Classic Hits

Neil Young launched his love earth tour with his new band The Chrome Hearts in Rättvik, Sweden, on Wednesday, treating fans to some classic hits, as well as tunes he hasn’t played in a while.

According to setlist.fm, Young kicked things off with a solo performance of “Sugar Mountain,” sprinkling the 15-song set with fan favorites like “Harvest Moon,” “Cinnamon Girl,” “F*****’ Up,” “Old Man,” “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)” and “Like a Hurricane.”

He also performed a solo version of “The Needle and the Damage Done” for the first time since 2019; the Greendale tracks “Sun Green” for the first time since 2004 and “Be the Rain” for the first time since 2014; and the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song “Looking Forward” for the first time since 2000.

Young ended the night with his iconic track “Rockin’ in the Free World.”

Missing from the set were any songs from Talkin To the Trees, Young’s recently released album with The Chrome Hearts.

Young’s love earth tour hits Bergen, Norway, on Friday. He is set to play the U.K.’s Glastonbury Festival on June 28. The tour comes to North America Aug. 8 in Charlotte, North Carolina. A complete list of dates can be found at NeilYoungArchives.com.

The tour is Young’s first trek since cancelling his 2024 tour with Crazy Horse due to health issues. Prior to that he went on a small West Coast tour in summer 2023, which was his first since 2019.

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KISS’ Paul Stanley says he felt a bit betrayed by his bandmate Gene Simmons in the ’80s when Simmons went off to pursue other projects when he should have been concentrating on the next KISS album.

“I felt betrayed. No secret, I felt that he was leaving me to do the heavy work but continued to get paid. So, you know, trying to have the best of both worlds,” Stanley said on Billy Corgan’s The Magnificent Others podcast. “Go off and do your own thing, and have the success at any level that there was success, and the monetary compensation, which I’m not sharing in, but you’re abandoning ship and you’re still my partner.”

Simmons dabbled in acting in the ’80s, nabbing parts in TV and movies, including an appearance on Miami Vice. Stanley says at the time he felt “very resentful and hurt,” but it forced him to commit even more to KISS.

“Gene’s my brother, he’s been with me since I was 17. So that was difficult, really difficult,” he said. “But again it was, ‘Well screw it, I’m not gonna let this band fall apart.’ If it’s my band in that sense, then so be it. … But yeah, I felt that he was selling the band short. … I thought he wasn’t playing fair.”

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Lou Christie, the former teen idol best known for the 1966 #1 hit “Lightin’ Strikes” and the top-20 hit “Rhapsody in the Rain,” has died at age 82.

His family announced the news on Instagram, writing, “It is with deep sorrow that we share the passing of our beloved brother, Lou Christie, who left us after a brief illness. He was cherished not only by his family and close friends, but also by countless fans whose lives he touched with his kindness and generosity, artistic and musical talent, humor and spirit.”

“His absence leaves a profound void in all our hearts. He will be greatly missed, always remembered, and forever loved,” the message ended.

Born Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco, Christie grew up in Pittsburgh.  After high school, he moved to New York and became a singer, showing off what would become his signature falsetto in his first hits: 1963’s “The Gypsy Cried” and “Two Faces Have I.”

When Christie and his songwriting partner Twyla Herbert took “Lighntin’ Strikes” to his record label, he claimed they hated it so much that the president of the label threw the song in the garbage. But they released it anyway, and Christie went around the country promoting it himself; it topped the Hot 100 in February of 1966.

Christie’s follow-up, “Rhapsody in the Rain” — about having sex in the back seat of a car — was considered so dirty that it was banned by multiple radio stations, forcing him to record a “clean” version. Believe it or not, the “controversial” lyrics were, “And in this car, our love went much too far.”

Christie’s last big hit was 1969’s “I’m Gonna Make You Mine,” which hit the top 10. 

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Queen has contributed a unique piece of music history to an upcoming auction.

The band announced that an original white label 7-inch test pressing of their 1975 classic “Bohemian Rhapsody” will be part of the upcoming White Label Auction to benefit the Brit Trust on Oct. 7.

“With just a handful produced ahead of a release so artists, managers and labels can check the audio is just as it should be, these white label test pressings can be highly collectible, and, as the past five editions of the auction have shown, there is demand for them from collectors around the world,” White Label Auction founder and organizer Johnny Chandler shares. “As ever, I’m excited for this next auction, not least as we have an incredibly rare gem in the ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ 7” single to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its release.”

Full details of the auction have yet to be announced, but Queen notes in a post on Instagram that “hundreds of rare lots” will be up for grabs.

The Brit Trust is a music industry charity established in 1989 to “improve lives through the power of music and the creative arts.” The annual White Label Auction has raised over $215,000 for the charity.

“Bohemian Rhapsody,” written by Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, was featured on their album A Night at the Opera. It hit #1 in the U.K. and was Queen’s first chart-topper. The song was rereleased in 1991 following Mercury’s death and returned to the #1 spot.

In 1992, after it was included in the comedy blockbuster Wayne’s World, “Bohemian Rhapsody” returned to the chart again and peaked at #2 in the U.S.

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Deep Purple is revisiting their 1972 live album Made in Japan, which featured performances from two shows in Osaka and one in Tokyo.

The band is set to release a new super deluxe edition of the record on Aug. 15: a five-CD/Blu-Ray set that includes new stereo and Dolby ATMOS mixes of the original album by producer Steven Wilson, as well as newly remixed versions of all three concerts and three rare single edits.

