Classic Hits

Queen’s Brian May wants fans to know the band is not responsible for their label, Universal Music, taking down YouTube videos of their recent Rhapsody tour with Adam Lambert. 

The guitarist shared a post from a fan account, which revealed that Universal and YouTube “are now coming for everyone who posts concert videos of Queen and Adam,” noting that most of their concert videos have been deleted. But apparently this was news to May.

“i’ve been watching this for a few days, and I’m very concerned,” May writes, sharing that he’s having management investigate “if there is a reason for Instagram and Universal suddenly becoming so Draconian.” 

“The decision to take these videos down certainly hasn’t come from us, the band,” he explains.

May then offered up Christmas wishes to his fans.

“In common with many of you, I don’t find it easy to come up to the level of frenetic joyfulness that is portrayed in the media as requisite for this time of year,” he writes. “But let’s all look around us, and look for ways to make other people’s Christmases as Jolly as possible. Apart form anything else, it’s good therapy!”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The Rolling Stones‘ Keith Richards turned 80 on Monday, December 18, and he received loads of well-wishes from his bandmates.

The official Rolling Stones Instagram account shared a video montage featuring footage of Richards over the years, with the clip kicking off with Mick Jagger singing “Happy Birthday” to the rocker. 

“Happy birthday to the one and only @officialkeef!” reads the post’s caption. “Wishing you the most special of days Keith! Keep on rockin.” 

Mick also posted his own birthday message with a smiling photo of him and Keith and the caption, “Happy birthday @officialkeef ! Love Mick,” while Ron Wood shared several photos of them together, writing, “Happy 80th birthday @officialkeef!”

Keith’s birthday was also acknowledged on the late Charlie Watts’ Instagram page, with several photos of the bandmates together.

“Wishing Keith Richards a very happy 80th birthday today!” reads the caption, which goes on to share a quote Charlie said about Keith, calling him “the most interesting, the most different of us all.”

“He’s a man of vision, and one of the few people who hasn’t really changed over the years,” the post continues. “Wherever he goes, whatever he does, he’s always Keith.”

Meanwhile, Richards used his Instagram page to wish his wife, Patti Hansen, a happy anniversary, sharing a photo from their wedding day and writing, “For Patricia, Happy 40th Anniversary! I love you. Keith.”  

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Fans of Faces should get ready to hear some previously unreleased music next year.

In an interview with Mojo, Faces specialist Rob Caiger reveals that the band — Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood and Kenney Jones — plans to kick off a reissue campaign next year, with plenty of material from their vaults.

Caiger put together Faces’ recent Record Store Day release, Had Me A Real Good Time… With Faces Live In Session At The BBC 1971-1973. Since 2020 he’s been looking through the surviving members’ personal archives, and working with the estates of the late Ian McLagan and Ronnie Lane. He says there are plenty of photos and songs to include on remasters.

“When I say there’s a wealth of unreleased material – there’s a wealth of unreleased material,” Caiger shares. “You can only fit so much on an LP and singles. There’s rehearsals, outtakes, unreleased songs, session multitracks, you name it. It was a joy and a privilege, really.” 

He adds that Wood actually “has the most incredible, organized archive,” noting that lots of the stuff is on tape so “this stuff has never leaked out and no-one’s heard it, that’s why it’s exciting.”

And it sounds like the surviving members are excited by what’s in store. “The guys are signing off on everything, and it doesn’t come out unless they say so,” Caiger says. “They’re absolutely engaged, enthusiastic and totally into it. If you’re going to do this, this is the one time to do it properly.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

On This Day, December 18, 1983…

The Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards celebrated his 40th birthday by marrying 27-year-old model Patti Hansen. The couple first met in 1979.

They have two daughters together, Theodora Dupree, born in 1985, and Alexandra Nicole, born in 1986, and are still together to this day.

Although the marriage was the first for Richards, he had previously been involved with Italian-born actress Anita Pallenberg from 1967-1979. The couple had three children together, son Marlon, born in 1969, daughter Angela, born in 1972, and son Tara Jo Jo Gunne, born in 1976. Tara passed away at a little over two months old from SIDS.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Who would have thought it would take a Christmas song to put Cher back on the pop chart?

Billboard reports that Cher’s holiday hit “DJ Play a Christmas Song” has debuted at #40 on its Pop Airplay chart, which measures songs played on over 150 pop radio stations. The last time Cher appeared on this chart was in March 2002 with “Song for the Lonely.” 

That’s a gap of 21 years, nine months and three weeks. It’s a long time, but Elton John had one that was even longer: When his Dua Lipa collab “Cold Heart” appeared on the Pop Airplay chart in 2021, he’d been waiting over 23 years.

