Classic Hits

Chuck Negron, founding member of Three Dog Night, has died at the age of 83. According to Negron’s representative, he passed away Monday at home in Studio City, California, “surrounded by his loving family.”

No cause of death was revealed, although the statement from his rep noted he battled chronic COPD for three decades and heart failure in his final months.

Negron, along with Danny Hutton and the late Cory Wells, formed Three Dog Night in 1967, with Michael Allsup, Jimmy Greenspoon, Joe Schermie and Floyd Sneed later joining the band. They went on to become one of the most successful bands of the ’60s and ’70s, landing 21 Billboard top-40 hits between 1969 and 1975.

Negron sang lead vocals on many of their iconic songs, including the #1 hit “Joy To the World (Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog),” and the top-five hits “One (Is the Loneliest Number)” and “Old Fashioned Love Song.”

After a decadeslong battle with drug abuse, Negron got clean in 1991 and launched a solo career, releasing seven albums, the last of which was 2017’s Negron Generations. He recounted his life story, as well as his battle with addiction, in the memoir Three Dog Nightmare, released in 1999.

Hutton and Allsup are the last two surviving original members of Three Dog Night. While Negron and Hutton had been estranged since Negron’s final departure from the band in the ’80s, they reunited last year.

“When Chuck left the band 40 years ago, we rarely spoke and lost touch for much of that time. Five months ago, his wife Ami called to tell me he was very sick, and I decided I should go see him,” Hutton wrote in a post on Three Dog Night’s Facebook page. “When I arrived at his house, we hugged, cried, reminisced, and shared many stories. In that moment, we realized how much time had been lost by not being in each other’s lives. It was a beautiful and deeply meaningful reunion.”

Paying tribute to Negron, he noted, “Besides being a phenomenal singer, Chuck was a good college basketball player and had a great sense of humor. I will always be grateful for the music we made together.”

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On This Day, Feb. 3, 1973…

Elton John landed his first #1 single with “Crocodile Rock,” from his sixth studio album, Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player.

The song went on to spend three weeks in the top spot and earned a Platinum certification by the RIAA.

The song also topped the chart in Canada and Switzerland, and hit #5 in the U.K.

Elton went on to have nine #1 hits in the U.S. over the course of his career. His last #1 was “Candle In The Wind 1997,” a reimagined version of his 1987 single, which was released following the death of Princess Diana. The song was paired with the track “Something About The Way You Look Tonight.”

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Gov’t Mule has announced some new spring tour dates.

The band, led by Warren Haynes, has announced 11 new shows, featuring Larkin Poe and Maggie Rose on select dates.

The new dates begin April 14 in Kansas City, Missouri, and wrap April 28 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The shows extend the band’s already announced tour, which begins March 27 in Denver.

An artist presale for tickets to the newly added shows begins Wednesday at 12 p.m. ET, followed by local presales starting Thursday at 12 p.m. ET. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday at 12 p.m. ET.

A complete list of dates can be found at Mule.net.

Ahead of the Gov’t Mule run, Haynes will headline a new solo tour that runs from Feb. 12 in Grass Valley, California, to Feb. 26 in Pelham, Tennessee. He’ll then go on tour with the Warren Haynes Band, starting Feb. 27 in Live Oak, Florida. A full schedule can be found at WarenHaynes.net.

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Queen’s Roger Taylor has something to get off his chest. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer just dropped a new song, “Chumps,” letting fans know in the description why he did it: “Gotta say something.”

Although he offered no further info on the song, including who he may be singing about, the lyrics have him singing of “a man of no morality, of no real quality, a shallow man.”

The lyrics also call out “a man devoid of empathy, no trace of sympathy, of endless vanity,” and one with “no humanity” and “no trace of sanity.”

“We’re drowning in your self regard. We’re drowning in your lies. We drown in your pomposity, in your atrocities. We drown,” he sings. The song ends with, “You men of no morality. Your popularity, an endless mystery.”

The song drop comes just a week after Taylor posted a poem titled “Gangsters Are Running This World” on Instagram.

“Gangsters are running this world. You can shout but never be heard,” read the last lines of the poem. “Gangsters are running this world. All the while. Gangsters are running this world.”

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Pretenders played their last show in London in July, and it appears frontwoman Chrissie Hynde is missing life on the road.

The singer gave fans an update on what’s been happening with her via social media, writing that she’s finding not being on tour “quite challenging.”

“I understand completely why people follow bands around on tour,” she says. “If I wasn’t in a band, it’s probably exactly what I’d been doing myself. Because nothing beats moving and seeing new places. I just love it and I miss it.”

But, she notes, “you’ve gotta come off the road once in a while so you can remember how to live. Slow down a bit. Recharge the batteries.”

As for when her hiatus from the road may end, she offers, “we have no plans for touring at the moment, but you’ll be the 1st to know when we do.” 

“I’m wondering who Pretenders fans are following in our absence?” she adds. “Well, don’t get too cozy because we miss you.”

While Hynde has been off the road since the summer, she did release new music in the fall. She dropped the new solo album Duets Special in October, featuring collaborations with artists like Blondie’s Debbie Harry, The Killers‘ Brandon Flowers, Garbage’s Shirley Manson, Julian Lennon and more.

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Peter Gabriel is out with a new song.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer released the track “Put the Bucket Down” on Sunday to coincide with the latest full moon. The tune is the second song he’s released from his upcoming album o/i, the follow up to 2023’s i/o.

