Classic Hits

On This Day, June 27, 2002 …

One day before the start of The Who’s U.S. tour, bassist John “The Ox” Entwistle died of a cocaine-induced heart attack. He was found dead in his room at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas by the stripper he had spent the night with.

He was 57.

“The Ox has left the building—we’ve lost another great friend,” The Who’s Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend said in a tribute after Entwistle’s death. “Thanks for your support and love. Pete and Roger.”

The Who decided to go on with their tour and resumed their shows on July 1 with bassist Pino Palladino taking Entwistle’s place.

In addition to his time with The Who, Entwistle released several solo albums, which were the subject of The Ox Box Set, released in 2024. A compilation of rarities, Rarities Oxhumed – Volume Two, was also released that year.

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The music of the Ramones has gotten a sound upgrade.

Rhino just dropped a new box set, 1!2!3!4! The Ramones Atmos Collection. It features the band’s first four albums — Ramones, Leave Home, Rocket to Russia and Road to Ruin — in Dolby Atmos on Blu-ray audio, along with each album’s original stereo mixes in high-resolution.

The Atmos mixes of Leave Home, Rocket to Russia and Road to Ruin were handled by Ed Stasium, who originally engineered those three albums. Craig Leon, producer of the band’s 1976 self-titled debut, handled its remix.

“These Atmos mixes present the Ramones’ recordings with the clarity and power with which I always imagined hearing them,” Stasium says. “It might sound a bit cliché, but I find listening to them to be like seeing the sequence from The Wizard of Oz where the film morphs from black & white to color. These Dolby Atmos mixes are transforming the original mixes from 16mm black & white into vivid IMAX!”

The set, 1!2!3!4! The Ramones Atmos Collection, will be limited to 2,000 copies and is available now at Rhino.com.

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There’s no doubt plenty of people can say Paul McCartney’s music has played an important role in their life, and now the Beatles legend is revealing the albums that are just as important to him.

In his latest Q&A on his website, a fan shared that they’d recently been discussing albums and songs that have become the soundtrack to their life, and asked McCartney if there were any “albums that take you back to certain periods in your life.” 

McCartney named three, noting his “favorite albums by other people” are 1968’s Music from Big Pink by The Band, 1966’s Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys and 1972’s Harvest by Neil Young.

“They are the three classics that I love to listen to, and they all remind me of certain times in my life,” he says.

McCartney also shared that performing his own music can also spark special memories for him.

“When I perform my own songs, the great thing is that they often bring back memories of recording them,” he says. “That can often entail memories of John and George in the studio – sweet memories!,” referring to his late bandmates John Lennon and George Harrison.

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Rod Stewart is making the most of his upcoming performance at the U.K.’s Glastonbury Festival.

He’s teamed up with the charity Water Aid to design a public toilet for the festival that’s — we kid you not — shaped like a giant boombox. Dubbed the “Boombox Bog” — bog is British slang for toilet — it features Rod Stewart cassette tapes affixed to the walls, a neon sign in the shape of a pair of headphones, and a leopard-print seat, because Rod has a fondness for that pattern.

While you’re using the facilities, you’ll hear Rod’s biggest hits and “specially recorded water-themed messages from the man himself,” according to a press release.  The whole thing is located near the festival’s main Pyramid Stage, where Rod is performing on Sunday.

“I’ve spent my life singing to packed arenas and festival crowds, but nothing hits a high note quite like clean water and a decent loo,” Rod says in a statement. “They might not be sexy, but they’re life-changing.”

“That’s why I’ve teamed up with WaterAid to bring our funky Boombox Bog to Glastonbury Festival and shine a light on the importance of these everyday essentials that millions still live without,” he adds. “Together, we’re creating change that’s gonna last forever.”

As Water Aid notes, nearly one in 10 people around the world don’t live near a clean water source, and almost one in five don’t have a decent toilet of their own.

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While Dead & Company are playing three nights in San Francisco in August to mark the Grateful Dead’s 60th anniversary, those won’t be the only shows celebrating the band’s enduring legacy.

Grahame Lesh & Friends are set to host a three-night concert series, The Heart of Town, put on by The San Francisco Giants and Relix. The concerts will take place July 31-Aug. 2 at San Francisco’s Pier 48 in Mission Rock, near Oracle Park.

Grahame, son of the late Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, will be joined on the bill by Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith of Dawes, John Medeski, Duane Betts, Neal Francis and others.

While the July 31 show starts at 8 p.m., the Aug. 1 and 2 shows coincide with the first two nights of Dead & Company’s Golden Gate Park stand, so they won’t start until 11 p.m. As a press release notes, this way “the music never stops.”

“I’m so thrilled to be among the countless Deadheads flocking to beautiful San Francisco to celebrate 60 years of the Grateful Dead – the timeless music of my father Phil and his dear friends – in Golden Gate Park with Dead & Company,” Grahame shares. “And I know that San Francisco will be filled with that music all weekend. I’m honored to contribute to that with all of my friends at The Heart of Town.”

