Classic Hits

As usual, The Wonderful World of Disney: Holiday Spectacular has lined up some big-name guest stars for musical performances, and this year that includes Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Elton John.

Elton is set to perform his classic “Your Song,” and while it may be surprising that he isn’t singing his own holiday classic “Step Into Christmas,” his presence on the special isn’t: Disney+ will be streaming his documentary Never Too Late starting Dec. 13. 

The ABC special will be hosted by Julianne Hough and Alfonso Ribeiro, and feature musical performances from Florida’s Walt Disney World Resort, California’s Disneyland Resort and Hawai’i’s Aulani Disney Resort.

Other artists set to perform include John Legend, Pentatonix, Eva Max, Carly Pearce, Seth McFarlane and Liz Gillies, Leslie Odom Jr., Anika Noni Rose and Moana star Auli’i Cravalho.

Kristen Bell will narrate the special, which airs on ABC Dec. 1 and streams the next day on Hulu and Disney+.

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Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Joe Walsh turned 77 on Wednesday, and in a birthday post on social media, he looked back on the struggles he’s faced throughout his life and how he overcame them.

“This young man had trouble sitting still, expressing himself and relating to other people,” the Eagles guitarist wrote next to a black-and-white photo of his younger self. “He found various tricks (and pills and potions) through the years that seemed to make those things more manageable.”

He added, “[B]ut the things that really saved his a** were his guitar, his friends, the music they made together, the love he shares with his family and 30 years of blessed sobriety.”

“Today this young man turns 77 years old,” he concluded the post, “and he still sees this kid in the mirror. We did good, kid. We did it one day at a time.”

Walsh is still playing music today. He and his Eagles bandmates are in the midst of their Sphere Las Vegas residency, with their next show happening Dec. 6. A complete list of dates can be found at eagles.com.

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Howard Jones and ABC are returning to the U.S. for more shows next year.

The two artists teamed up for a tour last summer with Haircut 100, and now they’ll return for a co-headlining trek that kicks off Feb. 6 in San Francisco. The tour will hit such cities as Denver, Dallas, Houston, Nashville, Brooklyn and Washington, D.C., before wrapping Feb. 28 in Glenside, Pennsylvania. 

“So excited to be teaming up with the excellent ABC once again for another run of dates in the USA,” Jones shares. ABC frontman Martin Fry adds, “This tour’s gonna be unmissable.”

A complete list of dates and ticket information can be found at howardjones.com.

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Jethro Tull is getting ready to reissue their 2003 holiday album, and they’ve just shared a track from the record.

The band has just released a new mix of “Jack Frost and Hooded Crow,” which will appear on the now-titled The Jethro Tull Christmas Album – Fresh Snow at Christmas. The album will be released Dec. 6, featuring the new mix, along with 40 minutes of previously unreleased recordings. 

It is being released as a limited-edition four-CD + Blu-ray set, which includes the new mix by The Pineapple Thief’s Bruce Soord, as well as the original mix, along with live recordings from two charity concerts at London’s St. Bride’s church to benefit the homeless: Christmas Live at St. Bride’s 2008 and a previously unreleased recording, The Ian Anderson Band Live At St. Brides 2006.

The Blu-ray will feature Dolby Atmos 5.1 mixes of the album, as well as high resolution audio mixes of the two live albums.

The remixed version of the album will also be released as a two-LP vinyl set, the very first time it’s been available on vinyl.

All formats are available for preorder now.

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Dean Martin’s take on the classic holiday single “It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas” has made its Billboard chart debut.

Billboard reports that 73 years after the song was recorded the track has debuted on the Adult Contemporary chart at #30. The song, from a 1952 episode of The Martin and Lewis Show, was released for the first time back in October, followed by an animated video on Nov. 14.

That new Adult Contemporary chart hit comes 60 years, four months and three weeks after Martin’s first time on the chart, with the #1 track “Everybody Loves Somebody” in 1964. Nat King Cole is the only artist with a longer span on the AC chart, at 60 years, five months and two weeks.

But “It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas” isn’t Martin’s only popular holiday song. His take on “Let it Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow” reached a new high of #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2023.

Martin died on Christmas Day in 1995. He was 78. 

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Bonnie Raitt has announced a new set of tour dates for 2025.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer’s newest tour will launch March 5 in Temecula, California, hitting such cities as Phoenix, Albuquerque, Dallas, Ft. Lauderdale, Memphis and more before wrapping May 10 in Louisville, Kentucky, although more dates are expected to be announced. 

Tickets for all shows go on sale Friday at 10 a.m.

But Bonnie still has some shows left in her 2024 schedule. On Wednesday she’ll bring her tour to Charlotte, North Carolina, for a benefit concert supporting communities impacted by Hurricane Helene. A complete list of dates can be found at bonnieraitt.com.

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Genesis‘ sixth studio album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, is about to celebrate its 50th anniversary, and to mark the occasion a new remastered version of the album is being released, with plenty of extras.

