As previously reported, The Police guitarist Andy Summers has collaborated with Italian guitar quartet 40 Fingers on an instrumental take on The Police classic “Bring on the Night,” and now the song is here.
The new arrangement was recorded at Summers’ Harmonics of the Night photo exhibition in Hamburg, Germany, back in October, with the video showing him and the guys in 40 Guitars performing the track.
“Bring on the Night,” which was written by Police frontman Sting, was featured on the band’s sophomore album, 1979’s Reggatta de Blanc. It was also the title track to Sting’s 1986 live album, as well as the 1985 Michael Apted-directed documentary on Sting’s solo career.
As previously reported, Dino Danelli, drummer for the ’60s group The Rascals, died Thursday at the age of 78. Upon hearing the news, plenty of artists took to social media to pay tribute to the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer.
E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt, who produced and directed the concert/theatrical event about the band, The Rascals: Once Upon a Dream, tweeted, “RIP Dino Danelli. One of the greatest drummers of all time. Rascals 1965-1971. Disciples Of Soul 1982-1984. On Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theater in Once Upon A Dream 2013.”
Van Zandt’s wife, Maureen, who also produced and directed the show, called Danelli “a brilliant drummer and artist,” adding, “I’ll never forget all the happy moments we spent on Broadway during the run of our Rascals show. An original Disciple. An original, period.”
Billy Joel also paid tribute, tweeting, “He was one of the greatest drummers in popular music. My deepest sympathy to his family,” while KISS’ Paul Stanleynoted, “Dino was a drummer in a class of very few and a great guy. … What style. So great to watch and listen to.”
Nile Rodgers has worked with a ton of artists throughout his career, and now he’s adding a new one — Coldplay.
In an interview with The Sunat the Nordoff Robbins Carol Service fundraiser for Music Therapy in London earlier this week, Rodgers revealed he just worked with the band for the first time.
“We had a blast,” he shares. “What was great working with Coldplay is that we’re all in the room together and it’s sort of like a spiritual thing. It’s, like, they walk in and they say, ‘Do you want to join the circle or not?’” He joked, “I’m an old hippie, you’re speaking my language. ‘Let’s go.’”
It seems America isn’t the only country where Christmas music is taking over the charts. In the United Kingdom, Wham!’s classic “Last Christmas” has returned to number one on the Official Singles Chart, the pair’s fifth number-one song.
This is the second week “Last Christmas” has held the top position. The last time it happened was on New Year’s Day 2021, at which point it held the record for the longest journey to number one. That record has since been broken by Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill.”
“We’re absolutely thrilled to see ‘Last Christmas’ by WHAM! has once again hit the Number 1 spot on the UK @officialcharts!” read a post on the late George Michael’s official Twitter account. “Thank you for all the love and support you continue to show the song.”
“Last Christmas” was originally released in 1984 and spent five weeks at number two on the chart, never reaching number one that year because of Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” The tune has been covered by a variety of artists, including Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Backstreet Boys, Carly Rae Jepsen and Ashley Tisdale.
Mary McCartney taking photos at Abbey Road. (Mary McCartney/Tim Cragg)
While Abbey Road Studios is most associated with the Beatles, plenty of other artists recorded there, and that was an important point director Mary McCartney wanted to get across in her new documentary, If These Walls Could Sing, which debuts Friday on Disney+.
Believe it or not, Mary says her first memory of the studio has nothing to do with her famous dad, Paul McCartney,but with another artist entirely.
“I think my first sort of memory [of Abbey Road] is walking into the reception area when I was a little kid, probably like 6 or 7,” Mary tells Yahoo Music. “The reception area there used to have photographs of all of the musicians that had been there before, this beautiful gallery of pictures. And there was Kate Bush. … I really remember seeing that picture.”
Because of that, Mary felt it was important to have Kate in the doc — and this was before the resurgence of her song “Running Up That Hill,” thanks to Stranger Things. Mary says when she first reached out for an interview, Kate turned her down because she doesn’t do them. But Mary didn’t give up and eventually got Kate to record an audio clip for the doc.
“I heard it, and I got chills. … I literally couldn’t believe my luck,” Mary says. “It is one of the highlights of my life, getting to know Kate and being able to speak to her about her history there.”
Janet Jackson‘s upcoming tour is in high demand, so she’s added a few more dates to the trek.
Fans in New York, Atlanta and Hollywood, Florida, will have another opportunity to secure their seats for the Together Again tour, as an additional show will take place in each city. The singer will also make a stop in Allentown, Pennsylvania, while on the road; she’ll perform in 37 cities over the course of two months.
