Classic Hits

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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The Luther Vandross documentary by Dawn Porter now has a release date. Luther: Never Too Much will debut on CNN New Year’s Day at 8 p.m. ET.

The documentary will chronicle Vandross’ musical journey, from his years in an Apollo Theater house band to his “ascendance to become the indisputable master of the love song,” according to CNN. Archival clips of Luther speaking will be used to tell his story, as will interviews with Mariah Carey, Dionne Warwick, Roberta Flack and more.

“We combed through hundreds of hours of interviews, concert footage and images to develop this one-of-a-kind portrait,” said Porter of Luther: Never Too Much.

The update arrives a year after the doc’s premiere at Sundance Film Festival and its fall release by Giant Pictures. Luther: Never Too Much will air on Max and OWN in 2025.

Ahead of the documentary’s CNN debut, a best-of compilation titled Never Too Much: Greatest Hits will come out on Dec. 13. It will feature Vandross’ rendition of “Michelle” by The Beatles, which just debuted at #27 on Billboard‘s Adult R&B Airplay chart.

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Want your house to smell like a mansion in the English countryside this Christmas? Elton John‘s got you covered.

He’s partnered with Slatkin + Co. to create a line of holiday candles inspired by the scenes and vibes of Woodside, his country home. There are 24 custom scents in all, which Elton tells People are “all inspired by my personal holiday memories.”

“The collection will transport you through scent to my English estate,” he adds, noting that the different smells evoke things like the plants growing on the property, the holiday marmalade his family makes from their fruit trees and even his favorite holiday dessert, gingerbread pudding. 

For example, he says, “I walked into my gardens at Woodside and we magically created a scent that captured the white flowers all in bloom.”

However, his favorite candle is the English Oak and Amber candle. He says, “It is inspired by a beautiful tradition between my friends and I. Each year we gift each other trees to plant on our property, creating lasting beauty for years to come. This candle was inspired by an English Oak I was gifted by a dear friend.”

The first selection of candles, for which Elton says he “smelled and tested every oil,” is now available on QVC. There will eventually be 37 items in the collection; more will be unveiled Nov. 23.

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A live bootleg of a classic Tom Petty concert is being released in late November. 

The Petty estate has teamed with Jack White‘s Third Man Records to release Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers Live In Edinburgh 1982: The Gennaro Tapes, a concert taken from a bootleg recording by sound mixer Gennaro Rioppo.

“This rare recording has not been touched since the day it was captured,” reads the announcement on Petty’s Instagram.

The concert took place during the band’s 1982 Long After Dark tour and features performances of such classic Petty tracks as “American Girl,” “You Got Lucky,” “Don’t Do Me Like That,” “Breakdown” and “Refugee.”

The Gennaro Tapes will be released as a three-LP vinyl collection, pressed from the original cassette, on Nov. 29, with an exclusive turquoise vinyl variant available through the Tom Petty store.

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Elvis Costello and longtime collaborator Steve Nieve will hit the stage together for a new tour next year.

The duo will play 15 U.S. dates, starting off Feb. 19 in Easton, Pennsylvania, with the tour hitting such cities as Woodstock, New York; Port Chester, New York; and Ann Arbor, Michigan. It will wrap with a three-night stand in Chicago.

For the Chicago shows, Costello and Nieve will be joined by Eleanor Whitmore on fiddle, Tony Garnier on double bass, Shaye Cohn on cornet and Sean McKeon on Uilleann pipes.

An artist presale launches Wednesday at 10 a.m., with tickets going on sale to the general public on Friday at 10 a.m.

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We’re finally going to get the definitive story of Fleetwood Mac straight from the band’s mouth. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers are going to be the subject of a new documentary, which has the backing of the band.

Apple Original Films is behind the “fully authorized” documentary, directed by five-time Academy Award nominee Frank Marshall. According to the description, it will be the first time the band will “share their extraordinary story in their own words.”

“I am fascinated by how this incredible story of enormous musical achievement came about,” says Marshall. “Fleetwood Mac somehow managed to merge their often chaotic and almost operatic personal lives into their own tale in real-time, which then became legend. This will be a film about the music and the people who created it.”

The doc is expected to cover both the highs and lows of the band, with the description noting it “will explore what allowed this combination of artists to create singular musical work again and again, and what drew them back together and held them there when every possible pressure, both outside and inside the band, threatened to blow them apart.”

So far there’s no word on when the currently untitled documentary will debut.

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Legendary soul singer Al Green is back with a new song, dropping a cover of the R.E.M. classic “Everybody Hurts.”

“While we were in the studio recording ‘Everybody Hurts,’ I could really feel the heaviness of the song and I wanted to inject a little touch of hope and light into it,” the 78-year-old Green shares. “There’s always a presence of light that can break through those times of darkness.”

And the cover has already gotten the attention of R.E.M. 

“Speaking on behalf of the entire band—we could not be more honored, more flattered, more humbled,” frontman Michael Stipe shares. “This is an epic moment for us.”

Green’s cover of “Everybody Hurts” is available now via digital outlets.

The tune is the first song released by Green since sharing a cover of Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” back in 2023.

“Everybody Hurts” appeared on R.E.M.’s eighth studio album, Automatic For The People, and was a top-40 hit for the band. 

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Legendary soul singer Al Green is back with a new song, dropping a cover of the R.E.M. classic “Everybody Hurts.”

“While we were in the studio recording ‘Everybody Hurts,’ I could really feel the heaviness of the song and I wanted to inject a little touch of hope and light into it,” the 78-year-old Green shares. “There’s always a presence of light that can break through those times of darkness.”

And the cover has already gotten the attention of R.E.M. 

“Speaking on behalf of the entire band—we could not be more honored, more flattered, more humbled,” frontman Michael Stipe shares. “This is an epic moment for us.”

Green’s cover of “Everybody Hurts” is available now via digital outlets.

The tune is the first song released by Green since sharing a cover of Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” back in 2023.

“Everybody Hurts” appeared on R.E.M.’s eighth studio album, Automatic For The People, and was a top-40 hit for the band. 

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

On This Day, Nov. 19, 1988 …

Bon Jovi topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart with “Bad Medicine,” the lead single from their fourth album, New Jersey.

The song, written by Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and Desmond Child, was the band’s third #1 single following the Slippery When Wet tracks “You Give Love A Bad Name” and “Living On A Prayer,” which were also written by the trio. 

“Bad Medicine” spent two weeks at #1 in the U.S. and also landed in the top 10 in Australia, Canada, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands and New Zealand.

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While the upcoming Bob Dylan flick A Complete Unknown is not a straight biopic, director James Mangold says Dylan did have input in the film, although he wasn’t exactly fact-checking the project.

Mangold tells Rolling Stone that he met with the rock icon several times before filming began, noting, “I felt like Bob just wanted to know what I was up to. ‘Who is this guy? Is he a s*******? Does he get it?’ I think the normal questions anyone asks when they’re throwing themselves in league with someone.”

When it comes to the feedback he gave on the script, star Timothée Chalamet tells the mag, “Bob would have these one-off lines that were so fantastic. Jim has an annotated Bob script lying around somewhere. I’ll beg him to get my hands on it. He’ll never give it to me.”

But apparently Dylan was a bit mischievous when it came to what he wanted in the film, with Ed Norton, who plays Pete Seeger, sharing that Mangold revealed Dylan made him put what’s described as “one totally inaccurate moment” in the film, although Mangold didn’t say what it was.

According to Rolling Stone, Norton said Mangold was a bit worried about including it, concerned about how the public would feel, to which Dylan reportedly said, “What do you care what other people think?”

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