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition, created with input from the band’s members — Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett and Mike Rutherford — will be released March 28 in a variety of formats, including five-LP/Blu-ray audio, four-CD/Blu-ray audio and digitally, with Dolby Atmos.

The set includes the remastered album, done at Abbey Road Studios; a Blu-ray with Dolby Atmos mixes, done under the supervision of Gabriel and Banks; never-before-released demos; and a 60-page coffee table book, featuring interviews with all five band members, said to be the only time they’ve all been interviewed about the album since its original release. The book also includes previously unseen photos, a poster and a replica concert ticket.

The set also includes The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway Live At The Shrine Auditorium, recorded Jan. 24, 1975. While most of the concert was previously released as part of the Genesis Archive 1967-75 box set, this version includes two additional encore tracks, making it the first time the full concert and complete encore is being released.

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition is available for preorder now.

Released Nov. 22, 1974, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was a concept album based on an idea by Gabriel, about a Puerto Rican youth named Rael who goes on a journey of self-discovery. During the tour for the album, Gabriel announced to the band he was leaving Genesis once the tour was over.

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Memorabilia from Roger Daltrey and The Who are among the items up for auction at the annual Teenage Cancer Trust Star Boot Sale.

Some of the items available include a signed Daltrey photograph, taken as part of the Love Music Love Food book; a Teenage Cancer Trust guitar man T-shirt, signed by Daltrey; a signed poster from Daltrey and Wilko Johnson’s one-off show at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire on Feb. 25, 2014; a Daltrey-signed set list from The Who’s 2015 Glastonbury appearance; and a pair of artist proofs from The Who’s 2024 Royal Albert Hall concerts, autographed by Daltrey and Pete Townshend.

In addition to The Who items, there’s a guitar signed by Queen’s Brian May and a photo of Amy Winehouse taken by Bryan Adams, plus items from Noel Gallagher, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and more.

The Star Boot Sale runs until Dec. 2 at 10 a.m., with proceeds benefiting Teenage Cancer Trust and the work it does providing care and support to young people facing cancer across the U.K.

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Gov’t Mule frontman Warren Haynes is heading out on the road next year in support of his recently released solo album, Million Voices Whisper.

Haynes just announced dates for the Million Voices Whisper tour, which will have him backed by the Warren Haynes Band: drummer Terence Higgins, Gov’t Mule bassist Kevin Scott, Matt Slocum on keys and Greg Osby on sax. The tour kicks off Feb. 7 in Knoxville, Tennessee, and wraps Feb. 22 in Buffalo, New York. He’ll also play an April 5 show in Columbia, South Carolina, which is a rescheduled show from September.

Following a fan club presale on Wednesday, local presales will kick off Thursday at 10 a.m., with tickets going on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m. Haynes will donate $1 from each ticket to help with hurricane relief. 

A complete list of dates can be found at warrenhaynes.net. 

And speaking of hurricane relief, Haynes is set to perform at the upcoming Soulshine benefit concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Nov. 24. If you can’t make it to the Big Apple you can still enjoy the show. The concert, which also features Dave Matthews Band, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats and Goose, will stream live at 7 p.m. ET via SoulshineMSG.com.

Additional special guests include Phish‘s Trey Anastasio, Mavis Staples, Robert Randolph, Joe Russo, Trombone Shorty, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks.

Soulshine will raise money in support of Hurricane Helene and Milton relief efforts.

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Nov. 19 marks the 40th anniversary of Don Henley’s sophomore solo album, Building the Perfect Beast, the follow-up to his 1982 solo debut, I Can’t Stand Still.

The album, which had the Eagles rocker working with guitarist Danny Kortchmar, as well as Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench and Stan Lynch of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, peaked at #13 on the Billboard 200 chart. It spawned four top-40 singles, including “The Boys of Summer,” which hit #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, and earned Henley a Grammy.

The song’s success can be partially credited to its video, featuring Henley singing on the back of a truck, which got a huge amount of play on MTV. 

Craig Marks, co-author of I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution, tells ABC Audio that despite the video’s success — it won Video of the Year at the 1985 MTV VMAs — Henley was “a reluctant participant in the music video revolution.”

“I think Hanley said something in his acceptance speech like, ‘I just was on the back of a flatbed pickup truck, lip-synching, and I really didn’t do anything else.’ And it’s true, he didn’t,” Marks shares. “But it managed to turn Don Henley into a pop star, which is the power that MTV had in 1984 and onwards.”

Thanks to “The Boys of Summer” and the album’s other hits — “All She Wants To Do Is Dance,” which went to #9, “Not Enough Love in the World” and “Sunset Grill” — the record was a huge commercial success for Henley and has been certified three-times Platinum by the RIAA.

Henley recently celebrated Building the Perfect Beast’s anniversary with a new remastered edition of the album, available digitally and as a two-LP set.

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