According to a press release, the song “conjures dream-like imagery of mind reading, thought reading and thought writing – all of which are possible through the brain/computer interface.”

“As a side project, I am working on a show with the brain as the central core and there are a number of songs, some on i/o and some on oi that will be part of that,” says Gabriel. “This is one of those and it’s a point in the narrative where we can both read and write thoughts and the person singing is not sure whether he has his own thoughts or not. Is he inside his own mind or inside someone else’s?”

“Put the Bucket Down” is available now via digital outlets.

As he did with i/o, Gabriel plans to release a new song from the album with each full moon of the year. The entire album will be released by the end of 2026, along with Dark-Side and Bright-Side mixes handled by Tchad Blake and Mark “Spike” Stent, respectively.

The Tchad Blake Dark-Side Mix of the song is expected to be released later this month.

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On This Day, Feb. 2, 2025…

The Beatles won the Grammy for best rock performance for “Now and Then.” Neither Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr, the two surviving members of the band, were on hand to accept the award.

It was The Beatles’ first Grammy win since 1997, when the group won for The Beatles Anthology and the single “Free As A Bird.” “Now and Then” was also nominated for record of the year, but it lost to Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.”

Released in November 2024, “Now and Then,” promoted as The Beatles’ “final song,” featured vocals John Lennon recorded on a demo in the late ’70s. His wife, Yoko Ono, gave the three-song demo to McCartney, Starr and George Harrison in 1994. They then used it to create “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love,” which appeared on The Beatles Anthology project in the mid ’90s.

For “Now and Then,” new technology developed by director Peter Jackson helped extract Lennon’s vocals from the demo’s final track. Paul and Ringo completed the song in 2022 using guitar parts Harrison recorded in 1995. 

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A new trailer for a Michael Jackson biopic shows the late legend’s transformation from child star to King of Pop.

The trailer begins with scenes of Michael — played by Jaafar Jackson, MJ’s real-life nephew — psyching himself up in the studio, telling himself, “You’re the greatest of all time,” intercut with footage of him headlining a massive stadium concert.

It then flashes back to Colman Domingo as Michael’s father, Joe Jackson, giving his sons — the future Jackson Five — an ultimatum: “Y’all wanna work in a steel mill like me for the rest of your days? Y’all willin’ to fight for it?”

We see Michael as a child dancing and singing with his brothers before emerging as a solo star with Off The Wall. Conflict arises when his domineering father plans an international Jacksons tour, saying he wants to “capitalize on Michael’s success.”

“I love my family, but I just want to do my own thing,” Michael says. “I just have all these ideas in my head. I just gotta get them out.”

The rest of the trailer shows Michael’s rise to global stardom through a montage of iconic moments, including the “Beat It” and “Thriller” music videos and his moonwalk during the Motown 25 TV special. We also see him with Bubbles the chimp and alongside his mother, Katherine Jackson, who tells him, “I knew you were different the moment you were born.”

“I believe that music can change the world — spread love, joy, and peace,” Michael says in a closing voiceover. “That is what I want the world to feel. Magic.”

Michael, directed by Antoine Fuqua and also starring Nia Long and Miles Teller, arrives in theaters April 24.

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Box sets from Joni Mitchell and Bruce Springsteen took home trophies at the 2026 Grammy Awards.

Mitchell was the winner for best historical album for her box set Joni Mitchell Archives – Volume 4: The Asylum Years (1976-1980), her 11th career Grammy win. As for Springsteen, although he did not win an award, the art directors behind his box set Tracks II: The Lost Albums won best recording package.

And while Springsteen was not at the ceremony, he did help the Grammys pay tribute to The Beach Boys‘ Brian Wilson, who passed away in June at age 82.

“Brian Wilson was the kind of shining musical genius who made generations of songwriters so much better. I know this because i’m one of them,” Springsteen said in a voice-over that accompanied a video tribute to Wilson. He added, “Brian, the last of the Wilson brothers, may be gone but he leaves behind so many great songs and good vibrations that will live forever.”

John Mayer voiced a similar tribute to the late Grateful Dead founding member Bob Weir, who died in January at 77. 

“To play music with Bob Weir was to learn from a master. He understood songwriting to its core, having written and performed some of the most enduring music in American history,” Mayer said as photos and video of Weir played on screen. “Bob has left us, but the songs he sang will remain a roadmap for a better, more meaningful life.”

The 2026 Grammy Awards took place Sunday at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles and aired on CBS. The 2027 Grammy Awards will air on ABC.

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The Velvet Underground’s Loaded and The Stooges’ Fun House are the latest albums to get a high fidelity audio release.

Both are part of Rhino High Fidelity’s series of limited-edition, high-end vinyl reissues, cut from the original master tapes. Only 5,000 individually numbered copies have been pressed on 180-gram black vinyl and are available now via Rhino.com.

Loaded, released in 1970, was The Velvet Underground’s fourth studio album, and their last with lead singer and primary songwriter Lou Reed. It featured such iconic tunes as “Sweet Jane” and “Rock & Roll.”

Fun House, also released in 1970, was The Stooges’ sophomore record. Although it wasn’t a commercial hit when released, it went on to develop a cult following and has been included on lists of the greatest albums of all time.

“Something about this record that I like is the way it begins with a couple of very short, fully structured numbers, and then slips farther and farther out of control…yet it never loses a structure of its own,” The Stooges’ Iggy Pop writes in new liner notes. “This is not a meat-and-potatoes record. It’s not ‘ten really good songs that the consumer can depend on.’”

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