Classic Hits

Foreigner is set to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday, but it turns out founding members Mick Jones and Dennis Elliot won’t be attending the festivities.

In a post on Instagram, the band revealed that they are “greatly looking forward” to Saturday’s celebration, with Foreigner performing with Demi Lovato, Sammy Hagar and Kelly Clarkson “in a set celebrating the induction of the guys who started it all almost fifty years ago.”

The post reveals that the only band members who’ll be attending the ceremony will be singer Lou Gramm, keyboardist Al Greenwood and bassist Rick Wills, noting the trio will “accept the awards on behalf of the band’s leader and founder Mick Jones and Dennis Elliot along [with] those of Ian McDonald and Ed Gagliardi who passed away some years ago.”

The 2024 induction ceremony, taking place at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, will stream live on Disney+ at 7 p.m. ET. On Jan. 1, ABC will air the special 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, featuring performance highlights.

In other news … Foreigner is set to perform at the halftime show during Sunday’s Cleveland Browns game against the Cincinnati Bengals. The performance is part of the Browns’ celebration of this year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees. 

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

U2 is throwing it back to 2004, celebrating the 20th anniversary of their album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb with a look at the video for the album’s first single, “Vertigo.”

The band announced they’ll release a behind-the-scenes video detailing the making of the song’s music video on Friday.

The video for “Vertigo,” directed by the team of Alex & Martin, was shot in Spain and had the band performing in a desert. It won a Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video in 2005.

U2 is also celebrating the 20th anniversary of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb with the release of what they’re calling a “shadow album,” featuring songs from the original album’s recording sessions. Dubbed How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb, the album features 10 previously unreleased tracks from the band’s archive. It will be released Nov. 29 as an exclusive for Record Store Day Black Friday, along with a digital release.

In addition, on Nov. 22 U2 will release a special 20th anniversary remastered edition of How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, featuring the bonus track “Fast Car,” as well as a package with the remaster and the shadow album together, dubbed How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (Re-Assemble Edition).

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Paul McCartney dusted off a classic Beatles tune for his fourth and final Got Back show in São Paulo, Brazil, on Wednesday. 

According to setlist.fm, McCartney added the 1963 track “All My Loving” to the set about four songs in, marking the first time he’s played the tune on this tour and the first time he’s played it in concert since 2019. 

Although “All My Loving” wasn’t officially released as a single in either the U.S. or the U.K., it got enough radio play to become a hit for The Beatles. It was actually the first song they performed during their debut appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964.

As for the rest of McCartney’s São Paulo concert, he played a total of 37 songs, including Beatles tracks like “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Got To Get You Into My Life,” “Love Me Do,” “Blackbird,” “Get Back,” “Hey Jude” and the most recent track, “Here and Now,” as well as Wings tunes “Live and Let Die,” “Let Em In” and “Jet.”

It also included McCartney solo songs like “Maybe I’m Amazed”; “My Valentine,” which was dedicated to Paul’s wife, Nancy Shevell; and “Here Today,” which was dedicated to John Lennon.

McCartney has one more show in Brazil on Saturday in Florianópolis, with upcoming shows in Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico. A complete list of dates can be found at paulmccartney.com.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

On This Day, Oct. 17, 1980 …

Bruce Springsteen released his fifth studio album, The River – his only double album to date.

The project was originally intended as a single album called The Ties That Bind, but Springsteen canceled its release at the last minute and wrote more songs. Retitled The River, the album’s 20 tracks featured a deliberate mix of fun, upbeat tunes and darker material.

The River went on to become Bruce’s first #1 album and contained his first top 10 hit, “Hungry Heart.” It has since been certified quintuple Platinum by the RIAA.

Many songs on the album became fan favorites, including “Out in the Street,” “Sherry Darling,” the title track and “You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch),” with many becoming staples of The Boss’ live shows. 

In 2015, Springsteen released the box set The Ties That Bind: The River collection and celebrated the original album’s 35th anniversary with a tour in which he performed the double album in its entirety.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Madame Tussauds is set to honor Elton John with a brand new wax figure.

The museum just revealed a preview of a new gravity-defying statue featuring Elton’s signature 1970s keyboard handstand move. The figure is expected to debut later this year in Madame Tussauds London’s Impossible Festival music zone, which already features statues of Queen’s Freddie Mercury and David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, as well as Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande and Amy Winehouse.

“We’ve been creating figures of Sir Elton John since the beginning of his legendary career, and he has always inspired us to go above and beyond in our creations,” Steve Blackburn, general manager at Madame Tussauds London, says. “Back in the 1970s, his first figure was our first talking figure, and in 2024 we’re determined to go big again.” 

He adds, “The figure’s iconic, gravity-defying pose will capture the essence of Elton’s legendary early performances in a way that only Madame Tussauds London can.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

A new class of musicians will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday, and Sting, a Hall of Fame member himself, is excited by some of this year’s inductees.

The rocker tells ABC Audio he’s particularly happy to see Peter Frampton and Mary J. Blige get in this year.

