The latest music news for the week of March 16, 1990

Hats Off to Del
Rhino is proceeding with a Del Shannon retrospective that was in the works before Shannon’s suicide last month. The anthology, due this summer, will cover his first hits through his neglected ’70s work.

Bonnie and Clout
Sales of Bonnie Raitt’s Nick of Time, which went gold (500,000 copies sold) last year, are expected to skyrocket in the wake of her dark-horse Grammy wins for Album of the Year and Pop and Rock Female Vocal. The Tower Records chain alone ordered 10,000 copies within days of the telecast.

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
Contrary to rumors, Big Audio Dynamite has not disbanded. However, the band has dropped from five members to two: founder Mick Jones and keyboardist Dan Donovan. A planned album of dance remixes has been postponed.

Brother, Can You Spare a Record Deal?
The Fat Boys, Al Green, Joe Jackson, Men Without Hats, Curiosity Killed the Cat, Kool and the Gang, and the Oyster Band, among others, are all without recording contracts thanks to a purge at PolyGram and its subsidiary A&M Records. Says a PolyGram spokesman, referring to new company policies, ”I guess they’re going for quality over quantity.”

Next: The David Byrne Unit and the John Cougar Summercamp
It’s late at night, you’re stranded in the wilds of Canada, and you’re out of money. Where to go? The JohnnyCash Money Machine, naturally. Available at 277 branches of Canada Trust, the 24-hour banking machine features an authorized, life-size cardboard likeness of the country legend and the slogan ”Why Walk the Line?” ”We wanted to have something that was friendly and didn’t connote coldness,” says Canada Trust executive Gary Ferris. ”Now, many people refer to our machines as ‘JohnnyCash.”’