Classic Hits

Singer/songwriter Neil Sedaka died Friday at the age of 86, ABC News has confirmed.

“Our family is devastated by the sudden passing of our beloved husband, father and grandfather, Neil Sedaka,” read a statement from the musician’s family. “A true rock and roll legend, an inspiration to millions, but most importantly, at least to those of us who were lucky enough to know him, an incredible human being who will be deeply missed.”

Sedaka rose to fame in the late ’50s and early ’60s, thanks to popular hits like “Calendar Girl,” “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen,” “Oh! Carol,” and what became his signature song, “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,” which went to #1 in 1962. In 1975, he released a slowed-down version of the same song, which became a top 10 hit in 1976 and earned him a Grammy nomination.

Sedaka’s career as an artist saw a decline in the mid-’60s, due to the popularity of The Beatles and the so-called British Invasion, although he had continued success writing songs for other artists like Frank Sinatra, The Monkees and others.  He also remained a successful performer in the U.K. where he released a trio of popular albums: Emergence, Solitaire and The Tra-La Days Are Over. Those albums prompted Elton John to signed Sedaka to his Rocket Records label, and helped reintroduce him to American audiences.

Sedaka saw a renewed popularity as a performer in the mid-’70s, thanks to the albums released on John’s label. One, Sedaka’s Back, featured the #1 song the “Laughter in the Rain,” while The Hungry Years included another #1 hit, “Bad Blood,” with an uncredited Elton John on backing vocals.

Sedaka also maintained a successful songwriting career, writing tunes for other artists, including the Captain and Tennille song “Love Will Keep Us Together,” which went to #1 and earned Sedaka and co-writer Howard Greenfield a Grammy for record of the year. 

Sedaka was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1983, which also gave him the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.

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The Grateful Dead have a loyal fan base, and a new movie about them is set to hit theaters this summer.

Summer Tour, directed by Mischa Richter and co-produced by actress Chloe Sevigny, focuses on the Deadhead community as they follow Dead & Company on the band’s final tour in 2023.

The film debuted at the 2025 Telluride Film Festival and was just acquired by Utopia. As a shout out to Deadheads, the company plans to roll out the film this summer with a multi-city tour across America that will include screenings and performances by Dead-inspired bands.

“We are so happy that Summer Tour has found a home with Utopia,” says Richter. “We can’t think of a better fit for our film due to Utopia’s experience with and love for music documentaries.”

“Summer Tour is a lovingly crafted hang-out documentary that roadtrips alongside such an iconic music fandom,” Utopia’s Charlie Sextro notes. “There’s a timeless quality to Mischa’s film. It’s a love-letter to community, music, alternative lifestyles and gathering together irl.”

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Aerosmith is set to reissue their self-titled debut album in March, and they are giving fans a preview of the bonus material that will come with it.

The Boston rockers have released “Walkin’ The Dog (Live At Paul’s Mall, 1973)” to digital outlets. It’s part of the limited-edition five-LP Aerosmith (Legendary Collector’s Edition), dropping March 20.

In addition to the 1973 live performance at Boston venue Paul’s Mall on black vinyl, the set includes the original album remastered on clear vinyl, along with a 2024 Album Mix on translucent red vinyl. The set also includes unreleased studio tracks on black vinyl and a UV cloud-effect 12-inch vinyl, featuring both the 2024 remaster and mix of the band’s iconic single “Dream On.”

The set also comes with a hardcover book featuring never-before-seen photos, plus liner notes with new interviews with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton, Brad Whitford and Joey Kramer. There are also contributions from musicians like Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, Dolly Parton, The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson, Guns N’ Roses’ Slash and more.

In addition to the Collector’s Edition set, Aerosmith will release Aerosmith (Legendary Edition) as four-LP and three-CD sets, as well as digitally, as a single CD and as a single LP, available in both black and translucent red.

All formats are available for preorder now.

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The Zombies are revisiting their debut album with a new reissue.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers are set to reissue 1965’s Begin Here remastered in mono on April 17. This follows the September release of a mono remaster of their iconic sophomore album, Odessey & Oracle.

The reissue of Begin Here, the second of four planned reissues, will feature all 17 tracks from the U.K. and U.S. versions of the album, with new liner notes by rock journalist David Fricke.

“Thinking of The Zombies’ first album Begin Here immediately triggers wonderful memories of late-night sessions in Decca’s West Hampstead studio fueled by pure excitement and adrenaline,” The Zombies’ Colin Blunstone says. “These tracks changed all of our lives forever and I am forever grateful. I look back on them with wonder and a great deal of affection!”

The band is previewing the reissue with the release of the mono remastered version of “It’s Alright With Me,” which is now available via digital outlets.

Begin Here (Mono Remastered) will be released digitally, and on CD and vinyl. It is available for preorder now.

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Fans of The Beatles are about to get a new look at the band from the point of view of George Harrison.

Random House is set to release the new book The Third Eye: Early Photographs in October, described as “the first ever collection of George Harrison’s personal photos taken between 1963 and 1970.”

The book will feature over 200 color and black-and-white images capturing the rise of The Beatles. The images, curated by Harrison’s widow, Olivia Harrison, were taken from the rocker’s personal photos and 8mm film stills.

According to the description, the photos give fans an “inside look at the human beings behind the Beatles, trying to hold onto themselves—and enjoy themselves—while standing at the center of the storm.”

