Classic Hits

A very special Night Ranger concert is coming to AXS TV.

The special, 40 Years And A Night with Contemporary Youth Orchestra, is set to air Saturday, October 21, at 8 p.m. ET, with an extended 90-minute version airing Saturday, November 18, at 9 p.m. ET. 

The special captures the band’s November 9, 2022, performance at Key Bank State Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio, where they were backed by the Contemporary Youth Orchestra, made up of musicians ages 12 to 18 from over 40 schools in the state. 

“It was a dream come true to have Night Ranger music accompanied by an entire symphonic band … including our own!” Jack Blades shares. “Although now, we’re spoiled, and we want to carry the orchestra with us everywhere we go!!”

Brad Gillis adds, “I can check this one off my bucket list. Having the CYO backing us for this show was just amazing and it really took Night Ranger to another level.” 

An album of the concert, also called 40 Years and a Night with Contemporary Youth Orchestra, is set to drop Friday, October 20, on CD, vinyl, DVD, Blu-ray and digitally. It is available for preorder now.

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Back in 1983, six years before Taylor Swift was even born, Bananarama was the first act to have a top 10 hit with a song called “Cruel Summer.” Now the most frequently charting female group of all time is back with a new song and an upcoming album called Glorious — The Ultimate Collection.

The new song is a dance floor anthem called “Feel the Love,” which the duo says is about “believing in yourself, focusing on what you want and not listening to negativity.” Group member Keren Woodward says of the track, “It was a process of making something soaring and uplifting. And we’ve gone to town with the harmonies, which we love.”

Glorious — The Ultimate Collection is a two-CD set that features music from across the group’s entire history. Hits include “Really Saying Something,” “Cruel Summer,” “Robert De Niro’s Waiting,” “Venus,” “A Trick of the Night,” “I Heard a Rumor,” “Love in the First Degree,” and dance hits like “Move in My Direction” and “Look on the Floor.” A three-CD deluxe edition adds 10 remixes.

“We wanted this to be a unique collection, a celebration of all the twists and turns in our career,” says Sara Dallin.

Keren notes, “At times we have maybe felt that we haven’t received the credit, respect, and recognition we deserve, certainly sometimes purely down to the fact we were born female. I feel the collection of songs we have amassed over the last four decades hopefully speak for themselves, so I don’t have to.”

If you preorder the album from the group’s official store, you’ll receive access to a presale for Bananrama’s London show on April 3.

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Bruce Springsteen’s Archives and Center for American Music at Monmouth University is expanding and the rocker is getting a building named after him.

School officials announced they’re building a new 30,000-square-foot building on the university’s West Long Branch, New Jersey, campus, which will house the Archives and the Center for American Music. It will also feature exhibition galleries and a 230-seat theater.

“I think a building with your name on it is a tricky thing,” Springsteen said during a ceremony Wednesday, October 18, according to the Asbury Park Press. “Because I’m still alive … I could get arrested for shooting tequilas on a public park. That’s something that could happen.” The latter comment is a reference to his 2020 DWI arrest in Sandy Hook, New Jersey.

He added, “All I can say is I will do my best to do nothing for the rest of my life to embarrass a building.”

The building is expected to feature exhibits on Springsteen, with the archives giving fans the ability to listen to archival interviews, watch rare footage and more. There are also plans for concerts, teacher workshops, lectures, film series and more.

Monmouth University is currently in the process of raising the $45 million needed to build the new structure, with a planned opening for spring 2026. 

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Cher‘s biggest hit of all time, “Believe,” is going to be celebrated in a 25th anniversary edition of its parent album, also called Believe. But looking back on the song now, Cher says she wishes she had stood up for herself more.

Cher tells the British paper The Guardian that it was her idea to change the song’s lyrics, because she didn’t think they were assertive enough. “I thought, ‘A girl can be sad in one verse, but she can’t be sad in two verses,’” she explains. “I just won’t have it. So, then I thought of the lines, ‘I’ve had time to think it through/and maybe I’m too good for you.'”

But according to Cher, she wasn’t assertive enough in real life.

“I should have asked for a writing credit. I was so stupid!” she tells The Guardian.

One reason for the success of “Believe” was its pioneering use of Auto-Tune, which a lot of artists — especially hip-hop artists — now use to cover up the fact that they can’t sing that well. Cher says she had no idea that’s what it was being used for until Jay-Z said to her, “Thanks for keeping my friends in work!”

Cher says one person she thinks sang “Believe” as well as she does is Adam Lambert, who performed a slowed-down version at the Kennedy Center Honors four years ago. Cher tells The Guardian, “That’s one of the greatest vocal performances of any song by anybody. To recreate it so completely with such a beautiful voice? I just thought, ‘Dude, I’m glad you weren’t around when I was doing this!’”

Believe (25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) comes out November 3.

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After playing shows on the West Coast this summer, guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, best known for his work with Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers, has announced a new set of fall tour dates.

Baxter, who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2020 as a member of the Doobies, will kick off the new dates with a two-night stand in New York City November 7 and 8. The tour wraps November 19 in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. You can find details on JeffSkunkBaxter.com. 

The tour is in support of Baxter’s first solo album, 2022’s Speed of Heat, which features contributions by his old Steely Dan/Doobie Brothers pal Michael McDonald, plus country star Clint Black and blues guitarist Jonny Lang.

