Classic Hits

Jimmy Buffett may be gone, but his band plans to live on. Songwriter Mac McAnally, a longtime member of Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band, tells Billboard that the band plans to continue on, despite Buffett’s passing on September 1. 

“The Coral Reefer Band is second family to all of us. We are a family. And Jimmy wants us to continue and we want to continue,” McAnally shares. “There’s ongoing discussions about the best way to do that, the most practical way to do that and how to do it in a way that is worthy of the legacy that we’re part of.” 

He adds, “I can’t wait until we [figure it out] because we miss being out there, playing his songs to people and feeling that alternating current go back and forth from the stage to the crowd. I don’t know who’s got more energy, them or us.” 

Buffett’s last time on a stage was in June when he surprised the audience at McAnally’s show in Rhode Island, where they played the Buffett/Alan Jackson tune “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere.”

“I looked back around at him because he was coming up behind me and he was 100% the happiest person on earth,” McAnally says, “because I don’t think he knew if he was going to feel it again and I don’t think he knew that he was never gonna feel it again after that.”

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Founding members of The Guess Who, Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman, are suing two of their former bandmates. 

The pair has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court against original members Jim Kale and Garry Peterson, accusing them of misleading fans into thinking that they are included in the current lineup.

Peterson is the only original member still performing with the group; the suit accuses him and Kale of “concocting a deceptive scheme” that has tricked fans into buying tickets to Guess Who shows thinking Burton and Cummings are still performing with the band. Burton and Cummings say fans are instead getting “a cover band.”

The suit also accuses Kale and Peterson of replacing original photos of The Guess Who with pictures of Peterson’s version on streaming services and of using songs written by Burton and Cummings to promote the current lineup’s tour. They say all of this has left them unable to tour and has “tarnished the band’s legacy.”

Cummings and Bachman are seeking in excess of $20 million; they want a judge to force Kale and Peterson to inform the public and venues of the truth of who’s performing.

“With this lawsuit, Randy and I hope to set the record straight and protect fans from imposters trying to rewrite history,” says Cummings. “Even after we’re gone, the legacy of The Guess Who will live on, and we want to make sure that legacy is restored and preserved truthfully.”

Bachman adds, “Anyone presenting and promoting themselves as The Guess Who are clones who are ripping off our fans and tainting the legacy of the band. It’s about time for the real story to come out.”

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It sounds like a lot of people want Cher to help them get into the holiday spirit. The singer’s brand new holiday album, Christmas, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top Holiday Albums chart.

Cher moved 21,000 equivalent album units of Christmas to land at #1, with the album also debuting at #32 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart.

The album is now Cher’s 14th top 40 album; she joins Barbra Streisand as only the second female artist to have top 40 records in every decade since the 1960s. Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones have done so, as well. 

Cher’s Christmas has her covering holiday classics like “Santa Baby,” “Run Run Rudolph” and more, along with four original tunes. It features guest appearances by Stevie Wonder, Cyndi Lauper, Michael Bublé, Darlene Love and Tyga.

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Bob Dylan has added a New York City date to his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour.  The rocker will now play the Beacon Theatre on November 16, one of seven shows in the New York/New Jersey area. 

In addition to the Beacon, Dylan is already set to play The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, on November 7 and 8, Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre November 14 and 15, and Newark’s New Jersey Performing Arts Center on November 20 and 21. 

Tickets for the Beacon show go on sale Friday, November 3, at noon ET. A complete list of dates can be found at bobdylan.com.

Dylan brought his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour to Montreal on Sunday, October 29. Rolling Stone reports he surprised the crowd with a cover of “Dance Me to the End of Love” by Leonard Cohen, a Montreal native. Dylan’s been covering local artists at many of his shows; he’s played John Mellencamp in Indiana, Chuck Berry in St. Louis and more. 

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Live from Daryl’s House, the award-winning show starring Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Daryl Hall, is coming back after a five-year hiatus.

Variety reports that the show, which debuted in 2007, will return on November 1 on a dedicated YouTube channel. The first guest will be Glenn Tilbrook from Squeeze; new episodes will arrive weekly, featuring Charlie Starr of the band Blackberry Smoke, King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp, Andy Grammer, Lisa Loeb and Howard Jones.

According to Variety, in the November 1 episode the Hall & Oates legend says that Live from Daryl’s House was initially “an idea I had to use the Internet for entertainment, which hadn’t really been done before.” He adds, “Hard to believe but there wasn’t anything like it. So much has changed since then. I was kind of a pioneer.”

“I’m unbelievably excited about the new season,” he continues. “I love all the guests we’ve booked and I think we’ve gone to places, musically, that we’ve never gone to before.”

