Classic Hits

Julien’s Auctions wrapped their three-day auction of ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill’s personal items and memorabilia over the weekend, setting records in the process. 

The auction brought in over $3 million, becoming the highest grossing single artist auction at Julien’s this year.

In addition to the already announced sale of Hill’s 1953 Fender Precision bass for $393,700, the second-highest bass ever sold at auction, other big ticket items included: Hill’s 1980s Gibson Custom Shop Explorer style bass, used during the Eliminator tour, which sold for $58,500; a Wayne Charvel, Custom Eliminator Hot Rod shaped bass guitar, for $39,000; and “Old Faithful,” Hill’s 2000s Bolin Fender Clone Precision bass, which sold for $28,575. 

Personal items sold at the auction included Hill’s cowboy boots by Manuel, which sold for $19,500; his commissioned oil derrick gold nugget ring, for $9,100; and more. 

A portion of the auction proceeds will be donated to the Recording Academy’s charitable foundation, MusiCares.

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REO Speedwagon is returning to Las Vegas. The band announced some new dates for An Evening of Hi Infidelity… and More at the Venetian Theatre inside The Venetian Resort.

The band has announced six new shows in 2024: May 8, 10 and 11, and October 2, 4 and 5.

“We had so much fun, the audience response was mind-blowing, and all the love and hard work we put into this production more than paid off,” frontman Kevin Cronin shares. “We are very proud of this special production and look forward to returning to The Venetian Theatre in 2024.”

REO Speedwagon first launched An Evening of Hi Infidelity… and More with two shows in November. The show has them performing their classic album Hi Infidelity in its entirety, as well as other hit songs.

Tickets go on sale Friday, December 15, at 10 a.m. PT. 

Released in November 1980, Hi Infidelity peaked at #1 on the Billboard Album chart and featured the hit songs “Take It On the Run” and “Keep On Loving You.” It was the biggest selling album of 1981 and was certified 10-times platinum by the RIAA.

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On This Day, December 11, 1968…

The Rolling Stones began shooting the concert film Rock and Roll Circus.

The film was shot over two days and featured The Stones, as well as The Who, Jethro Tull, Taj Mahal and Marianne Faithfull, performing on a stage set that looked like a circus. It also featured a one-time-only performance by The Dirty Mac, a group made up of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and more.

The film was originally supposed to air on the BBC, but, unhappy with their performance, The Stones opted to hold back the broadcast. It took 28 years for them to change their mind and release it. It premiered as part of the New York Film Festival in October 1996. A soundtrack followed two days after the premiere.

A remastered edition of the film in Dolby Atmos received a limited theatrical release in March 2019.

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Bruce Springsteen and the late Robbie Robertson are among the artists earning nominations for the 81st annual Golden Globe Awards.

Springsteen is nominated in the Best Original Song category for his tune “Addicted to Romance,” which he wrote for the movie She Came to Me, starring Peter Dinklage and Marisa Tomei.

Lenny Kravitz is also nominated for his Rustin song “Road to Freedom, as are three tunes from Barbie, Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For,” “I’m Just Ken” and “Dance the Night,” and The Super Mario Bros song “Peaches.”

Robertson is nominated for Best Original Score for his work on Martin Scorsese‘s Killers of the Flower Moon, where he’ll compete against the scores for Oppenheimer, Poor Things, The Boy and the Heron, The Zone of Interest and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

The 81st annual Golden Globe Awards will air live from the Beverly Hilton on CBS and stream on Paramount+ Sunday, January 7, at 8 p.m. ET.

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Barry Manilow will celebrate the holiday season December 11 with A Very Barry Christmas, airing at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.  It’s based on a holiday production he’s been doing for a while, mostly during residency at the Westgate Las Vegas, where the special was filmed.

“It’s a great, great hour,” Manilow tells ABC Audio. “It’s full of joy, full of Christmas, and I do a lot of the hits. I figured out a way of putting the hits into the Christmas special, and it always still feels like a Christmas special, even though I’m singing ‘Copacabana!'”

But while you can expect to hear Manilow sing favorites like “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” and his new version of Mariah Carey‘s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” on the special, songs like “Oh Holy Night” or “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” won’t be on the menu.

“For me, Christmas is not about the religious songs,” says Manilow. “It’s about the pop songs that we all know and we’ve heard all of our lives. And because it’s only happens for one month, they never get tired, y’know? And so when Bing Crosby comes out singing ‘I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas,’ it always feels new and it always feels good.”

But while there’ll be plenty of Christmas fun on the special, Manilow says he and his husband don’t really celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah.

“I’m always on the road … I’ve never really been able to do that,” he explains. “Gary and I put up a big Christmas tree … but we’re not here most of the time. We finally get back right before Christmas weekend, and the last thing I want to do is to have a bunch of people around! So, we don’t really celebrate it the way other people do.”

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A new photo book is celebrating the legendary career of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. 

CSN&Y: Love the One You’re With features over 800 photographs, as well as writings from over 20 contributors, recounting the history of the band — David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young — and their cultural impact.

The book, with introduction by Nash and Stills, features photos from photographer Henry Diltz’s CSN&Y archive, marking the first time his photos have been presented in such a format and in this quantity.

