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It must
really burn David
Letterman's butt
that his successor,
Conan O'Brien,
beat him to the
punch. O'Brien
released an
assortment of his
show's musical
highlights a full
month before
Live on Letter-
man: Music From
"The Late Show"
(Reprise) made
its way to the
record stores.
What's more,
Conan's collec-
tion blows Dave's
document out of the water.
Part of the problem is that Letter-
man's band leader Paul Shaffer likes
to pretend he is a rock star. He
always tries to muscle in on the visit-
ing acts, which drives many potential
artists away. So you wind up getting
two types of guest artists on Letter-
man: the superstars who can tell
Shaffer to kiss off and the nobodies
(or has-beens) who cave in to the
shiny-domed organ player.
Sheryl Crow ("Strong Enough"),
R.E.M. ("Crush with Eyeliner"),
Dave Matthews ("Too Much") and
Jewel ("You Were Meant For Me")
succeed in keeping Shaffer and band-
mates at bay, and the performances
are all tight and inspired.
But Rod Stewart ("Reason to
Believe"), Lenny Kravitz ("Are You
Gonna Go My Way"), Aretha Franklin
("Think") and others subject them-
selves (and the audience) to Shaffer's
sonic tyranny with lackluster results.
Nevertheless, the worst perfor-
mance on this 14-song collection has
nothing to do with Shaffer's interven-
tions. Sinead O'Connor, Van Morri-
son and the Chieftans collaborate on
Morrison's timeless classic, "Have I
Told You Lately That I Love You?"
and it is a total train wreck. O'Con-
nor tries to give the song a clean,
concise read while Morrison scats and

.

the 1972 play The Sunshine Boys fea-
tured jack Albertson and Sam Lev-
e1 n9e7._5Gfielom r g . e Burns and Walter
Matthau had the starring roles 'inl
inthe

.

mumbles his way over the
lyrics, sounding as if he had
a pint or two too many
before the performance.
The Chieftans, meanwhile,
are off-key and disinterested,
and it makes you wonder
why anyone wanted to burn
this performance on a CD.

— Reviewed by
John Godfrey
Copley News Service

TV WATCH

If Neil Simon's feature
film The Sunshine Boys
brightened your day,
then you might warm
up to the TV version,
which will be broadcast
9-11 p.m. Sunday,
Dec. 28, on CBS.
In the made-for-
TV movie, Woody Allen and Peter Falk
have been cast as two aging comics
reuniting for a final show after years of
not speaking to one another. (By the
way, Woody seems to be all over the
place lately. His film Deconstructing
Harry opened yesterday, and last month
he actually phoned in a performance
— in his sitcom debut — on NBC's
"Just Shoot Me.")
Originally written for Broadway,

Viewers unfamiliar with the
plot will watch Al Lewis
(Allen) and Willie Clark
(Falk) eight years after
they split up as the
once-popular comedy
team of Lewis and Clark.
Although they
worked together for
40 years, they
were never par-
ticularly fond
, of each other.
After Lewis
decided to
retire, which
effectively
ended Clark's
career, Clark
vowed never to
speak to him again.
The new version
opens as Lewis is living
quietly with his daugh-
ter and her family in
New Jersey, while Clark
lives in a disheveled New
York apartment attempt-
ing to revive his career
with the help of his talent
agent/niece, played by
Sarah Jessica Parker. In the
earlier film, Richard Ben-
jamin was the agent/rela-
tive, the role introduced by
Lewis Stadlen on Broadway.
When a movie studio
wants the men to revive
their duo for a cameo in a
feature film, Clark's niece
persuades them to meet for a
screen test, and the action

builds.
Simon based the play and films on
Willie Howard, a vaudeville comedi-
an he met early in his writing career.
In the Simon autobiography,
Rewrites, the author remembers:
"The look and dress of Willie
Howard, the seediness and sadness of
his room, and the improbability that
he would ever work much again
stayed with me for years and finally