Classic Hits

Sammy Hagar is once again dipping into the Van Halen archives to share a classic performance from the band.

The rocker posted a video to YouTube of the band performing the For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge track “Runaround.” The performance is from a July 27, 1995, concert at Alpine Valley Music Theater in East Troy, Wisconsin.

“Wow this sounds so good. ’95 top of our game,” Hagar shared in the comments, noting that bassist Michael Anthony “sounds like Geddy Lee, ha ha!” referring to the Rush frontman.

Hagar adds, “brings back some memories that’s for sure.”

This is just the latest classic Van Halen performance Hagar has shared with fans. In October he posted a video of the band performing the 5150 track “Why Can’t This Be Love,” recorded in August 1995 in Toronto for Canada’s Much Music.

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Eddie Murphy has reportedly signed on to play a funk music icon on screen.

Variety reports that the actor/comedian is set to star as Parliament-Funkadelic leader George Clinton in a biopic directed by Bill Condon, the same director who directed Murphy in Dreamgirls, a role that earned him an Oscar nomination.

The film, which Murphy will also produce, will be based on Clinton’s 2014 memoir Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain’t That Funkin’ Kinda Hard On You?

Clinton, who launched his funk career in the ’70s as one of the founding members of the collective known as Parliament-Funkadelic, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. He and the band were also honored in 2019 with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. 

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Queen recently released the box set Queen 1, dedicated to their self-titled debut album, and in the latest installment of their Queen The Greatest video series, they are giving fans a little insight into the making of the record.

Guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor share what it was like when they got into the studio for the first time, with Taylor noting, “it was tough in the beginning,” because they could only get studio time during odd hours when it was free. 

Despite the difficulties, which also included different producers and pressures to sound a certain way because of the studio, May notes, “I think us as a band, we came through.”

But when the album came out in 1973, critics were indifferent, with Taylor calling it a “tsunami of nothing.” 

“Tell you what helped, we looked at some of the reviews for the Led Zeppelin albums that had been out at that time, some of which were appallingly bad,” May shares. “And we thought, well, if they can run these people down, we shouldn’t be too worried about being run down ourselves.”

The audience also helped, with May noting, “once we had that first album out we had an audience that understood us and were really behind us …That really gives you the energy you need.”

With the new box set, Queen was able to use modern technology to right some of the wrongs they felt happened during the recording.

“Essentially with the Queen 1 box set we’ve made the actual album sound the way we wanted it to sound,” Taylor notes. “The overall sound of it is better … I think we’ve greatly improved it.”

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With Halloween in the past, many are already focusing on their plans for the Christmas season. NBC, for example, has just announced A Motown Christmas special, which will bring together legends and contemporary stars for performances of more than 25 Motown hits and a few holiday favorites. 

The lineup includes Gladys Knight, Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, The Temptations, Ashanti, Andra Day, BeBe Winans, Jamie Foxx, JoJo, Jordin Sparks, mgk, October London and Pentatonix, with Smokey Robinson and Halle Bailey taking on hosting duties.

There will also be tributes to Diana Ross and The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Motown founder Berry Gordy as well as an exclusive performance from the Broadway company MJ the Musical.

“Motown’s timeless hits have played as a soundtrack for American families for the last six decades. NBC is honored to spotlight the iconic legacy of Motown with a festive celebration for the holiday season,” said Jen Neal, NBCUniversal Entertainment’s executive VP of live events & specials.

Debbie Allen will serve as executive producer of A Motown Christmas, as will Suzanne de Passe and Madison Jones of De Passe Jones Entertainment. Rickey Minor is the musical director and SpringHill’s the leading production of the telecast.

“I’m thrilled to be back in the saddle with Motown and Suzanne de Passe to bring to the world this much-needed holiday family special. The music of Motown has always been magical, and we are going to sing and dance everyone into Christmas joy!” Debbie said.

A Motown Christmas will air Dec. 11 on NBC at 9 p.m. ET/PT and the following day on Peacock.

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The Grateful Dead is ringing in November by once again launching 30 Days of Dead.

The month-long campaign offers fans an unreleased live Dead track from the vault every day throughout November, with each download selected by Dead archivist and producer David Lemieux.

“The tracks are yours, 100% free gua-ran-teed,” reads a post on Instagram, “but the real fun is taking part in the challenge for the chance to win some sweet swag from the Dead.”

The songs, posted to dead.net, will be taken from a past Dead show, and fans can win prizes if they correctly guess the date and venue of the concert where the song came from. The daily prize is a 2025 Grateful Dead wall calendar, but there’s also a grand prize, a copy of one of the limited, numbered, Friend of the Devils: April 78 box sets.

30 Days of the Dead kicked off on Friday, with a performance of the songs “Space” and “The Wheel,” which, according to the website, were from Bobby Weir and Jerry Garcia’s respective 1972 solo albums, and never actually recorded in the studio by the Grateful Dead.

More info can be found at dead.net.

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Talking Heads have shared a previously unreleased track from their upcoming box set celebrating the band’s debut album, Talking Heads: 77.

