ago" and the context in which the word is used demonstrates that "the composer's language appears not to have had an iota of malevolent or insulting intention."

The CBSC added that the time/age issue alone "will not save a challenged song" and that the Atlantic Regional Panel was "correct in its view of the inappropriateness of the word" for broadcast on Canadian airwaves.

Stations now have the option to play the original version or any one the alternative versions.

Cross wasn't surprised at the original decision or the amendment. "They have to be very careful that they're meeting the needs of all Canadians," he says. "When it comes to things like foul language and discriminatory language, it's really tough for the CBSC to rule in any direction but for the plaintiff.

"Every single incident is taken as an isolated case. So what happens when somebody complains about the Tragically Hip's 'At The Hundredth Meridian' with the F-bomb in it? What if somebody complains about the Who from 1978, 'Who Are You' with 'Who the fuck are you' in it? Under the rules, the CBSC would have to rule those songs unplayable on Canadian airwaves because of language."