Gatsby ST anecdote, Building Chart tease

THE LAST TYCOON: How did Baz Luhrmann snag Jay-Z as the curator of the soundtrack to The Great Gatsby? In an interview with the L.A. Times’ Mikael Wood, Luhrmann said he hadn't met the mega-entrepreneurial Mr. Carter until Leonardo DiCaprio offered to introduce the two men one night in New York, where Luhrmann and DiCaprio were doing early work on the film and Jay-Z was in the process of recording Watch the Throne. "Leo said, 'Hey, Jay's up at the Mercer [Hotel]—let's go see him,'" Luhrmann recalled. "So we get there, and he's in a small suite with a producer, a recording deck about the size of a coffee table and a microphone with one of those vocal guards on it. He says, 'Gimme a second,' and then he does the line about 'lies on the lips of a priest' from 'No Church in the Wild.'" Luhrmann said he and DiCaprio spent the rest of the evening at the Mercer, with Jay-Z playing them other songs from Watch the Throne. "And eventually we start talking about the movie," the director continued. "I told him I wanted the audience to experience Gatsby not nostalgically but more in the moment. And just as I was about to say, 'I wonder if you'd be interested,' he said, 'We've got to do it.' It's been a true partnership ever since." Interscope’s Gatsby soundtrack, with newly recorded tracks from an eclectic assortment including Beyoncé and Andre 3000, Lana Del Rey, Bryan Ferry and Hova himself , is on track to debut at #2 behind Capitol Nashville’s Lady A on this week’s chart. But Gatsby has been #1 to Lady A’s #2 on the iTunes chart for days, and according to the latest retail reports, the album exploded over the weekend. How far north of 100k will it go? Keep an eye on HITS’ Building Album Sales Chart for continuous updates before it goes final tomorrow afternoon. As for the movie itself… (5/13a)