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Aiken and Studdard face off againYOUR E-MAIL ALERTSNEW YORK (AP) -- Two former "American Idol" rivals -- second-season winner Ruben Studdard and runner-up Clay Aiken -- will battle again when their new albums are released next month. Aiken's third album, "A Thousand Different Ways," will be in stores September 19. The new CD combines 10 cover versions of well-known songs from the '70s, '80s and '90s with four new songs, RCA Records announced Thursday. Studdard's "The Return" will be released September 26 on J Records. It follows his 2004 gospel album, "I Need an Angel." Studdard narrowly beat out Aiken to win the "American Idol" contest in May 2003. Their debut albums -- Aiken's "Measure of a Man" and Studdard's "Soulful" -- were released later that year, with Aiken's CD in stores about two months before Studdard's. The first track on Studdard's new CD is "The Return of the Velvet Teddy Bear," the 27-year-old singer said earlier this week. Tracks on Aiken's new disc include Bryan Adams' "Everything I Do (I Do It for You)," Celine Dion's "Because You Loved Me" and Elton John's "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word." "This is an album of love songs, but they are about all different kinds of love. Romantic love, friendship, unconditional love," Aiken said in a statement Thursday. "Since so many of these songs are covers, it's realistic to say that many of them have been or could be sung a thousand different ways," the 27-year-old singer said. "A Thousand Different Ways" follows Aiken's 2004 release, "Merry Christmas With Love." Jason Alexander on 'Everybody Hates Chris'LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Jason Alexander plans to drop in on "Everybody Hates Chris" next season. Alexander ("Seinfeld," "Listen Up") is set to play the principal of Corleone Junior High on two episodes of the sitcom and will direct a third, series producer CBS Paramount Network Television said Thursday. Air dates have yet to be announced. Chris Rock's UPN sitcom, based on the comedian's childhood in Brooklyn, survived the merger of that network with WB. It is now on new network CW's debut schedule and is set for an October 1 premiere. CW is a joint venture between CBS Corp. and Warner Bros. Entertainment. In one episode, Alexander, as Principal Edwards, makes Chris (Tyler Williams) confront a bully. In another, the principal and Chris bond while they wait out a snowstorm at school. Whoopi Goldberg was previously announced as a guest star for the comedy's second season, playing a new next-door neighbor for Chris' family. Barry Manilow hip to the '60sNEW YORK (AP) -- Barry Manilow had so much success with the music from the 1950s, he's taking on another decade. In an interview with The Associated Press, Manilow said he plans to release "The Greatest Songs of the Sixties" on October 31, a follow-up to "The Greatest Songs of the Fifties," which debuted at No. 1 when it was released earlier this year and sold more than one million copies. Manilow thinks his upcoming album might be even more popular than the first. "I think these songs from the '60s are more well known to a lot of people than the songs of the '50s," he told the AP on Thursday. "I really have a sense that these songs are even going to be more accepted to a bigger audience because everybody knows these songs." Manilow, whose own hits include "Mandy," "Weekend in New England" and "Copacabana," said he recorded more than 100 songs for "Sixties" album from various acts, including Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and Motown acts. But he found that some songs just didn't fit his style. "For instance, the Motown catalog. Although I love the Motown catalog more than any of them, I could not handle any of them, because they are R&B songs, and they are relying on the singer to do that R&B performance, and that's not what I do. No matter how I tried, I just sounded bad," he laughed. "Doing any of these Four Tops, Temptations, any of them ... they weren't right." But he found he had the right tenor for Burt Bacharach songs, and Elvis Presley's "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You," which will likely be on the album. He even recorded two Beatles tunes, "Yesterday" and "And I Love Her." Noting that he got his start in the industry as a musical arranger, Manilow said: "When I get an opportunity to take a classic beautifully written song and arrange them for singers or myself, it's great fun for me. "I'm able to find different facets of each song that maybe the public hasn't heard." Still, like the "Fifties" album, there won't be too big a departure from what the public is familiar with. "I can't go too far away from the original, because people are expecting to hear the songs that they love," he said. "That's the challenge." If this album is as successful as the first, Manilow said might go into the '70s -- the decade when Manilow first gained his fame. "I gotta figure out a way to do it, and not just doing my stuff!" he said. Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report. 
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