The book will include essays by Olivia, as well as authors Colm Tóibín and George Saunders, and the photos will feature commentary, including never-before-seen quotes from George.

The Third Eye: Early Photographs will be released Oct. 6 in the U.S. and is available for preorder now. There will also be a deluxe edition coming later in the fall.

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Billy Idol received his second nomination for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Wednesday. His first came last year, and he doesn’t sound too bent out of shape that he didn’t get in the first time around.

“I started to realize you don’t always get in on your first time; that’s quite unusual, I think,” Idol tells Billboard. “It’s a process, and I can see why.”

He notes, “There’s quite a large number of people involved in deciding who gets in. It’s no guarantee.”

And it certainly sounds like Idol is excited to get another chance at the Rock Hall.

“It’s fantastic. It’s really exciting. It would be incredible this year,” says Idol, who got his start in 1976 in the band Generation X. “This is 50 years ago when I started so it would be really incredible. It would cap off an amazing 50 years.”

Looking at fellow nominees like INXS, The Black Crowes, Joy Division/New Order and Oasis, Idol says, “[W]hoever gets in will be a fantastic class.”

“We were all kind of making our way towards really doing this forever,” he says. “It’s a serious thing we all believed in, that we really wanted to see where our generation would take music.” He adds, “I think with the punk and then the music in the [’80s], we really did establish what the sound of the [’80s] would be — and beyond.”

Billy Idol’s life and career are the subject of the new documentary Billy Idol Should Be Dead, which is in theaters now.

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Bryan Adams has announced dates for a new European tour.

The rocker is set to bring his Roll With The Punches tour to arenas in Europe this fall and winter, with the tour launching Sept. 27 in Riga, Latvia.

The tour will make stops in more than a dozen countries, including Germany, Netherlands, Spain and Portugal, before wrapping Dec. 19 in Athens, Greece.

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

Adams is touring in support of his most recent album, Roll With the Punches, which he released in August. He is set to play in Guadalajara, Mexico, on Saturday. He also has dates booked in Brazil, Argentina and South Africa. 

Adams will return to the U.S. for a series of acoustic shows at the Encore Theatre at the Wyn in Las Vegas, starting June 3.

In other Adams news … the rocker has released another acoustic Friday performance to YouTube. The latest is a stripped-down version of the Roll With the Punches track “Two Arms to Hold You.”

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Queen is offering up the first preview of the upcoming reissue of their sophomore album, Queen II.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers just released the 2026 mix of “Seven Seas Of Rhye” to digital outlets. The song was the band’s first U.K. top-10 hit, peaking at #10 in 1974.

Queen II Collector’s Edition, dropping March 27, is a five-CD + two-LP box set, featuring the 2026 mix of the album along with a whole host of bonus material.

Extras include previously unheard outtakes and demos, live tracks, radio sessions and what’s described as “intimate fly-on-the-wall audio of Queen in the recording studio.” The set also features a 112-page book with previously unseen photos, handwritten lyrics, the band’s memories of writing and recording the album and more.

The Queen II reissue will also be released as a two-CD deluxe edition and on one-LP vinyl. All formats are available for preorder now.

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Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles life in the ’70s, including the formation of his band Wings, is the focus of the new documentary Paul McCartney: Man on the Run. Director Morgan Neville tells ABC Audio he was interested in the story because it’s “one of the most misunderstood chapters” of any of the Beatles’ members lives.

“You think of McCartney as always winning, beloved and going from success to success. And this is like his dark night of the soul,” he says, adding it’s when McCartney had to “answer all these profound questions where he’s doubting even making music.”

Neville says McCartney was initially interested in just making a film about Wings, but the director had different ideas.

“When I sat down with him, I said, ‘Look, the story has to begin the moment The Beatles break up and to me, the story ends when John (Lennon) dies,'” he explains, noting it’s because it shows the arc of McCartney “trying to escape the shadow of The Beatles.”

The film is told through archival photos and video, as well as audio interviews with McCartney, members of Wings and others. Neville says he chose that format because it brings the film more into the present.

“If you constantly cut to people in their 80s talking about how great it was 50 years ago or whatever, it’s very retrospective,” he says.

And while Neville interviewed McCartney several times for the film, he says the rocker otherwise kept his hands off the project.

“He did not have a single comment about the film till he watched it when it was done,” Neville says, noting that after, “He actually had a pad of paper with him and he said, ‘Here are my notes,’ and he held up the page and [it] was blank.” 

Paul McCartney: Man on the Run is streaming on Prime Video.

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The 10th annual Love Rocks NYC benefit concert will take place March 5 at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, but you don’t have to be in the Big Apple to enjoy the show.

The concert, featuring performances by Paul Simon, Elvis Costello and ZZ Top’s Billy F Gibbons, will stream live on Veeps.com.

Other artists on the bill include Gov’t Mule’s Warren Haynes, Goo Goo Dolls, Hozier, Linda Perry, Nile Rodgers & CHIC, Jon Batiste, Susanna Hoffs, Mary J Blige, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Trombone Shorty, plus special surprise guests.

All artists will be backed by a house band, led by bassist Will Lee, best known as a member of the Late Show with David Letterman band.

Love Rocks NYC is a benefit for the nonprofit God’s Love We Deliver, which delivers meals to people who are too sick to prepare them themselves.

The Love Rocks concerts, which first launched in 2017, have raised $65 million — enough to fund 6.5 million meals for New Yorkers in need, according to the nonprofit.

Tickets for the livestream are on sale now at Veeps.com.

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