“It’s all completely as it happened on the night,” Wilson says of the new mix. “The album has a power and sense of abandon that they never quite captured in the studio. Hopefully this new mix makes it feel even more like you’re there.”

As a preview of the new set, Deep Purple has released a performance of “Highway Star,” recorded in Osaka, to digital services.

The set will also be released digitally and as a 10-LP black vinyl edition, which will be exclusively available on DeepPurple.com and Rhino.com. There will also be a two-LP vinyl edition featuring the Wilson remix, available in the U.S. on Oct. 3.

Live in Japan featured performances of songs from Deep Purple’s recently released album Machine Head, including their now-classic “Smoke on the Water,” as well as songs like “Child in Time” and “Strange Kind of Woman.”

The double LP was supposed to come out only in Japan, but eventually got a wider release. It was released in America that December and was a huge success. It peaked at #6 on the Billboard 200 and has been certified Platinum by the RIAA.

Made in Japan (Super Deluxe Edition) is available for preorder now.

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Sting is one of several musical acts who’ll be ringing in Independence Day this year on CNN.

The cable network’s fifth annual special The Fourth in America will air starting at 7 p.m. ET live on CNN. The special will feature coast-to-coast firework shows from Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, Las Vegas, San Diego, New Orleans, Nashville and Seward, Alaska.

Counting Crows and a reunited 4 Non Blondes are also set to perform, along with ’90s alt-rockers CAKE and Sublime, Noah Kahan, The Fray and more.

CNN’s The Fourth in America is hosted by Dana Bash, Boris Sanchez, Victor Blackwell and Sara Sidner.

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Gov’t Mule’s Warren Haynes is offering up a new take on his recent solo album, Million Voices Whisper.

The rocker is set to release The Whisper Sessions on Sept. 12. The nine-track album features seven stripped-down versions of songs from the album, which came out in November. It also includes a new version of the Allman Brothers Band classic “Melissa,” featuring Haynes and his ABB bandmate Derek Trucks.

“We didn’t plan to release stripped-down versions of the songs from Million Voices Whisper, it just kind of happened organically,” Haynes says of the album. “We were combing through these performances and realized that they offer a unique perspective into the songs themselves, so we thought it would be cool to make them available.”

Trucks actually appears on three of the album’s tracks. Another one is “These Changes,” which was co-written by both artists.

“I love this song, which is about looking back and forward at the same time and navigating your way through an ever-changing life,” Haynes shares. “The instrumental section at the end, where we are trading guitar riffs and playing off of each other, was not in the original arrangement as we wrote it – it just came about organically once we started recording the song.”

He adds, “It was a great opportunity for the two of us to rekindle our chemistry that we’ve had for a long time.”

The Whisper Sessions is available for preorder now.

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Chicago is set to release an expanded version of their greatest hits collection, Chicago IX, to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

The original collection of 11 songs was released in 1975 and featured Chicago hits from 1969 to 1974, including such songs as “25 or 6 to 4,” “Saturday in the Park” and “If You Leave Me Now.” It went to #1, spent 72 weeks on the Billboard 200 and became one of the band’s bestselling albums.

The new expanded edition adds 10 Chicago hits that were released through 1980. They include songs like “Baby What a Big Surprise,” “Street Player” and “Thunder and Lightning.”

Chicago IX: Greatest Hits Expanded, which features a new cover in gold in honor of the album’s 50th anniversary, will be released on CD and two-LP black vinyl. It is available for preorder now.

Chicago is set to launch a new North American tour on Wednesday in Dubuque, Iowa, with dates confirmed through Nov. 16 in Brookings, South Dakota. A complete list of dates can be found at ChicagoBand.com.

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Bruce Springsteen is set to release Tracks II: The Lost Albums on June 27, a box set featuring seven previously unheard Springsteen records.

The set includes 83 songs, all of which were originally recorded between 1983 and 2018. Of those songs, 82 have never been released before and 74 have never been heard before. While that may sound like a lot, the rocker has even more to share.

“Tracks III, that is finished,” he tells The New York Times. “It’s basically what was left in the vault.” The paper notes that includes music dating back to his 1973 debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.

“So there was a lot of good music left,” Springsteen adds. “There are five full albums of music.”

Springsteen released the original Tracks compilation in 1998, which was comprised of single B-sides, demos and alternate versions of already-released material. As for why it took so long to release a follow-up, Springsteen tells the paper it was all about timing.

“I believe I’m engaged in a conversation with my audience that has a certain ebb and flow as to when records are released,” he says.

And in addition to Tracks III, it sounds like Springsteen is already plotting his next album.

“I’m a better man when I’m working,” he says. “I feel like I’ve got plenty of work left in me, and our band does too. Our band’s in great shape, and we carry on.”

Tracks II: The Lost Albums is available for preorder now.

Springsteen and the E Street Band are currently touring Europe. They play Frankfurt, Germany, on Wednesday. A complete list of dates can be found at BruceSpringsteen.net.

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Grateful Dead fans will once again have the chance to head to the theaters to see their favorite band on the big screen, and this time the event will be part of the continued celebration of the band’s 60th anniversary.

The Dead’s latest Meet-Up at the Movies will take place Aug. 14. It will feature a showing of the band’s concert film The Grateful Dead Movie, which 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.

The Grateful Dead Movie 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. It 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 film, one of only two directed by the late Dead founder Jerry Garcia, was originally released in movie theaters in 1978. The new screening marks the first time it’s being shown in theaters in eight years.

Tickets for The Dead’s Meet-Up at the Movies go on sale June 26 at 9 a.m. ET. More info can be found at MeetUpAtTheMovies.com.

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