The Beatles hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with their debut single, “Love Me Do.”
The track, written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, had the pair duetting on vocals. The song was recorded three different times, with different drummers. Original drummer Pete Best initially recorded it, and then it was rerecorded with his replacement, Ringo Starr. A third version featured session drummer Andy White, which was featured on The Beatles’ Please Please Me album.
In addition to the U.S., “Love Me Do” topped the chart in the U.K., Australia and New Zealand.
Following “Love Me Do,” The Beatles went on to have 20 #1 hits, the last being 1970’s “The Long and Winding Road,” from their album Let It Be.
Bono’s Apple TV+ documentary, Bono: Stories of Surrender, is out now, and to coincide with the release, the U2 frontman has dropped a three song live EP featuring tracks taken from his one-man stage show.
Songs on the EP include “Desire,” “The Showman” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” with Bono backed by Gemma Doherty on harp, keyboard and vocals, and Kate Ellis on cello, keyboard and vocals, as well as his musical director Jacknife Lee.
Stories of Surrender EP is available now via digital outlets, with a 7-inch vinyl out now in Ireland, the U.K. and Germany, and available everywhere else on June 13.
Bono: Stories of Surrender is described as a “reimagining” of the U2 frontman’s one-man stage show, Surrender: An Evening of Words, Music and Some Mischief. That coincided with the release of his memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, released in November 2022.
The doc features footage from one of his shows at New York’s Beacon Theatre, which had him sharing stories about his life, family, friends and more, along with performances of some U2 songs “that have shaped his life and legacy.”
The new documentary Ron Delsener Presents looks at the 60-year career of legendary New York concert promoter Ron Delsener, and director Jake Sumner tells ABC Audio there’s good reason why he’s a great subject for a film.
“To me, Ron is a great character and a way to look at the kind of larger picture of live music and to be a vehicle to kind of take you on a journey,” he says. “He’s great because he is kind of larger than life. … They kind of broke the mold with Ron.”
Sumner, son of The Police frontman Sting, knew of Delsener prior to making the film because he’d met him during his childhood out on the road with his father.
“He’s just a character and he … had just kind of great stories about everyone,” he adds.
The film features interviews with artists like Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Van Zandt, Jon Bon Jovi, Paul Simon and Billy Joel, and Sumner says he didn’t have a hard time getting them to talk.
“There were people that called me up asking to be in the film … big artists,” he says. “(Delsener) had an impact on them and their careers that they felt they wanted to be part of it.”
And while Delsener may be the focus of the film, Sumner says the doc is about more than just the famed promoter.
“To me, the film tells the bigger story of live music and the kind of history of it,” he says. “And it was Ron and a handful of others that really kind of created an industry where there wasn’t one.”
Ron Delsener Presents opens at Quad Cinema in New York on Friday and will then hit theaters in select cities nationwide.
After being forced to skip ZZ Top’s tour of Australia and New Zealand due to health issues, drummer Frank Beard is ready to rejoin the lineup.
The band announced that Beard will be back with the group when they kick off the North American leg of their Elevation tour on June 1 in Victoria, British Columbia.
A statement from the band’s management reveals that Beard had been suffering from “foot and ankle issues” but “he’s now set to see the tour through to its completion in October.”
“We’re happy that Frank is back with (bassist) Elwood (Francis) and yours truly, BFG,” ZZ Top’s Billy F. Gibbons shares. “We missed him and are looking forward to turning it up and rocking out with him as has been the case for the last few hundred or so decades.”
He adds, “His complete recovery is cause for celebration and that’s just what we intend to do on an open-ended basis. Welcome back, pardner!”
Beard adds, “It’s good to be back. See you out there.”
It was originally announced in March that Beard had “temporarily stepped away” from the band’s tour “to attend a health issue requiring his focus in the near term.” In April that break was extended to their tour of Australia and New Zealand.
ZZ Top will play six shows in Canada, before bringing the tour to the U.S. on June 10 in Moorhead, Minnesota. A complete list of dates can be found at ZZTop.com.
Talking Heads are continuing the celebration of their 50th anniversary with the release of a new super deluxe edition of their sophomore album, More Songs About Buildings and Food.
The three-CD/Blu-ray release will include the remastered album, as well as 11 rarities, four of which are previously unreleased versions of album tracks. There’s also a live album, featuring a recording of the band’s August 1978 show at New York’s Entermedia Theatre.
The Blu-ray includes Dolby ATMOS and 5.1 surround sound mixes of the album. There’s also footage from the Entermedia concert, plus another concert, recorded at Sproul Plaza at the University of California, Berkeley.
The set also includes a hardcover book featuring previously unseen photos, as well as liner notes from the four members of Talking Heads: David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz and Jerry Harrison.
As a preview of the set, Talking Heads have shared a previously unreleased alternative version of the track “Found A Job,” which is now available.
The set will also be released as a four-LP vinyl edition, featuring the original album, rarities and a live New York concert. There will also be a second version, available on the band’s website, featuring the bonus reissues of four international 7-inch singles, as well as a two-LP black vinyl version and a red vinyl pressing.
More Songs About Buildings and Food (Super Deluxe Edition) will be released July 25 and is available for preorder now.
Released in July 1978, More Songs About Buildings and Food was a top-40 hit for Talking Heads, peaking at #29 in the U.S. It contained the band’s first hit single, a cover of Al Green’s “Take Me To The River,” which also peaked at #29.
The Rolling Stones hit #1 with “Brown Sugar,” the opening track and lead single from their ninth studio album, Sticky Fingers.
