Chris Cornell (born Christopher John Boyle; July 20, 1964 – May 18, 2017) was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was best known as the lead vocalist for the rock bands Soundgarden and Audioslave. He also released four solo studio albums. Cornell is considered one of the chief architects of the 1990s grunge movement, and is well known for his extensive catalog as a songwriter, his nearly four-octave vocal range, and his powerful vocal belting technique. Cornell received a Golden Globe Award nomination for his song “The Keeper”, which appeared in the 2011 film Machine Gun Preacher, and co-wrote and performed the theme song to the James Bond film Casino Royale (2006), “You Know My Name". (More from Wikipedia)
Wikipedia states: “The band [Eleven] cites their major influences as Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Beatles, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Sergei Prokofiev. With Chris Cornell [of Soundgarden and Audioslave], they recorded [Natasha] Shneider’s arrangement of Franz Schubert’s ‘Ave Maria’, which appears on the album, A Very Special Christmas 3 [1997], in the liner notes of which they state they deliberately chose a classical work to help interest young people in classical music.”
(April 2015/1)
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Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider worked with Chris Cornell on his first solo album, Euphoria Morning (1999); they were also along on the band that toured to support the album. This is the only album that Cornell made after Soundgarden broke up, and before he joined members of Rage Against the Machine in forming Audioslave.
From Wikipedia: “The [Chris Cornell] album proved commercially unsuccessful although the album’s single ‘Can’t Change Me’ was nominated for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the 2000 Grammy Awards. He also contributed the song ‘Sunshower’ (a bonus track on the Japanese release of Euphoria Morning) to the soundtrack of the 1998 film, Great Expectations; and a reworked version of the track ‘Mission’, retitled ‘Mission 2000’, was used on the soundtrack to the 2000 film, Mission: Impossible II.”
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Many of the songs that Natasha Shneider wrote or co-wrote have also been recorded by other bands and artists over the years; I have already given numerous examples. For the soundtrack album Spider-Man 2 (Music From and Inspired By) (2004), Jimmy Gnecco along with Brian May of Queen recorded “Someone to Die For” that was co-written by Alain Johannes, Natasha Shneider and Chris Cornell. Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider co-produced the song “Wave Goodbye” by Steadman for the soundtrack of the 2004 film New York Minute.
(April 2015/2)
