Rodney Jerkins

Most young men can only dream of getting breathless phone calls from Jennifer Lopez. But when the screen siren-turned-singer's first single, "If I Had Your Love," reached No. 1 on the pop charts last month, she immediately dialed the number of Rodney Jerkins. "She called me and said, 'We're No. 1! We're No. 1!' " recalls Jerkins, who produced and co-wrote Lopez's hit. "I just said, 'Didn't I tell you?' " If Jerkins sounds blase, even cocky, he has reason to be.

Producer Rodney Jerkins is a heavyweight in the pop music world who's worked with an array of A-list artists, including Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Mary J. Blige and Britney Spears. But now, the urban music hit maker has set his sites on a new kind of star — one who can sing the praises of two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese.... Well, you know the rest. Jerkins and his Chicago-based company Artists & Brands are mining new musical talent from the rap and R&B world, coaching young artists on the art of a catchy hook, then offering the tunes to companies such as McDonald's (their main sponsor)

They may not be the faces on the album covers, but star record producers Max Martin, Rodney Jerkins, Dallas Austin and Matt Serletic are often the power behind the hits.

At first, the bundles of fan letters that arrived at Max Martin's recording studio in Stockholm contained only proxy valentines--"Please tell Britney I love her," they would implore, or "Can you ask A.J. to marry me?"--which is pretty much what you would expect in the mailbox of a producer who works with froth-pop stars Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys. But a few months ago a new theme appeared among the airmailed envelopes.

At first, the bundles of fan letters that arrived at Max Martin's recording studio in Stockholm contained only proxy valentines--"Please tell Britney I love her," they would implore, or "Can you ask A.J. to marry me?"--which is pretty much what you would expect in the mailbox of a producer who works with froth-pop stars Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys. But a few months ago a new theme appeared among the airmailed envelopes.

Producer Rodney Jerkins is a heavyweight in the pop music world who's worked with an array of A-list artists, including Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Mary J. Blige and Britney Spears. But now, the urban music hit maker has set his sites on a new kind of star — one who can sing the praises of two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese.... Well, you know the rest. Jerkins and his Chicago-based company Artists & Brands are mining new musical talent from the rap and R&B world, coaching young artists on the art of a catchy hook, then offering the tunes to companies such as McDonald's (their main sponsor)

     Nearly a year after Philip Phillips edged her out of being “American Idol's” first female victor since 2006, Jessica Sanchez is making her debut. The 17-year-old mini pop diva will issue her post-“Idol” debut, “Me, You & the Music,” on April 30, 19 Recordings/Interscope Records announced Thursday. Sanchez, who also competed on the first season of “America's Got Talent,” won over “Idol” viewers during the singing compeition's 11 th season with stunning covers of Beyoncé, Jazmine Sullivan and Whitney Houston that made her an early front-runner.

Sequoia Capital has invested an estimated $7 million in Tonos Inc., an Internet music company founded by songwriter Carol Bayer Sager and record producers David Foster and Kenneth "BabyFace" Edmonds. The Culver City-based music firm is expected to launch a Web site in April that the founders say will function as a "music industry insiders' network," providing visitors with online instruction, tips and gossip about the record business.

** 1/2 Spice Girls, "Forever," Virgin. No "girl power" posturing. No cotton-candy sonic colors. No Ginger Spice. Incredibly, the English group that made garish fluff-pop commercially viable again has turned almost, er, subtle. Adjusting to millennial pop tastes, the quartet morphs into a modern R&B-pop act on "Forever," abetted by such high-profile producers as Rodney Jerkins, who helmed the TLC-esque single "Holler."

Well, this isn't exactly taking the gloves off. Michael Jackson's long-awaited reentry into the pop arena should have been a contender--something with the brass and sass to remind people that he's a great record maker, not the Wacko Jacko who kept the tabloids humming during his hiatus from music.

They may not be the faces on the album covers, but star record producers Max Martin, Rodney Jerkins, Dallas Austin and Matt Serletic are often the power behind the hits.

Most young men can only dream of getting breathless phone calls from Jennifer Lopez. But when the screen siren-turned-singer's first single, "If I Had Your Love," reached No. 1 on the pop charts last month, she immediately dialed the number of Rodney Jerkins. "She called me and said, 'We're No. 1! We're No. 1!' " recalls Jerkins, who produced and co-wrote Lopez's hit. "I just said, 'Didn't I tell you?' " If Jerkins sounds blase, even cocky, he has reason to be.

TLC "3D" (Arista) *** Rather than dwelling on the untimely loss of Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, Rozanda "Chilli" Thomas and Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins use this album to celebrate their late partner while adding to the group's sassy, thought-provoking and innovative legacy. Lopes worked on about half these tunes, and her rapping is key to such taunting numbers as "Girl Talk" and the lover-man-skewering "Quickie." "3D" suffers slightly from the inevitable lack of TLC's usual freewheeling unity.

As if the disappointing sales showing of its last album weren't enough, Oasis now has more incentive to make its next release a hit. Last week the band was hit with an $880,000 settlement in a suit filed by its former drummer Tony McCarroll, claiming unlawful termination in 1995. . . . Michael Jackson has hired Rodney Jerkins, hot off his hits with Whitney Houston and the Grammy-winning Brandy-Monica pairing, to complete production on his upcoming album.