The tune, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, spent two weeks at #1 in the U.S., but failed to reach the top spot in the U.K., peaking at #2.
Previously a staple at The Stones’ live shows, in 2021 the band announced they’d be removing the song from their set list, reportedly due to the tune’s controversial lyrics.
Bruce Springsteen is offering up another preview of his upcoming box set, Tracks II: The Lost Albums.
The latest is the song “Adelita,” from the album Inyo, described as a “ten-song thematic collection set throughout the border states of California and Texas (plus one detour to New Jersey).”
“Inyo was a record I wrote in California during long drives along the California aqueduct, up through Inyo County on my way to Yosemite or Death Valley,” The Boss shares. “I was enjoying that kind of writing so much. [On The Ghost Of Tom Joad tour] I would go home to the hotel room at night and continue to write in that style because I thought I was going to follow up The Ghost of Tom Joad with a similar record, but I didn’t. That’s where Inyo came from. It’s one of my favorites.”
“Adelita,” inspired by female soldiers in Mexico who helped fight for the country’s independence, is available now.
Tracks II: The Lost Albums is due out June 27 and is available for preorder. It features seven previously unheard Springsteen records, featuring 83 songs, all of which were originally recorded between 1983 and 2018.
Springsteen and the E Street Band are currently on the Land of Hope and Dreams tour in Europe. The tour hits Marseille, France, on Saturday. A complete list of dates can be found at BruceSpringsteen.net.
A documentary about Billy Joel is set to open this year’s Tribeca Festival on June 4, but Billy won’t be in the house for the event.
Billy’s publicist confirms to ABC Audio a report in the New York Post that the Piano Man will not attend the film’s premiere, amid the revelation that he’s been diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus. The condition refers to a buildup of cerebrospinal fluid that causes issues with hearing, vision and balance.
The documentary is called Billy Joel: And So It Goes, named after a song on Billy’s 1989 album Storm Front. It’ll debut on HBO and HBO Max this summer after premiering at New York’s Beacon Theatre.
According to HBO, the movie, directed by Susan Lacy,will explore “the love, loss, and personal struggles” that fuel Billy’s songwriting and will feature “unprecedented access to never-before-seen performances, home movies, and personal photographs,” plus “extensive, in-depth one-on-one interviews.”
Tribeca Festival co-founders Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal said in a statement that their “hearts are with Billy Joel and his family.” They added, “As a New York icon and global music legend, he has profoundly shaped the cultural fabric of this city and touched audiences around the world. We send our love and full support and wish him strength and a healthy recovery.”
“We’re deeply honored that this year’s Opening Night celebrates his remarkable legacy and enduring influence on New York’s cultural landscape. This is the perfect moment to recognize a creative force whose work reflects the very soul of our city — and the heart of Tribeca,” they said.
Bono has been talking a lot lately about the new U2 album they’ve been working on, and it sounds like it took a lot for them to get back in the studio.
In a new interview with Esquire to promote his Apple TV+ documentary, Bono: Stories of Surrender, Bono discusses some of the issues U2 dealt with in recent years, including drummer Larry Mullen Jr.’s back issues.
“We were a little broken,” he says. “There was a period of reflection where we had to figure out, do we have anything to offer?”
U2 has since gone back into the studio and is working with Brian Eno, the producer behind their albums The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby and Zooropa. But it sounds like Bono isn’t necessarily a fan of the recording process.
“I’m the only one who doesn’t like recording,” he says. “I just like to play live.” He notes that putting out an album “provides us with a reason to leave home. You want to have some very good reasons to leave home.”
As for fan expectations, Bono shares, “I hope they’re going to still be there for us. We’ve pushed them to their elastic limit over the years. And now it’s a long time that we’ve been away. But I still think that we can create a soundtrack for people who want to take on the world.”
Bono: Stories of Surrender premieres Friday on Apple TV+.
Bono is also featured in Esquire’sFor The Record YouTube series, where he reflects on highlights from U2’s career, including their first Grammy win, and talks about meeting Pope Francis.He even shares his thoughts on Adam Sandler’s impression of him, noting, “I’ve been out Bono’d by more than a few. He’s right up there.”
Drummer Zak Starkey is clarifying his recent Instagram post in which he suggested he was “retired” from The Who, making it clear he was indeed fired by Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey.
“This is f**** total bollox,” he writes in a new Instagram post. “I was fired. Roger’s new word for it is ‘retired’ to complete my other musical projects.”
Starkey, son of BeatleRingo Starr, says he told Roger he had completed his projects, explaining he had a single coming out but after that, “I was completely available for the foreseeable future,” adding Roger “was a little surprised but understood.”
“It’s true – I have no plan’s whatsoever for the fall as I thought I was touring with The Who,” he shares. “So this is simply a load of bollox … Am I fired , retired, deffo not tired as I’m 20 years younger than these guys as they keep saying.”
Starkey’s original firing happened in April after issues arose during The Who’s March shows in London. Daltrey seemed to be upset with Starkey’s performance, but in his new post, Starkey argues the issue was “not a firing offence,” noting of The Who, “if it was perfect it would be so f****** boring.”
After his April firing, Starkey was rehired by the band, only for The Who to announce on May 18 he was once again let go. The Who then revealed Scott Devours, drummer of Daltrey’s solo band, would be taking over behind the drum kit for their upcoming The Song Is Over North American Farewell Tour, which kicks off Aug. 16 in Sunrise, Florida. A complete list of dates can be found at TheWho.com.