The latest is “Pulled Up (Alternate Pop Version),” a new take on the album’s closing track.

Talking Heads: 77 (Super Deluxe Edition), dropping Nov. 8, will be made up of four LPs, one of which is a remaster of the original album. There’s also an LP of unreleased demos and outtakes, along with the two-LP live album, Live at CBGB, New York, NY, Oct. 10, 1977. 

The set also includes four 7-inch singles, an 80-page hardcover book with never-before-seen photos and liner notes written by the members of Talking Heads — David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz and Jerry Harrison — and recording engineer Ed Stasium.

In addition to the super deluxe edition, the reissue will be in a variety of other formats, including digitally, on two-LP standard black vinyl and as a three-CD/Blu-ray set, with the Blu-ray featuring new high-quality mixes of the album.

Talking Heads: 77 (Super Deluxe Edition) is available for preorder now.

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On This Day, Nov. 1, 1969 …

The Beatles topped the Billboard 200 album chart with Abbey Road. The album spent 11 weeks at #1 and a total of 490 weeks on the chart.

Abbey Road was the last album The Beatles recorded, although Let It Be was the last album they finished and released before their 1970 breakup. It featured the iconic cover of the band walking across the street in single file.

The album featured such classic Beatles tunes as “Here Comes the Sun,” “Come Together,” “Something” and “Octopus’ Garden.”

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Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band spent Halloween night rocking Montreal, Quebec, but only acknowledged the festive day with one musical moment.

Taking the stage to scary-sounding music, Bruce and the band launched into a cover of Ray Parker Jr.‘s 1984 #1 hit “Ghostbusters,” much to the delight of the crowd, who shouted the call-and-response “Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!” part at the top of their lungs.

But after that moment of levity, the first portion of the show was downbeat, with Bruce next launching into the deep cut “Seeds,” then devoting a good chunk of the first set to songs inspired by serious topics like death, disillusionment and loss, such as “Lonesome Day,” “Atlantic City,” “Youngstown,” “Ghosts” and “Letter to You.”

At one point, Bruce made mention of the importance of the upcoming U.S presidential election, then performed “Long Walk Home,” which he described as “a prayer for my country.”

The mood eventually turned more upbeat, with “Wrecking Ball,” “She’s the One,” “The Rising” and “Badlands,” before Bruce ended the show with a nonstop string of classics like “Thunder Road,” “Born to Run,” “Dancing in the Dark” and “Rosalita” and a rave-up version of “Twist and Shout.” 

As always on this particular tour, he ended with the wistful acoustic number “I’ll See You In My Dreams.” And while Bruce and the band didn’t wear Halloween costumes, many fans did, including a few dressed like Bruce circa Born in the U.S.A., with white tees, jeans and red ballcaps tucked into their back pockets.

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Warren Haynes’ new solo album, Million Voices Whisper, is out now, and it’s his first solo record in more than 10 years.

The Gov’t Mule frontman tells ABC Audio that one of the reasons he decided to make another solo record after all this time was because he’d been writing so much since the pandemic, noting that most of the songs on the album “were written in the past two or three years.”

“Usually if I write a handful of songs that seem to work together but don’t seem like Gov’t Mule songs, I start getting an indication that it’s time to make a solo record,” he shares. 

Haynes says that making a solo record isn’t all that different from making one with Gov’t Mule, in that he uses the same approach, “which is us side by side in the studio, looking at each other while we’re recording live, as live as possible.”

He adds, “The biggest difference would be the musicians themselves and the way everybody is interpreting the songs.”

Million Voices Whisper features already released singles “Life As We Know It” and “Day of Reckoning,” featuring Lukas Nelson and Jamey Johnson. And there’s also a very special track, “Real Real Love,” featuring Derek Trucks, which is a song that was originally started by the late Allman Brothers Band leader Gregg Allman, but never finished. 

“I wanted it to be as if he were there and I wanted to write the music the way he would approach it, even down to the vocal melody and the way I chose to sing it,” he says of his approach to finishing the tune. “It came about really quickly and easily, and Gregg’s presence was there for sure.” 

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Wang Chung’s music will be celebrated with a new double vinyl retrospective, Clear Light/Dark Matter, set for release March 7.

The compilation features songs from the band’s more than four-decade career, including hits like “Dance Hall Days” and “Everybody Have Fun Tonight.”

In addition to the hits, the set will include never-before-released demos, the recently released Eric Kupper remix of “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” and a new live recording. 

“Our songs often have an accessible front end, but there’s always a deeper layer beneath the surface—whether it’s lyrically or musically,” Wang Chung’s Nick Feldman shares. “Clear Light/Dark Matter reflects that balance between the light and the dark, the yin and yang, or as we like to say, the Wang and the Chung of what we do.” 

The set is also being released as a deluxe collector’s edition that includes the double LP on clear white and black ice colored vinyl, the two-CD version of the set, a 7-inch vinyl single of the Kupper remix, an exclusive booklet featuring photos from Feldman and Jack Hues, exclusive digital content and more.
 

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