Classic Hits

On This Day, Dec. 8, 1980 …

Legendary Beatles member John Lennon was shot and killed outside his New York City apartment building, The Dakota. He was 40.

Earlier in the day, Lennon signed a copy of his album Double Fantasy for a fan as he and wife Yoko Ono were leaving for the recording studio. When he returned later that evening, the same fan, Mark David Chapman, shot him twice. The musician was rushed to the hospital, where he died.

Chapman did not go on trial for Lennon’s murder, instead pleading guilty to second-degree murder. He was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison and became eligible for parole in 2000, but he still remains in jail.

No funeral for Lennon was held, but his cremated remains were scattered in New York’s Central Park, not far from The Dakota. A memorial for Lennon, Strawberry Fields, was later created in the area.

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Bruce Springsteen got a Golden Globe nomination … sort of.

Nominations for the 83rd annual Golden Globes were announced Monday with Jeremy Allen White earning a nomination for best performance by a male actor in a motion picture, drama for his portrayal of The Boss in the biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.

It was the only nomination the film received. White received one other nomination, in the category for best performance by a male actor in a television series, musical or comedy for his work on The Bear.

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, directed by Scott Cooper, follows Springsteen as he makes his 1982 solo album Nebraska. In addition to White, it starred Succession’s Jeremy Strong as Springsteen’s manager, Jon Landau.

Among the other music-related nominations, Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood earned a nod in the best original score category for his work on the Paul Thomas Anderson movie One Battle After Another.

The Golden Globes will air live Jan. 11 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and stream on Paramount+.

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Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh has donated over 800 personal items, including over 400 guitars, to an upcoming Julian’s Auction. But the rocker admits it wasn’t easy to part with all the things he collected over the years.

“It was traumatic,” he tells ABC Audio. “We all have stuff. Other people’s stuff, that’s their junk. My stuff, to them, is my junk, but no, that is my stuff.”

Walsh says he can’t believe he accumulated so many guitars and other things over the years, noting at times he found himself thinking, “What the hell is this?”

“It was a cleansing thing for me cause I’m a hoarder, but there’s stuff I’m never gonna play,” he says. “And there’s stuff underneath my stuff, you know? So it’s time.”

Julian’s Auctions is hosting the Life’s Been Good: Joe Walsh auction Dec. 16-17 at the Troubadour in Los Angeles and online. Items up for auction include Walsh’s McLaren Luxury Supercar; the “brick wall” Moschino suit Walsh wore to the Eagles’ 1988 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction; and a stage-played 2014 Duesenberg Joe Walsh Signature semi-hollowbody electric guitar.

“There’s a story in every guitar,” he says of the instruments in the auction. “There’s some real treasures, if you’re a treasure hunter.”

Proceeds from the auction will benefit Walsh’s charity VetsAid, which raises money for veteran-related causes.

Walsh sees an added benefit to clearing out his warehouse, noting, “Then I’ll have room to get more stuff.” 

More information on the auction can be found at JuliensAuctions.com.

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Freddie Mercury’s debut solo album, Mr. Bad Guy, has just been reissued for its 40th anniversary. To mark the occasion, Mercury’s official YouTube channel has debuted the first in a three-part series dedicated to the release.

Each episode in the Mr. Bad Guy series includes clips from music videos for the album’s singles, along with excerpts from a 1985 interview Mercury gave to promote the record.

In episode 1, Freddie tells interviewer David Wigg why he decided to take a hiatus from Queen to make the record.

“It’s something in me that I wanted to do. It’s a challenge, anyway,” he says. “I wanted to write a batch of songs that came out under the name Freddie Mercury, so why not? I think the time and place is right.”

As for the tunes on the album, Mercury says, “They’re all love ballads and things to do with sadness, torture and pain.” He added, “At the same time, it’s frivolous and tongue-in-cheek. That’s basically my whole nature, I guess.”

The new Mr. Bad Guy reissue was released Friday on 180-gram translucent green vinyl featuring a 2019 mix by Queen’s longtime sound team, Justin Shirley-Smith and Joshua J. Macrae. The mix originally appeared on the Mercury box set Never Boring.

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Squeeze has shared another track from their upcoming album, Trixies, which features some of the first songs the band’s Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook ever wrote together.

After previously releasing the first song, “Trixies Pt. 1,” they have now released “Trixies Pt. 2” to digital outlets.

The songs on Trixies, Squeeze’s first album in eight years, are described as a “collection of stories set in a fictional night club, Trixies.” They were written by the duo back in 1974 when recording was beyond their skill set.

“The songs that we wrote then astound me. I’m proud of them now, and I’m particularly proud that it was young us that did that,” Tilbrook said when the album was first announced. “The act of revisiting the Trixies songs had me in tears, partly because they’re so good, but also because I’m aware of all the stuff that I’ve still yet to hear and write.”

Difford added, “It really fills me with joy that at my age we can discover that we wrote such great songs when we were teenagers. I’m very proud of that.”

Trixies is being released March 6 and is available for preorder now.

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The Beatles are back on the Billboard charts thanks to Anthology 4, the new addition to the band’s Anthology series, which was recently reissued.

