In the 1986 John Hughes classic Pretty in Pink, she was an adorably scrappy alt-girl who worked at a New Wave record store and twirled to the Psychedelic Furs in thrift-shop couture. In real life, though, actress Molly Ringwald has a bona fide classic-jazz background: her father is blind jazz pianist Bob Ringwald, and at age 6, the budding actress even released a Dixieland-style album, I Wanna Be Loved By You, Molly Sings, with her dad and the Fulton Street Jazz Band.
Now, the 41-year-old star of ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager is pulling out her pipes again for pianist/composer Peter Smith, singing on several tracks from his new collection of traditional-style mid-century jazz compositions, Here It Comes, and playing occasional gigs with him around L.A., where the show tapes.
On cdbaby.com, you can stream a few clips, and listen in on Molly’s guest vocals — very sort of sultry, MIchelle Pfeiffer-on-a-piano vibes. But you tell me, Music Mixers: is this the Molly you remember? Would you buy the CD, with or without her name attached?
More from EW’s Music Mix:
New Jonas Brothers video: It makes no sense, but their hair sure does look nice
Susan Boyle overrated? British pop star Lily Allen thinks so…
Wilco’s Jay Bennett: RIP
One Tree Hill‘s Kate Voegele on her new album, her dual identity, and the season finale
The real Slim Shady just stood up in a major way, 
Phish have just released a new track called "Time Turns Elastic" (available 
Warning: The recently-released 
It’s been less than two weeks 
Sharp-tongued British singer Lily Allen has been on pretty good behavior of late, at least in terms of criticizing her fellow performers. When I spoke to her earlier this year, she even declined to make negative comments about Katy Perry, despite Perry having once described her as a "fatter version of Amy Winehouse." In fact, Allen told me she thought Perry was "just lovely," though she seemed to be doing so through slightly gritted teeth. But this weekend Allen did critique Britain’s Got Talent sensation Susan Boyle on 
Just the other day I was playing cards with my poker buddies when talk fell — as it does with metronomic regularity — to the relative merits of Wilco’s discography. I’ll spare you the details. But at one point someone mentioned they were still waiting for the band to produce "another 'Misunderstood'." I knew what he meant. "Misunderstood" is a terrific slab of melancholic, dissonant rock. It's one of Wilco’s best songs, and was a staple of their live show last time I checked (and, being a huge follower of the band, I check fairly often.) The track also opens 1996’s Being There, which marked a decisive break with the alt-country stylings of their debut and introduced fans to multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett. 