Says Diltz, “I have known these guys my entire life as a photographer, way before they even formed a group and so I have photographed them all separately and together for the past almost 60 years.”

“Henry was a part of whatever was going on at any moment. And we certainly never thought this was history when he was shooting us,” Nash shares. “We thought, ‘There’s our friend Henry with his camera.’ And we trusted him.”

Numbered collectors copies of CSN&Y: Love the One You’re With are available now, all individually signed by Diltz, Nash and Stills. They are expected to ship later this month.

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Dion will release the new album Girl Friends on March 8, which has him collaborating with a lineup of female performers, including Carleen Carter, Maggie Rose, Rory Block, Shemekia Copeland and Debbie Davis.

He also teams up with guitarist Susan Tedeschi on the just-released second single from the album, “Soul Force.” It follows the previously released tune “An American Hero,” featuring Carter.

You can listen to “Soul Force” now via digital outlets and watch the video on YouTube. 

“I wanted the best music possible. So, I wrote up a batch of duets for me and my ‘girl friends,’ the women who inhabit my headphones — the women who make me turn up the volume when they drop into my radio,” Dion shares in a commentary about the record, titled “The Feminine Genius.” “You’ll hear the feminine genius in every groove of this record, and you won’t forget any of it.”

Here is the track list for Girl Friends. It is available for preorder now.

“Soul Force” with Susan Tedeschi
“I Aim to Please” with Danielle Nicole
“Stop Drop and Roll” with Valerie Tyson
“Do Ladies Get the Blues” with Christine Ohlman and Debbie Davis
“An American Hero” with Carlene Carter
“Don’t You Want a Man Like Me” with Rory Block
“Sugar Daddy” with Christine Ohlman
“Endless Highway” with Randi Fishenfeld
“I Got Wise” with Maggie Rose
“Hey Suzy” with Sue Foley
“Mama Said” with Shemekia Copeland
“Just Like That” with Joanne Shaw Taylor

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The estate of Tom Petty and RR Auction have reached an agreement over a planned auction the estate argued contained items stolen from the late Rock & Roll Hall of Famer.

Back in May, the Petty estate threatened to take legal action over the auction, noting the items up for sale, including jackets, hats, vests and autographed memorabilia, were taken from a secure storage archive.

But in a joint statement obtained by ABC Audio, both sides now report that “all concerns regarding the recent offering of personal clothing and items of the rock star have been resolved without litigation.” 

“The Petty family is grateful that RR Auction facilitated the safe return of the items, which have been returned to the Petty family’s secure archives,” the statement explains, “and there is currently no belief RR Auction committed or knew of any wrongdoing regarding the disputed ownership of the items.” 

The statement concludes by sharing that as part of their “gratitude” to RR Auction, the Petty family “has agreed to a select few of the belongings to be offered for auction through RR Auction.” It notes, “The family supports the upcoming sale and verifies the authenticity of the items to be offered.”

Those select items are part of RR Auction’s Marvels of Music auction, and include Petty’s ornate space-themed vest, a plaid flat cap and brown suede chelsea boots, as well as a signed copy of Damn the Torpedoes and a signed portrait taken by Richard E. Aaron.

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David Lee Roth has found a unique way to get into the Christmas spirit. The former Van Halen frontman just dropped the new holiday tune “Talking Christmas Blues,” although he’s not really singing in it.

The track has Roth basically offering up a stream of consciousness on a bizarre holiday, set to an acoustic guitar and harmonica.  

“Late last night I had a crazy dream, Santa Claus dropped in on me,” he shares. “Santa cracked a jar, we all got trashed, elves got thrashed, places got smashed up. Events unfolded, tragedy happened, igloo got flattened.” 

In the song, he name drops Oprah Winfrey and at one point mentions needing to light a Menorah for Hanukkah. He also offers up a toast, sharing, “Like a Hallmark Hall of Fame card, Merry Christmas from David Lee.”

The song follows Roth’s solo take on Van Halen’s “Jump,” released earlier this month, and his original tune “Wash and Fold,” which dropped last month.

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You might think that Cher has done everything in the entertainment world, but she’s just launched her first foray into the metaverse.

Starting December 8, in partnership with Gamefam and Warner Music Group, a game featuring Cher will be in Harmony Hills, her record label’s world on the metaverse platform Roblox. The four-week event offers fans the opportunity to win virtual merchandise inspired by some of the legendary diva’s iconic looks, including diamond antlers, tinsel hair, winter fairy wings and a winter crown.

You can win these items by completing a series of holiday-themed weekly challenges. The concept is that a mischievous elf has mixed up all the presents in Harmony Hills, and you have to find and get them back to their owners. 

When you enter the game, you can interact with Cher, whose music will be heard at various locations, like a bakery, cafe, roller rink and nightclub. The songs come from her new holiday album, Christmas, including “DJ Play a Christmas Song,” “Drop Top Sleigh Ride” and “Angels in the Snow.”

During the first part of the game, which runs through December 14, Cher’s in-game avatar will guide players to deliver the mixed-up presents to their rightful owners. During part two, which runs from December 15 to December 21, players will recover stolen Christmas tree ornaments.

Part three, from December 22 to December 28, involves putting the ornaments back on the tree correctly, and the final part, which runs from December 29 to January 5, involves a snowball fight.

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