“I’m a big fan of Peter Frampton,” Sting says. “I think he’s had an amazing career from way back when he was in England and I was a kid. So, yeah, it’s great.” 

He adds, “Mary’s a dear friend of mine. We worked together, so that’s fantastic.”

Sting’s also happy to see the late British blues musician Alexis Korner get recognized in the Musical Influence category.

He notes Korner was a “very, very influential figure in London in the blues scene, in the jazz scene,” sharing, “The Rolling Stones came out of that thing and so many other people,” a reference to the fact that Stones drummer Charlie Watts was in Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, along with several other artists. 

Sting, whose Sting 3.0 tour hits Miami on Sunday, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2003 as a member of The Police. During their induction he reunited with bandmates Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland to perform three songs: “Roxanne,” “Message in a Bottle” and their #1 hit “Every Breath You Take.” 

Meanwhile, the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held Saturday at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland. It will stream live on Disney+ at 7 p.m. ET and will be available to rewatch following the ceremony.

On Jan. 1, ABC will air the special 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, featuring performance highlights. It’ll be available the next day on Hulu and Disney+. 

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

While Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde may love the band’s fans, it seems she’s sick of seeing the same ones in the front row time and time again. 

In a post on social media, Hynde addressed fans who come to multiple shows and get in the front row, letting them know why they may not be keeping the spot they snag.

“First of all, thank you to everyone who’s come to see our shows. We’re in the homestretch of this year‘s tour and it’s been a real pleasure,” she writes. “Fantastic cities and fantastic audiences. We’ve had a great time playing for you.”

But she shares that there’s “[o]ne thing we feel obliged to explain: When we go on tour, the whole point of it for the band is that we are playing to a different audience every night.” She notes they “look forward to seeing local faces. This is what makes it new for us every night.”

“We appreciate those of you who follow us and buy tickets for multiple nights, so please don’t be offended if we request you to move out of the front row,” she adds. “All we are asking is that you give the local fans a chance. This is what keeps it new for us…especially after being on tour for so many months.”

Pretenders are currently on a U.K. tour. They play Edinburgh, Scotland, on Wednesday and Gateshead, England, on Thursday. A complete list of dates can be found at thepretenders.com.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Bruce Springsteen posed for pictures with The Bear star Jeremy Allen White at the New York premiere screening of The Boss’ upcoming documentary Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band.

White is set to play Bruce in the upcoming film Deliver Me From Nowhere, about the making of Springsteen’s 1982 album Nebraska, and this was the first time they’ve been photographed together.

The Road Diary screening took place Tuesday at the Museum of Modern Art, with Bruce, director Thom Zimny, guitarist Stevie Van Zandt and Bruce’s manager Jon Landau in attendance, along with musicians Marky Ramone, Paul Shaffer and G.E. Smith, actor Andrew McCarthy, comedian Sandra Bernhard and others. 

Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band debuts Oct. 25 on Hulu and Disney+.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News. 

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Sammy Hagar has shared a classic Van Halen performance clip on YouTube.

Hagar posted a video of the band — him, Eddie and Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony — performing the 5150 track “Why Can’t This Be Love,” which was recorded in August 1995 in Toronto for Canada’s Much Music.

“It’s so touching when I see old clips of Eddie singing his heart out!” Sammy shared in the caption. “He wasn’t a natural lead singer, but when he sang, he had [sic] with soul and passion. This is a prime example.” 

He added, “And Mikey, rockin’ that mullet hard! I Love finding this old stuff for ya.”

The video release comes just a day after Rolling Stone released Alex Van Halen’s first interview since Eddie’s October 2020 death. In it, Alex seemed to discount Sammy’s contribution to the band, saying “the heart and the soul and the creativity and the magic” of Van Halen was the original four members, him, Eddie, Anthony and David Lee Roth.

The mag also noted the only mention of the Van Hagar years in Alex’s upcoming memoir, Brothers, due out Tuesday, is Alex writing, “We had a lot of other singers over the years.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Cyndi Lauper has been a star for more than 40 years, but in all that time, she’s only ever done one headlining arena tour — which is why she’s so excited for her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour, launching Oct. 24.

Speaking to People, Cyndi says that in the ’80s, when she first started out, “I was an opener for other acts at arenas, then I got to do one big tour for myself. Then I got pregnant with my son, and I was worried I couldn’t do a whole show, so I went back to being an opener again.”

She laughs, “So watch out, kids, once an opener, always an opener!”

Cyndi, who tells People that the ’80s feel “like a million years ago,” also shares that as she prepares for the road, she’s trying not to feel her age — which, for the record, is 71.

“It f****** sucks,” she says of aging. She laughs, “Like in [the song] ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’— you could even say it blows!”

“What you need to do is take care of yourself,” she adds. “That’s the major thing. I try to force myself to do something — the bike, the walking, the weights, the yoga. Yoga’s great, because it just puts you in a zone mentally. But who wants to get old and decrepit? Nobody! But the trick is, I guess, not to get too decrepit.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.