Fan Fare

Tony Bennett, Stevie Wonder planning duets album

This project has Grammy bait written all over it. The indefatigable Tony Bennett, 83, is teaming up with the equally irrepressible Stevie Wonder, 59, to record an album of duets, Bennett’s Columbia Records label said Tuesday. A rep had no further information about a release date, song selection or album title, and an email to Wonder’s spokeswoman was not immediately answered.

Wonder previously sang on a pair of Bennett all-star recordings, “Playin’ With My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues” (2001) and “Duets: An American Classic” (2006). Their reworking of Wonder’s “For Once In My Life,” on the latter release, earned them the Grammy for pop vocal collaboration in 2007 (see photo).

Bennett has won 14 Grammys — though he will tell you he has 15 because he includes his honorary lifetime achievement award. Wonder has won 22. Grammy voters love it when famous stars team up for albums. Witness this year’s big winner, the “Raising Sand” album from Robert Plant and Allison Krauss. In the not-too-distant past, they also showered statuettes on all-star albums headlined by the likes of Santana and Ray Charles.

Singers for Obama release “Yes We Can” album

 You’ve heard them at the Obama campaign rallies and speeches for months, and now  all those Stevie Wonder, Sheryl Crow, John Mayer and Los Lonely Boys songs that warm up the Democratic Party crowds have been put together on one album.

 Billed as the first-ever presidential campaign compilation, the 18-song disc “Yes We Can: Voices of a Grassroots Movement” also includes excerpts from speeches given by Barack Obama and goes on sale exclusively on the campaign’s official Web site on Friday.

 All proceeds from digital downloads ($24.99) and the old-fashioned CD ($30) will go to the Obama-Biden campaign, said Hidden Beach Recordings, which is behind the project.

 Hidden Beach CEO Steve McKeever said the diverse artists contributing “underscores how deeply inspiring this campaign has been across boundaries.”

 The recording includes Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered”, Mayer’s “Waiting on the World To Change,” and Los Lonely Boys’ “Make It Better”, as well as new material by Lionel Richie and John Legend.

 Absent from the list however is Barbra Streisand, one of Obama’s biggest singing supporters.

  Presumably “The Way We Were” doesn’t have the right vibe for  “Change We  Can Believe In.”