Rita Wilson to Debut Solo Album

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While we're used to Rita Wilson the actress, get ready for Rita Wilson the singer -- the 55-year-old actress announced today that she will make her solo album debut, featuring classics from the '60s and '70s.

"That time period was hugely influential on me as a kid and as a teenager," she says. "I'd spend hours and hours lying on my bed, holding up the albums, reading the liner notes, and learning all the words to these songs that expressed what I was feeling or fantasizing about."

The album is called AM/FM, with the first half, "AM," featuring songs from the '60s, while her favorite folk-rock singer-songwriters '70s songs make up the "FM" half.

"The song sequence on the album tells a story of a very innocent, idealized version of love in the 'AM' section, before it shifts to the 'FM' section and becomes more about the disillusionment that happens after you've had some heartbreaks," Wilson explains.

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Among the popular hits Wilson will cover is All I Have to Dream, Angel of the Morning, Will You Love Me Tomorrow and Faithless Love.

"As I got older, I began to understand that not everything had a happy ending," Wilson says, though she has been married to Tom Hanks for 23 years. "So I was drawn to songs by women who wrote about how love was not always the dream fantasy; that there was pain and disappointment involved."

Guest appearances on the album include Soundgarden's Chris Cornell, Sheryl Crow, Faith Hill and Vince Gill.

AM/FM, on Decca Records, comes out May 8th.