Classic Hits

Chaka Khan‘s song “I’m Every Woman” was released in 1984 but has stood the test of the time. Speaking to Variety, she says she thinks “it must touch some important aspect of something.”

“It means something to a lot of people — and not just women,” Chaka adds. “You’d be surprised: When I’m on a stage doing it, I get as many men as women cheering and singing.”

Chaka performed the hit song at the American Music Awards 50th anniversary celebration Sunday and was joined by Sheila E., who says she was “excited” to hit the stage with her drums for that song.

“I’m just excited she asked me to do this, because its been so long since I actually did the AMAs,” said Sheila. “The connection I have with ‘I’m Every Woman,’ that song is actually iconic because of Chaka. Everyone sings that’s song. It’s more like an anthem.”

“I’m Every Woman” peaked at #21 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was recently certified Gold. Whitney Houston later covered the song for The Bodyguard soundtrack, saying Chaka’s name at the end of the song. Her version peaked at #4 on the Hot 100, #1 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart, #5 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and among the top 40 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart.

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Cher is finally going to tell her story with the release of Cher: The Memoir, Part One, and she’s going out on a book tour to promote it.

The tour will kick off Nov. 20 in New York City, with stops in Englewood, New Jersey, on Nov. 22, London on  Nov. 25, Beverly Hills on Dec. 2 and San Francisco on Dec. 4.

Tickets for all stops go on sale Thursday at 12 p.m. ET.

Cher: The Memoir, Part One will be released Nov. 19, with the second part coming in 2025.

The first part will start with her upbringing as a dyslexic child who had a difficult relationship with her mother, and run through her relationship with Sonny Bono, from their meeting, to their marriage, to their eventual divorce.

Cher: The Memoir, Part One is available for preorder now.

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Duran Duran has released their cover of the ELO classic “Evil Woman.”

The cover is one of three bonus tracks set to appear on the deluxe version of their 2023 album, Danse Macabre, titled Danse Macabre–DeLuxe.

The other two songs are an instrumental called “Masque of Pink Death,” which is a spin on the title of the Edgar Allen Poe short story The Masque of the Red Death, and the already released “New Moon (Dark Phase),” a reimagining of Duran Duran’s Seven and The Ragged Tiger track “New Moon on Monday.”

The original Danse Macabre included a mix of new songs, reimagined Duran Duran tunes and covers of songs like Talking Heads‘ “Psycho Killer,” The Rolling Stones‘ “Paint It Black” and The Specials‘ “Ghost Town.”

Danse Macabre–DeLuxe will be released digitally on Friday, with a CD version dropping Oct. 25. There will also be a limited-edition vinyl box set, also released Oct. 25. It includes three LPs, one of which is a bonus LP featuring seven new tracks, including a spoken-word track called “Instructions for a Seance” recited by Nick Rhodes. It is available for preorder now.

Duran Duran is set to kick off a new North American tour on Oct. 21 in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The trek includes their Halloween Danse Macabre party, taking place Oct. 31 at New York’s Madison Square Garden. A complete list of dates can be found at duranduran.com.

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Van Halen fans are getting their first preview of Alex Van Halen’s upcoming memoir, Brothers, with a 4 1/2-minute audio sample shared on Spotify.

In a clip titled “Overture,” Alex talks to and about his late brother and Van Halen bandmate, Eddie Van Halen, sharing, “Without my brother I would not be … there is a bond and unconditional love very few people ever experience in their lifetime.”

“Music was our heart and soul. That’s what we did, that’s what we loved, that’s what we enjoyed and that’s what we were good at,” he says. “It’s also the thing that made us as close as two brothers can be. We were connected in every way – genetically, artistically, financially, emotionally and though neither of us stuck with Catholicism, I’m going to go ahead and say spiritually.” 

Alex shares that Eddie was “more introverted, more impressionable and more sensitive” than him, noting that sensitivity made Eddie a “brilliant musician … there is only one Edward Van Halen.”

“Since you’ve been gone, I catch myself talking to you. Yelling at you, in my head or sometimes out loud. I still have trouble believing you’re gone and probably for me, you never will be,” he says.

“Outliving my little brother? This just wasn’t the plan,” he concludes. “As the older brother, I was supposed to die first. Same as always, Ed … butting in line.”

Brothers is due out Oct. 22. The audiobook features the song “Unfinished,” written by Alex and Eddie and described as “the last piece of music they wrote together.” 

Alex will promote the book with a three-city book tour kicking off Oct. 21 in New York, followed by Oct. 22 in New Jersey and Oct. 24 in Los Angeles.

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On This Day, Oct. 9, 1985 …

John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, joined The Beatles fans for the opening of Strawberry Fields in New York’s Central Park, a memorial to the late Beatle named after the Lennon-penned track “Strawberry Fields Forever.”

Located on Central Park West at 72nd Street, the 5-acre plot of land features a circular memorial with a mosaic of stones with the word “Imagine,” the title of Lennon’s iconic tune. It is located not far from Lennon and Ono’s New York apartment, The Dakota, where Lennon was killed on Dec. 8, 1980.

