The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 355

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1999 WWW.herald.COm Top touring acts still cant get any radio respect the divas current U.S. tour are among Amusement Business weekly ranking of Top 10 grossers worldwide. Her last hit? From a Distance, in 1990. I Lynyrd Skynyrd. The Jacksonville Southern rockers remain one of the top touring acts in the country a September concert at the National Car Rental Center and a show last fall at Coral Sky Amphitheatre drew heavy crowds yet the groups last Top 40 hit, Whats Your Name, hit the charts in December 1977, a little over a month after a plane crash killed members of the original band.

I Gordon Lightfoot. Canadian troubadour still sells out shows in his homeland and his North American jaunts like the one in 1996 at Broward Center sell well. After six Top 40 hits, the sun went down on Lightfoot with radio when 1978s The Circle Is Small ran its course. I Pet Shop Boys. The British duo hasnt hit the American Top 40 singles chart since 1988s Domino Dancing, but last months Nightlife tour sold out mid-sized venues from Miami Beach to New York.

I Jimmy Buffett the Coral Reefer Band: 8 p.m. Thursday (lawn seats only) and Dec. 11 (sold out); Coral Sky Amphitheatre, 601-7 Sansbury Way, West Palm Beach; $26.50 (festival lawn); 561-793-0445. Parrotheads. I The Rolling Stones.

The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, and that was also the last time Mick Jagger and Co. saw the Top 40, when that years Rock and a Hard Place peaked at No. 23. So why do the Stones set box-office records every time the group mounts a lavish tour? Proven performers. I James Taylor.

Buffetts friend, and another touring top banana, has an equally devoted fan base. But pop radio hasnt touched Taylor since 1981s Her Town Too. And, like Buffett, his last Top 10 single Handy Man) also dates to 1977. Tori Amos. She has never had a Top 40 hit her out-there style suggests she never will.

But Amos is one of rocks busiest live acts and she easily sells out mid-sized halls. I Neil Diamond. Im Alive, he sang in 1983. But after that hit, his Top 40 days flatlined. No problem.

For almost 30 years, his tours consistently rank among the Top 10 concert attractions on the road. I Tony Bennett. He hasnt had a Top 40 single since 1965s If I Ruled the World, but he probably has a wider fan base now than at any time during his original heyday. A March performance at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts sold out. I Bette Midler.

Shows on BY HOWARD COHEN hcohenherald.com Jimmy Buffett gives up. Dont worry, hes still going to perform in concert. Hes also going to release new albums probably more of em now that he runs Mailboat Records, his own Internet-friendly label that falls outside the traditional record company system. But Buffett has given up on the idea of ever getting radio to play anything new he puts out. He hasnt had a Top 40 Billboard single since 1979s Fins inched up to No.

35, and 197Ts Margaritaville remains his only Top 10 hit. Singles have never been an issue for me since 1977, when someone actually played that last one, so its more about still making a record that fans like," Buffett said in a recent phone interview in which he discussed his latest CD, Buffett Live: Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays. Thankfully, his legion of fans continue to like him just fine. In fact, plenty of artists sell millions of tickets years after hitting the Top 40 for the last time. Heres a look at a few others in Buffetts boat: I Grateful Dead.

At least Buffett had five Top 40 singles. The Dead had one, 1987s Touch of Grey, which crested at No. 9. But can you think of a more definitive touring act? The term coined to the phenomenon Deadheads led to Buffetts Shania Twain goes international with pop radio remixes of CD BY HOWARD COHEN hcohenherald.com Shania Twain isnt the first singer to flash a belly button, but no other toned tummy has taken a performer this far. As if 11 million in certified shipments for Twains 1995 CD The Woman in Me wasnt impressive enough (it was by far the most successful album by a country female artist in history), her third CD, 1997 Come On Over, has shipped 14 million copies.

With those numbers. Twain is even outselling her Canadian pop peer Celine Dion, whose last two albums sold only 10 million copies apiece domestically. To further broaden her market, Twains label. Mercury, has just issued Come On Over International Version, a CD that shifts the running order of the songs and features the pop-oriented radio mixes of hits like Youre Still the One, From This Moment On (sans Bryan Whites cloying duet vocal) and the dancey That Dont Impress Me Much that weve been hearing on Y-100 all year long. Its this version of the CD, actually, that closely approximates what listeners outside of North America have had all along.

While these familiar mixes dont do anything to erase the memory of Twains truly insipid lyrics. International Version is the better album. By strip ping away the forced country instrumentation (like fiddles and strings) that always made Come On Over feel condescending, Twains music is revealed for the finely crafted pop it really is. Sure, its all soundalike and gimmicky, but in this form its also hard to resist. Need more proof? Twain returns to the Coral Sky after filling it late last year.

On Thanksgiving night, CBS aired Twains Come On Over, her second network special of the year (this one a concert from the Texas Stadium), and the men at the holiday dinner I went to had their VCRs running warmer than the bird at our table in anticipation of catching the show later. The wives didnt seem to mind too much Twain is undeniably attractive, yet theres nothing really threatening about her. She sings songs of female empowerment (Any Man of Mine, Honey, Tm Home, If You Wanna Touch Her, Ask!) and for all her sex appeal theres a curious detachment to Twains stage act. You can look but you cant touch. Sounds like Twains next hit.

I Shania Twain with Shane Minor 7:30 p.m. Sunday; Coral Sky Amphitheatre, 601-7 Sansbury Way, West Palm Beach; $35 (festival lawn); 561-793-0445. mlsm.