Tony Bennett
Photo: Columbia

Sheryl Crow, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and Bonnie Raitt are among the artists collaborating with Tony Bennett on his upcoming album.

Playing With My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues is due in the fall and also features k.d. lang and Diana Krall, according to the spokesperson for the project's producer, Phil Ramone (Barbra Streisand, Paul Simon).

Ramone first worked with Bennett on a similar collaboration project, Frank Sinatra's Duets, which featured the two crooners on "New York, New York." Bennett will spend the summer on a joint headlining tour with k.d. lang that kicks off July 25 in Portland, Maine. The two teamed up to sing "Moonglow" for Bennett's 1994 "MTV Unplugged" appearance.

Meanwhile, Ramone has kept busy with several other projects. He recently finished producing Donny Osmond's This Is the Moment album and accompanying tour, as well as the debut album for tenor Michael Amante.

The producer is also writing a book based on his time in the recording studio with artists such as Elton John and Billy Joel, due later this year from Hyperion Publishing, and has been tapped to produce Diane Schuur's next album, his spokesperson said. He last worked with the jazz singer on Friends for Schuur, which included guest vocals from Wonder and Charles.

• Tony Bennett
• k.d. lang
• Sheryl Crow
• Stevie Wonder

k.d. lang
Photo: Just Loomis

For years, Martha Stewart has offered menu and décor tips for fabulous outdoor parties and barbecues. Now she's providing a play list.

And judging by the selections on Martha Stewart Living: Summer Entertaining, due June 5, one might think it's not just pies getting baked at her backyard bashes. The disc includes smooth-groovin' songs by the Doobie Brothers, Donovan, Paul Simon and the Young Rascals, as well as soulful classics by Smokey Robinson, War, the Drifters and Manhattan Transfer. Stewart even gets a little fringey with cuts by Victoria Williams, k.d. lang and Bebel Gilberto, daughter of bossa nova innovator Joao Gilberto.

Summer Entertaining is the second offering in the Martha Stewart Living series. Last year she released Spooky Sounds for Halloween, a disc of rattling chains, barking dogs, beating hearts, bloodcurdling screams and other scary sounds.

But her record industry career isn't something new. In 1990 Stewart wrote the liner notes for Dinner for Two, a classical album featuring the works of Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Liszt and others. And between 1968 and 1979, she contributed backing vocals on no less than six albums, including Frank Sinatra's Trilogy. The complete track listing for Martha Stewart Living: Summer Entertaining:

• k.d. lang - "Summerfling"
• Donovan - "Sunshine Superman"
• The Young Rascals - "Groovin'"
• Bebel Gilberto - "So Nice (Summer Samba)"
• Paul Simon - "The Coast"
• War - "Summer"
• Dionne Warwick - "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?"
• The Doobie Brothers - "Sweet Feelin'"
• Manhattan Transfer - "Soul Food to Go (Sina)"
• Smokey Robinson - "Cruisin'"
• King Harvest - "Dancing in the Moonlight"
• Marshall Crenshaw - "Starless Summer Sky"
• Victoria Williams - "Water to Drink"
• The Drifters - "Under the Boardwalk"

• The Doobie Brothers
• The Drifters
• Paul Simon
• Donovan
• War

August 29 [10:00 EDT] -- The new Rolling Stones single, "Anybody Seen By Baby," is a little too close for comfort to k.d. lang's "Constant Craving," so the rockers will be crediting lang and co-writer Ben Mink on the pending release.

Apparently the percentages have yet to be determined but the title will read 'written by M. Jagger, K. Richards, k.d. lang-B. Mink.' According to The Toronto Star Mink says lawyers for the Stones contacted him without being solicited.

Jagger in a statement said that he liked lang but wasn't familiar with the song. But Mick must not listen to much of her music. "Constant Craving," from lang's 1992 album "Ingenue," is her best known piece of work--it earned her five 1993 Grammy nominations.

Lang's statement said she was flattered.

• k.d. lang
• The Rolling Stones