Donnie Klang gets Diddy push

Donnie Klang’s rocket ride to stardom has come so fast, he hasn’t had the time to let it sink in yet.

A little more than a year ago, Klang was working in a warehouse and going to business school, thinking seriously about abandoning his dreams of being a singer after two failed “American Idol” auditions and years of struggling with little to show for it.

He auditioned for Sean Combs‘ MTV reality show, “Making the Band 4,” on a lark and was shocked on live television last August when he wasn’t selected to become part of the group assembled, Day26, but instead received a recording contract as a solo artist with Diddy’s Bad Boy Records.

On Tuesday, only a year and a week after his selection, Klang’s debut, “Just a Rolling Stone,” will hit stores and, with Combs’ backing, has a legitimate shot at No. 1.

“In case this is your first time here, we make bands here,” Combs told the audience during the season premiere of “Making the Band 4,” which features Klang, Day26 and Danity Kane. “They make albums and those albums go to No. 1. Donnie, his album hasn’t come out yet, but it comes out Sept. 2. Hopefully, you guys will make it – what? – No. 1, my favorite number.”

R.E.M. kicks into gear

Now it can be told: In 2004, during the recording and release of the “Around the Sun” (Warner Bros.) album, R.E.M. was on the ropes.

“It’s really hard to make a record that’s exciting to listen to if you’re so sick of the songs that you just want to kill yourself – the way we were working, that’s the way it would be,” says R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, calling from his Seattle home. “I remember we went in one night and Bill [Rieflin, the band's drummer] said, ‘Oh my God, we’re not re-recording that again, are we?’ How can you get a good take if everyone in the band feels that way?”

Afterward, there was talk about whether the band, pioneers of indie rock and recent inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, would continue. “I think that all three of us could leave the band any day – it’s an option we have and the older we get and the longer we’ve done it, the more likely that option is,” Buck says. “We’ve already outlived all but U2 and the Rolling Stones really. We’ve never broken up. We’ve never been away.”

But the struggle with “Around the Sun” actually ended up energizing R.E.M. When it came time to work on a new album, Buck, singer Michael Stipe and bassist Mike Mills were adamant – they weren’t going to go through that kind of ordeal again. “I was very positive about it,” Buck says. “I was saying, ‘Guys, we’re a great live band and we write great songs and that’s all it takes. So let’s go into the studio and capture what we do onstage as opposed to trying to reinvent the wheel and spending eight months just working things to death.’ It’s not fun and it doesn’t work. By the time we finished the last record, believe me, everyone agreed with me.”

Estelle shines

Estelle isn’t a worrier.

When her label seemed confused about the direction the British rapper/singer wanted to go in for her new album, she calmly went to see the execs and said, “Let me go, please.”

“I believe that if the music is good, the rest will follow,” she explained, calling from a tour stop in Washington, D.C. “I thought, `If this deal doesn’t work, I’ll get another one somewhere else.’ I was writing the album with John Legend and he said, `I’ll sign you.’ He made it happen.”

The result of their collaboration is “Shine” (Home School/Atlantic), a collection of hip-hop, old-school soul with bits of reggae and pop thrown in for good measure. The first single “American Boy,” which teams Estelle with Kanye West, has already topped the British charts and is now making its move in America.

While most artists would be a bit apprehensive working with an outspoken megastar like West, Estelle joked that he should have been worried about working with her. “It was mutual respect,” she explained. “I think he wouldn’t have gotten on the record if he didn’t like it, if he didn’t think it was worth it, so I appreciated that.’

Though the sleek pop duet turned out well, Estelle, who now splits her time between London and the Dumbo section of Brooklyn, said she was still stunned when “American Boy” went to No. 1 in England.

“I wasn’t even going for that,” she said. “I was going for great music. I wasn’t expecting it. I jumped up and down. I called my mum. I hugged my friends and they were like, `I’ve never seen you cry so much in your life ever.’ It was such a huge sigh of relief. I was so surprised because people were saying, `Black artists don’t sell, they don’t do well over there.’ Well, I showed them different.”