Produced by Live Nation, Janet’s outing is meant to bring people “together again,” this time in celebration of her 50th anniversary in entertainment, as well as the anniversaries of her albums The Velvet Rope (25 years) and janet (30 years).
Special guest Ludacris will join Janet on all dates. Tickets are currently on sale at LiveNation.com.
As we near the date of the upcoming Whitney Houston biopic, a soundtrack for the movie has been released.
RCA Records dropped I Wanna Dance With Somebody (The Movie: Whitney New, Classic and Reimagined) on Friday, featuring 35 songs spanning 20 years of the singer’s career. The nearly two-hour project — a mixture of remixed and original versions of Houston songs — is meant to serve “as a musical memoir of the cinematic voyage,” according to a press release.
“We are thrilled to be releasing the amazing 35-song soundtrack to the Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody film with RCA Records,” Pat Houston, president of Whitney’s estate, said in a statement. “We think the fans will be excited to hear some incredible music they know and love, as well as some new never-before-released tracks, including ‘Far Enough’ and the incredible ‘Don’t Cry For Me,’ which ends the film.”
“This totally unique soundtrack album brings many of Whitney’s classics into 2023 and beyond,” added Houston’s longtime mentor Clive Davis. “Contemporary, current and often scorching, if you love Whitney’s music, you must own this album!”
The I Wanna Dance With Somebodysoundtrack includes collaborations with Lucky Daye, BeBe Winans, Clean Bandit, Kygo, SG Lewis, Samaria, Jax Jones, Leikeli47, P2J, Oxlade and Pheelz, with production from Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins and Sam Felt.
Dionne Warwick is well aware of comedian Pete Davidson‘s impressive list of girlfriends and wants to know why she hasn’t made the cut.
The legendary singer appeared on The Jennifer Hudson Show, where she called out Davidson for not giving her a passing glance. Warwick, who is 82, predicted in November that she would be dating the Saturday Night Live alum after he parted ways with reality star Kim Kardashian.
When asked if she’s heard from Davidson, the singer lamented, “No, I haven’t.”
“I’m thinking he’s dating everybody else, why not me?” she cracked.
In addition to Kardashian, Davidson famously dated singer Ariana Grande and is now linked to model Emily Ratajkowski.
Dionne also expressed interest in cozying up with Leonardo DiCaprio because “he’s a cutie.”
She also jokingly referenced the rumor claiming DiCaprio only dates women under 25 years of age. She recalled an event where the two crossed paths and noted, “But he didn’t have eyes on me, he had eyes on my granddaughter [26-year-old Cheyenne Elliott].”
Dionne then quipped while wagging a finger, “So I had to get him to understand.” She didn’t say when that run-in took place.
U2’s Bono and The Edge played an Irish pub this week: Ireland’s Daily World reports they took part in a St. Patrick’s Day special David Letterman was filming in Dublin Thursday.
The rockers were spotted entering the Westbury hotel through the back and were brought to the nearby McDaids pub for a jam session that also included Irish musicians Glen Hansard, Imelda May and Brian Kennedy. Letterman’s crew also reportedly filmed the U2 rockers performing for select guests at the Ambassador Theater Wednesday.
The paper reports the pub was closed down for production and that Letterman had been spotted in Dublin all week filming the Irish-themed show. While the paper didn’t say the filming was for Letterman’s Netflix series, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, it did say it was expected to run on St. Patrick’s Day on “an American based streaming service.”
Dino Danelli, drummer for the ’60s group The Rascals, died Thursday at the age of 78. Guitarist Gene Cornish confirmed the news on social media.
“It is with a broken heart that I must tell you of the passing of Dino Danelli,” Cornish shared. “He was my brother and the greatest drummer I’ve ever seen. I am devastated at this moment.”
Cornish said that in recent years Danelli’s health had been failing, and he suffered from coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure. He added Danelli went into a rehab facility this year, where his “condition incrementally grew worse,” noting, “He’d spend every day there until his passing.”
As for his legacy, Cornish write Danelli “has been and continues to be a major influence to generations of drummers who are mesmerized with his original style, impeccable, tasteful playing and heart-stopping showmanship.”
Danelli and Cornish, along with Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati, founded the Young Rascals in 1965. They were known for such hits as “Good Lovin,’” “Groovin’” and “People Got to Be Free.” They changed their name to The Rascals in the late ’60s, with “A Beautiful Morning” their first release under their new name. The tune went to number three on the charts.
Although they broke up in the early ’70s, The Rascals did reunite several times over the years. The last time was in 2012 for a combination concert/theatrical event about the band, The Rascals: Once Upon a Dream, which was produced and directed by E Street band member Steven Van Zandt and his wife, Maureen.
The Rascals were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, with Van Zandt on hand to induct them.