“We plan on performing virtually all the songs from Speed of Heat, along with a few surprises,” Baxter says. “The tours have gone extremely well, and it has been way too much fun and gratifying to perform these songs for a live audience, especially with a band as outstanding and amazing as the one I have the privilege of touring with me. The response has been incredible and just makes me want to keep on doing it!”

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Elton John isn’t going on tour anymore, but that doesn’t mean he can’t perform live.

Nashville’s WKRN-TV reports that on October 14, Elton played at a “top secret” private birthday party in Music City at the Twelve Thirty Club, which happens to be owned by Justin Timberlake. Justin and his wife, Jessica Biel, were there, but the party was for the wife of a local bigwig, identified by Nashville’s WSMV-TV as Jimmy Liautaud, founder of the Jimmy John’s sandwich chain.

WSMV-TV adds that Elton played a 12-song set, including “Your Song,” “Tiny Dancer” and “Rocketman.”

Elton and Justin have known each other for quite some time: Justin actually played a young Elton in the Rocket Man’s video for the 2001 song “This Train Don’t Stop There Anymore.” It’s not clear if Justin had anything to do with booking Elton for the party.

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The iconic documentary The Last Waltz, which captured The Band’s final concert, is returning to theaters as part of the film’s 45th anniversary celebration. Fathom Events will screen the Martin Scorsese-directed film on Sunday, November 5, at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. ET.

The return to theaters was in the works before the August 9 passing of The Band frontman Robbie Robertson. Each screening will feature an introduction from the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, in which he shares his perspective on The Band’s final show. 

The Last Waltz, considered one of the greatest concert documentaries of all time was released April 26, 1978. It  focused on The Band’s show at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976. 

Billed as their “farewell concert appearance,” the show featured guest appearances by a whole host of musicians, including Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Dr. John, Ronnie Wood, Muddy Waters, Neil Diamond, Van Morrison and Neil Young. 

The film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2019.

Tickets for the Fathom screenings are on sale now.

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Paul McCartney made his first appearance with John Lennon’s band The Quarrymen at New Clubmoor Hall in Liverpool, England.

McCartney was so nervous that he messed up his big guitar solo on the song “Guitar Boogie.”

Years later, McCartney claimed George Harrison, who joined The Quarrymen in February 1958, was recruited because McCartney realized he was “just too frightened” to be the group’s lead guitarist.

Of course by 1960, the band evolved into The Beatles, one of the most successful rock groups of all time. McCartney also went on to have a successful solo career and continues to tour to this day. In fact, he launches the latest leg of his Got Back tour on Wednesday, October 18, in Adelaide, Australia. 

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Peter Gabriel has spent the past year giving fans previews of his new album, i/o, dropping a new song with each full moon. Now, he’s finally ready to share the entire project. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer is set to release the 12-track record December 1. It will be his first album of new material since 2010’s Scratch My Back.  

“After a years-worth of full moon releases, I’m very happy to see all these new songs back together on the good ship i/o and ready for their journey out into the world,” Gabriel shares. 

All songs on the album are getting two stereo mixes: the Bright-Side Mix by Mark “Spike” Stent and the Dark-Side Mix by Tchad Blake. Each artist’s mix will be part of a double-CD package and will also be available as separate double vinyls.  

“We have two of the greatest mixers in the world in Tchad and Spike and they definitely bring different characters to the songs,” Gabriel explains. “Tchad is very much a sculptor building a journey with sound and drama, Spike loves sound and assembling these pictures, so he’s more of a painter.”

There will also be a third remix, the In-Side Mix in Dolby Atmos, by Hans-Martin Buff, which will be included in a separate three-disc set that also includes a Blu-ray. 

Peter Gabriel’s i/o is available for preorder now. 

Here is the track list:

“Panopticom”
“The Court”
“Playing for Time”
“i/o”
“Four Kinds of Horses”
“Road to Joy”
“So Much”
“Olive Tree”
“Love Can Heal”
“This Is Home”
“And Still”
“Live And Let Live”

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A previously unreleased concert from the Grateful Dead is coming out on CD later this month, featuring liner notes by a famous celebrity Deadhead.

Dave’s Picks Volume 48 will feature the band’s complete November 20, 1971, concert from UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion, with Basketball Hall of Famer Bill “Grateful Red” Walton, who attended the show, sharing his memories in the notes.

“Basketball and music have always been alike for me, the celebration of life and all other good things,” Walton, who played for the UCLA Bruins, shares. “UCLA and the Grateful Dead embody the highest levels of this celebratory joy. At UCLA, it was endless fun, every day, in every way. We couldn’t wait to get there, to get going — though it was never as much fun as when the Grateful Dead came to play with and for us.”

Chosen by Dead archivist David Lemieu, the two-CD concert features performances of such Dead classics as “Casey Jones,” “Sugar Magnolia,” “Bertha,” “Ramble On Rose,” an over 23-minute jam on “The Other One” and more.

The set also comes with a third CD featuring a concert from October 24, 1970, at Keil Auditorium in St. Louis, Missouri, with performances of such songs as “Not Fade Away,” “Good Lovin,’” “Dancing In The Street” and others. 

Only 25,000 numbered copies of Dave’s Picks Volume 48 are being produced. They are available for preorder now and will ship October 27. 

In other Grateful Dead news … fans can now get their hands on the first-ever Grateful Dead vape pen from Grenco Science. The Grateful Dead x G Pen Dash is covered in the band’s colors and features their signature imagery, including the Grateful Dead skeleton. It’s available at gpen.com.

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