Various presales will kick off Friday at 10 a.m. PT, with tickets going on sale to the general public starting Monday at 10 a.m. PT. There will also be three-day passes available, which go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. PT.

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The Pretenders are set to reissue their greatest hits collection.

The Chrissie Hynde-led band will rerelease their 1987 compilation, The Singles, on two-LP and CD with remastered audio on Aug. 15.

The 16-track album features Pretenders classics like “Brass in Pocket,” “Back on the Chain Gang,” “Talk of the Town,” “Middle of the Road,” and “Don’t Get Me Wrong,” as well as their cover of the Sonny & Cher classic “I Got You Babe.”

The Singles is available for preorder now.

The news comes just a week after the Pretenders treated their fans to a new live album. They released Pretenders Live – Kick ‘Em Where It Hurts! on June 20, featuring live performances recorded during the band’s 2024 theater tour.

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Bob Dylan broke out one of his classic songs in Tennessee Wednesday night for the first time in more than a decade.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer performed a slow version of his 1964 classic “The Times They Are A-Changin'” on piano during his set at the Outlaw Music Festival in Franklin, Tennessee.

According to Rolling Stone, the last time Dylan performed the song was 15 years ago during a February 2010 event at the White House honoring the civil rights movement.

Dylan’s next stop on the Outlaw Music Festival is happening Friday in Memphis, with the final show set for Sept. 19 in Troy, Wisconsin. A complete list of dates can be found at BobDylan.com.

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Since the world lost Whitney Houston, streaming has become the main way fans consume music, so it was time to take a look at how that’s impacted her impressive catalog of hit songs and albums. The result? Tons of new Platinum certifications for the late diva.

Whitney’s estate announced that her album The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack album has been RIAA certified 19-times Platinum, extending its record as the bestselling soundtrack of all time. Her signature song from that soundtrack, “I Will Always Love You,” is now 11 times Platinum, meaning it’s sold the equivalent of 11 million copies via physical sales, downloads, and on-demand audio and video streams.

In addition, eight more of her biggest songs have new Platinum certifications: “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” is now eight-times Platinum; “I Have Nothing” is four-times Platinum; and “How Will I Know” is three-times Platinum, as is the Whitney/Kygo collaborative 2019 single “Higher Love.”

Plus, “Heartbreak Hotel,” “My Love is Your Love” and “Saving All My Love” are each two-times Platinum, while “Run to You” and “Count on Me” are Platinum.

Whitney is the first African American artist to have three RIAA Diamond-certified albums, meaning three albums that have each sold over 10 million copies. In addition to The Bodyguard, her self-titled debut and her second album, Whitney, have also hit that milestone.

And all those figures only represent Whitney’s U.S. sales, which amount to nearly 115 million albums and singles.

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The Grateful Dead recently announced their next Meet-Up at the Movies will be screenings of The Grateful Dead Movie on Aug. 14, and now they are sharing a trailer for the experience.

The clip features performance footage from the film, which is a recording of their five-night stand at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom in October 1974, which at the time was believed to be their final run of shows. The trailer features a peek at performances of “Sugar Magnolia,” “U.S. Blues,” and “Truckin’.”

The film, one of only two directed by the late Dead founder Jerry Garcia,  features not only performances, but interviews with the band and animation, along with a focus on the band’s fans and their “Dead Head” lifestyle. It will also feature a bonus performance of “China Cat Sunflower/I Know You Rider” at the end, the first time the performance is being shown on the big screen.

The Grateful Dead Movie will be shown in theaters, as well as on IMAX screens for the very first time. An advance screening will also be held in 60 IMAX North American locations on Aug. 13.

Tickets for The Dead’s Meet-Up at the Movies, as well as the advance screening, are on sale now.

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Two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Graham Nash has sung with a lot of great artists over the years, but there’s one musician he’s dying to collaborate with.

In an interview with Vulture, Nash was asked to reveal his “top bucket-list item.” He said it’s “singing a two-part harmony on ‘Yesterday’ with one guitar with Paul McCartney.”

“If anyone has Paul’s number, give him a call for me,” he added.

And speaking of harmonies, Nash also picked his favorite Crosby, Stills & Nash harmonies to sing, noting it’s their track “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.”

He says the Stephen Stills-penned tune, which appeared on the band’s 1969 self-titled debut, “lets people know that we were very serious about the sound that we had created; I think that that song shows that deeper than anything.”

“Me and David (Crosby) would always watch Stephen. It was the first thing we tried to do in the studio while making that first record,” he explains. “We knew it was an important song, and we would just watch Stephen. He would sing the song to us, and we knew instinctively what to do.”

He adds, “And, of course, doing the do-do-do-do-dos is fun.”

Nash kicks off a new leg of his Evening of Songs and Stories tour on July 8 in Red Bank, New Jersey. A complete list of dates can be found at GrahamNash.com.

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