Before the five-year hiatus, the show, which comprises 90 episodes, shot its final episodes in 2018; the last two aired in 2020. In 2010, the series won a Webby Award for Best Variety Show.

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Peter Gabriel shared another track from his upcoming album i/o over the weekend, coinciding with October’s full moon. The latest is “And Still,” a song he wrote for his mother after she passed away.

“I wrote a song for my dad a number of years back, which I was actually able to play him, which was ‘Father, Son,'” Gabriel says. “When my mum died, I wanted to do something for her, but it’s taken a while before I felt comfortable and distant enough to be able to write something.”

He adds, “In the middle I wanted to write my mum a beautiful melody. She loved classical music, so we have a beautiful cello playing there. It took a while to get that right, it can’t be too emotional or too underplayed, but I think we got there in the end.”

You can listen to “And Still” now via digital outlets and YouTube.

As he’s done with all the other songs he’s shared from i/o, Gabriel plans to release several different remixes of “And Still.” The first is the Tchad Blake (Dark-Side Mix), which will be followed by Mark “Spike” Stent‘s (Bright-Side Mix) and Hans-Martin Buff’s Atmos mix (In-Side Mix). 

i/o, Gabriel’s first album of new material since 2010’s Scratch My Back, is due out December 1. It is available for preorder now.

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Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top are teaming up once again for a second round of The Sharp Dressed Simple Man Tour. 

The bands have announced 36 new dates in 2024, with the first leg, featuring special guest Black Stone Cherry, kicking off March 8 in Savannah, Georgia, and running through April 20 in Corpus Christi, Texas.

A second leg of the trek will then launch August 15 in Syracuse, New York, wrapping September 22 in Ridgefield, Washington, with openers The Outlaws. A complete list of dates can be found at lynyrdskynyrd.com and zztop.com. 

An artist presale is set to run from Tuesday, October 31, at 10 a.m. local time until Thursday, November 2, at 10 p.m.; the general onsale will kick off Friday, November 3, at 10 a.m. local time.

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John Mellencamp is heading back out on the road next year. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer announced a 2024 leg of his Live and In Person Tour, playing 27 new cities.

Mellencamp has booked one night only in each city, starting March 8 in Rochester, New York. He’ll perform in Newark, Hartford, Birmingham, Washington, D.C., and more, before wrapping the tour April 22 in Savannah, Georgia. A complete list of dates can be found at mellencamp.com.

Presales are happening from October 31 to November 2, with the general onsale kicking off Friday, November 3, at 10 a.m.  

Mellencamp launched his Live and In Person tour in February, playing small theaters with multiple nights in some cities. He wrapped the tour in June, the same month he released his 25th solo album, Orpheus Descending.

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Bruce Springsteen was the surprise guest at a symposium this weekend celebrating the 50th anniversary of his sophomore album, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, the Asbury Park Press reports.

The event was held at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey, on Saturday, October 28, with Springsteen interviewed by Robert Santelli, executive director of the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music. He also sat in on a panel that featured original E Street Band members Vini Lopez and David Sancious, and original and current member, Garry Tallent.

“The album is a lovely wild card — me finally getting a chance to express myself,” Springsteen told the audience. “Everything I’ve basically done for the rest of my career started on The Wild and the Innocent. It’s a lovely little record and I’m still very proud of it.” 

“The main thing for me on The Wild and the Innocent was that I wanted to introduce myself as a rock ‘n’ roll performer,” he continued, noting he wasn’t supposed to put any electric guitar on his debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., because he was originally signed as a singer/songwriter.

He added, “But the second record I knew I wanted to write basically a rock and soul music.” 

Released in 1973, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle received critical praise but wasn’t initially a commercial success. It features future Springsteen classic “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” and fan favorites like “4th of July Asbury Park (Sandy),” “Kitty’s Back” and more.

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While The Rolling Stones‘ new album, Hackney Diamonds, topped the chart in the U.K. and Australia, it settled for #3 on the Billboard 200 Album chart in the U.S., coming in just behind blink-182’s ONE MORE TIME… at #1 and Drake’s For All The Dogs at #2.

The Stones moved 101,000 equivalent album units of Hackney Diamonds to give them their 38th top-10 album, adding to their record for the most Top 10 albums in the history of the list.

Hackney Diamonds did particularly well with actual album sales, moving 94,000 units, thanks to over 30 different vinyl options, box sets, CDs and more.

Hackney Diamonds is The Stones’ first album of new material in 18 years. Their last was 2005’s A Bigger Bang, which also debuted at #3 on the album chart.

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