Oct. 9 was also Lennon’s birthday, and the opening ceremony coincided with what would have been his 45th birthday.

To coincide with what would have been Lennon’s 84th birthday this year, the documentary Daytime Revolution, about the week in 1972 when John and Yoko took over The Mike Douglas Show, is opening in theaters.

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R.E.M. has contributed a song to a new compilation album aimed at helping those devastated by Hurricane Helene.

Cardinals at the Window: A Benefit for Flood Relief in Western North Carolina is out now on Bandcamp, with R.E.M. contributing a live performance of the Document track “King of Birds,” recorded in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1989.

The album features 136 songs and was put together by three North Carolina natives: musician and community organizer Libby Rodenbough, New Commute founder David Walker and music journalist Grayson Haver Currin.

Other artists contributing to the album include Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, The War on Drugs, Wilco‘s Jeff Tweedy, Feist, Phish, The Decemberists, Tyler Childers and Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit.

The album is available for purchase now at bandcamp.com.

All proceeds will be split between three organizations: Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, BeLoved Asheville, and Rural Organizing and Resilience.

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The new documentary Daytime Revolution is in theaters now, giving fans a look at the surprising week in February 1972 when John Lennon and Yoko Ono produced and co-hosted the popular daytime talk show The Mike Douglas Show. 

The film’s director, Erik Nelson, tells ABC Audio the music superstars “in essence hijacked” the show, calling it “an amazing piece of cultural and political history.”

“In my opinion, it represented the high watermark of the entire ’60s, as far as the message of the ’60s, the optimism of the ’60s being injected into mainstream American culture,” he says.

The week of shows featured guests invited by the couple, including activist Ralph Nader, comedian George Carlin, musician Chuck Berry and Black Panther chairman Bobby Seale. The movie features plenty of footage from the actual shows.

The film also gives fans a different look at the couple, who got more comfortable with the show and the format as the week went on. 

“I’ve never seen John Lennon so relaxed, so funny, so articulate,” Nelson says. “It was a great moment where the venue captured the artist at his peak.”

Daytime Revolution hits theaters on what would have been Lennon’s 84th birthday. The director notes that it was also purposefully released ahead of the upcoming presidential election because he feels the message of that week of shows is very relevant to today. 

“If you look at it from an historical perspective, it’s striking,” he says. “This took place in 1972, in the middle of a highly polarized, contentious election year. And in essence, we’re rebroadcasting these shows in the middle of a contentious, polarized election year.” 

He adds, “That conversation between eras was quite intentional on the part of the filmmakers.”

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Graham Nash has set his first shows for 2025.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer has announced dates for the spring leg of his More Evenings of Songs And Stories tour. The leg kicks off with a two-night stand, March 29 and March 30, in Easton, Maryland, and wraps with a two-night stand in San Francisco, April 22 and April 23.

Tickets for all shows go on sale Friday.

Nash is currently on the fall leg of the tour. He plays Quebec City in Canada on Tuesday. A complete list of dates can be found at grahamnash.com.

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Lenny Kravitz is taking a trip down memory lane on social media, giving fans a tour of some of the places he lived while growing up in New York.

Back in September, Lenny took fans to the apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side where he lived with his parents, and now he’s giving folks a tour of Bed-Stuy Brooklyn.

“Here we are in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn on the corner of Troop and Kosciusko,” he says in a new video posted to social media, panning the camera to a home where he says he grew up with his grandparents.

“The house looks nothing like it did,” he says. “This was a single-family house that had a stoop and a little yard back here. It’s a trip to see all the changes.”

At one point the two girls who currently live in the apartment came out on their balcony and invited him up to see the place.

Lenny also gave a little tour of the neighborhood, sharing, “You got a taste of my old block. Bed-Stuy do or die.”

Next up, Kravitz is getting ready to head to Las Vegas. His five-night Blue Electric Light residency at Dolby Live at Park MGM kicks off Oct. 18. A complete list of dates can be found at lennykravitz.com.

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Joni Mitchell is set to headline two nights at the Hollywood Bowl, her first time playing the venue in 24 years, and it sounds like fans are in for some surprises.

The shows, dubbed Joni Mitchell & The Joni Jam, are happening Oct. 18 and Oct. 19, with Brandi Carlile among the artists joining her onstage. During an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Carlile teased fans with what to expect. 

“The tea I can spill is that I’ve spent these last five, six years in the passenger seat with Joan, and in this case I’m in the backseat,” she says. “She’s chosen to learn songs that I never heard before, that have been an incredible challenge for us all to learn.”

Brandi tells fans who will be attending that they can expect Joni to put on “a long show.” 

“She wants to give everybody a full-spectrum performance of who she really is and what her career has done,” she says, noting the concerts are “gonna be even crazier” than Joni’s previous shows at the Newport Folk Festival in 2022 and the Gorge Amphitheatre in 2023.

“I’m seeing her be inspired in ways I haven’t seen before,” Brandi adds. “And we’ve got some people that have joined the party that are just an inspiration to watch work.”

In addition to Brandi, previous Mitchell shows featured such special guests as Annie Lennox, Sarah McLachlan and Marcus Mumford.

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