Meanwhile, “DJ Play a Christmas Song” is #1 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart. It’s Cher’s first chart-topper there since 1989’s “If I Could Turn Back Time.” The song has also topped Billboard‘s Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales and Holiday Digital Song Sales charts, helping Cher notch the milestone of having had a #1 hit on one Billboard chart or another in every decade since the 1960s.

On Instagram, Cher posted a roundup of all the things she’s done in the past four weeks, including her chart achievements and TV appearances. She captioned the photos, “Btw, I love you guys.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

U2 got into the holiday spirit this weekend during their Las Vegas residency, U2: UV Achtung Baby Live At Sphere.

Fan-shot footage posted to YouTube shows the band performing “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” during their Friday, December 15, show. The performance starts out slow with The Edge on an acoustic guitar, but by the end the rest of the band joins in on the song. 

“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” is a cover of the Darlene Love holiday classic; according to setlist.fm, it’s the first time the band has performed the song since 1987. In a recent interview on The View’s Behind the Table, Love revealed that U2’s version of the tune is her favorite cover of the song.

U2 just wrapped U2: UV Achtung Baby Live At Sphere for 2023; they’re set to return to Vegas on Friday, January 26. The residency runs through Saturday, March 2. A complete list of dates can be found at U2.com.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Chicago’s November concerts in Atlantic City, New Jersey, will debut Saturday as a pay per view event. 

Decades Rock Live: Chicago & Friends is a two-hour director’s cut of the November concerts, which featured special guests Steve Vai, Chris Daughtrey, Robert Randolph, Robin Thicke and more. The shows were a celebration of the 55th anniversary of the band’s debut album, Chicago Transit Authority, and has them playing songs from the album, as well as other greatest hits and unplugged versions of classic tunes.

“The Decades shows in Atlantic City were truly magical for Chicago,” founding member Robert Lamm says. “This special is at a whole new level for the band. It’s unlike any prior Chicago production ever filmed and we hope it’s something our fans will enjoy for many years to come.” 

Decades Rock Live: Chicago & Friends debuts Saturday, December 16, at 3 p.m. ET on Fantracks and will be available until December 31. Those who purchase the concert will have unlimited viewing until the end of the year.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt and his band Disciples of Soul helped Darlene Love with a holiday classic. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer joined Love on The View Friday, December 15, as she sang her holiday tune “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” as well as “All Alone on Christmas.”

During an interview, she recalled how, at a recent concert, Bruce Springsteen presented her with a Platinum record for A Christmas Gift For You, the Phil Spector album that “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” appeared on. Van Zandt also discussed the album he produced for Love, Introducing Darlene Love, joking that “hopefully some day, that will be Platinum, too.”

This was Love’s ninth time performing “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” on The View. Before that she would perform it every year on The Late Show with David Letterman. 

“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” has been covered by all sorts of artists, but Love has one particular favorite. During her appearance on The View’s Behind the Table podcast she shared that U2’s cover is the one she loves the most.  

“I have a connection with U2 and the song because U2 wanted me to do all the background parts, not me and some more people,” she shared. “It has a special meaning to me because it’s totally different from what everybody else did and it was a U2 ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).’ That’s what made it so great.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Robbie Robertson, Bruce Springsteen and Lenny Kravitz are among the artists who could potentially earn an Oscar nomination for their music this year. 

Variety reports the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences just revealed the list of songs and scores eligible for Oscar nominations this year, with 94 songs and 149 scores in contention.

Springsteen’s “Addicted to Romance” from the movie She Came to Me is in the running, as is Kravitz’s “Road to Freedom” from Rustin. Both songs have already been nominated for a Golden Globe Award this year.

Meanwhile Robertson, who passed away in August, has qualified with his score for Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. He too has been nominated for a Globe for his work.

Should Springsteen earn an Oscar nomination, it will be his third, with one win for 1994’s “Streets of Philadelphia” from the movie Philadelphia. He was also nominated for “Dead Man Walkin’,” from the 1996 movie Dead Man Walking.

It would be the first nomination for Robertson and Kravitz.

Nominations for the 96th Academy Awards will be announced Tuesday, January 23. The Oscars will air on ABC Sunday, March 10.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

U2 is giving fans who can’t make it to Las Vegas a taste of their residency, U2: UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere.

The Irish rockers just shared a two-minute live video of them performing “The Fly” at the venue, with various words and numbers flashing on the screen behind them, including “Believe,” which turns into “Lie.”

It ends with the words “It’s Your World You Can Change It” flashing on the screen over and over again. 

The next U2: UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere show is happening Friday, December 15, with the final night set for March 2. A complete list of dates can be found at U2.com.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.