Anthology 4 features 36 tracks, including 13 previously unreleased demos, session recordings and more. It debuted in the top 10 on five Billboard charts, including both the Top Albums Sales and Top Current Album Sales charts, where it landed at #9.

The album is also at #7 on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart, #6 on the Top Rock Albums chart and #3 on the Indie Store Album Sales chart.

Anthology 4 was released as a standalone and was also part of the larger The Anthology Collection box set, with both debuting at #48 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart. The Collection includes the first three Anthology releases, which originally came out in the ’90s, and hit #1 on the Billboard 200 and the Top Album Sales chart.

The release of The Anthology Collection coincided with the Disney+ debut of the newly restored and remastered version of the Anthology documentary series, which aired on ABC in 1995. The new version was expanded from eight to nine episodes. A 25th anniversary edition of The Beatles Anthology book was also released in October.

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The Tom Petty estate has released a new ultra-limited edition vinyl of The Live Anthology – From The Vaults Vol. 1.

The new “Cool Blue” pressing of the album is limited to 2,000 individually numbered copies and is available now at TomPetty.com.

This colored variant follows the recent Record Store Day Black Friday release of a special turquoise version, which was limited to 11,000 copies.

The Live Anthology – From The Vaults Vol. 1. is made up of live tracks personally curated by Petty himself. The collection was originally issued as a bonus CD in the 2009 five-CD box set, The Live Anthology, and until now had never been available as a standalone vinyl release.

The album includes live performances of songs like “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” “The Last DJ” and “I Need To Know,” along with deep cuts like “Like A Diamond,” “Think About Me” and “Ballad of Easy Rider.”

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Aerosmith and Yungblud have released a new version of the One More Time track “Wild Woman” featuring country star Lainey Wilson.

Steven Tyler and Yungblud decided to ask Lainey to add her vocals to the track after she joined Tyler to perform the Aerosmith classic “Dream On” at his sixth annual Jam for Janie benefit in February. Joe Perry later went in and added new guitar parts to the track.

“I’m really hyped to have Lainey Wilson jump on this record with us. I have been a fan of her for a while. Her story is inspirational” says Yungblud. “With this record, we really needed a female vocalist who could carry it with the level of authenticity that Lainey embodies. We needed a wild woman and we for sure got one!”

“Wild Woman (Lainey Wilson Version)” is available now via digital outlets.

One More Time, released in November, is the first collaborative EP between Aerosmith and Yungblud. The record debuted at #9 on the Billboard 200 and at #1 on the U.K. Official Chart.

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Pink Floyd has announced a set of pop-ups to celebrate the upcoming release of Wish You Were Here 50, celebrating the 50th anniversary of their iconic ninth studio album.

Starting Dec. 12, the day of Wish You Were Here 50’s release, the Pink Floyd x News & Coffee Studio pop-up stores will open in London, Los Angeles, Barcelona and Paris, transforming each newsstand location into a specially curated space. There will also be pop-ups at stores in Berlin and Milan.

Available at the four main locations will be a Wish You Were Here 50 edition of Pink Floyd’s Brain Damage fanzine, limited to 250 numbered copies, featuring covers exclusive to each city. There will also be a global edition, limited to 1,000 copies, available in Berlin and Milan, and on the band’s website.

Fans can also get their hands on a limited-edition white vinyl anniversary pressing of Wish You Were Here, which will be exclusive to the four newsstand locations.

Details on the exact locations of the pop-ups can be found at PinkFloyd.com.

Wish You Were Here 50 will be released in a variety of configurations, with the original album plus 25 bonus tracks, including six tracks that have never been released before. There will also be a Blu-ray with Dolby Atmos and 5.1 Surround mixes of the album; three concert films from the band’s 1975 tour; and a short film by famed art designer and Hipgnosis co-founder Storm Thorgerson.

All formats are available for preorder now.

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Queen‘s Brian May and Fleetwood Mac‘s Mick Fleetwood are among the artists paying tribute to the late Booker T. and the M.G.’s guitarist Steve Cropper, who passed away Wednesday at the age of 84.

May, who appeared on Cropper and his band The Midnight Hour‘s 2024 album Friendlytown, wrote on Instagram, “We sadly lost one of the great original guitar heroes last night. Steve Cropper was and always will be an inspiration to all of us who bend electric guitar strings to this day.”

“I was fortunate to meet and work with this genial and generous human being – and we all made sure he heard the words that left him in no doubt of the energy we all felt flow from him, and the debt we owed him,” he noted.

Mick Fleetwood called Cropper a “trailblazing musician” and an “incredible human being.”

“I was blessed to have known and shared the stage with many times,” Mick wrote. “The world of music has lost a shinning gem.”

And Dan Ackroyd, who worked with Cropper in the Blues Brothers, called the guitarist “a musical giant,” adding, “The Blues Brothers would not exist without him. It was an honor to have shared studios and stages with ‘The Colonel’.”

Other musicians who paid tribute to Cropper include The Kinks’ Dave Davies, retired Whitesnake frontman David Coverdale and guitarist Joe Bonamassa.

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