Classic Hits

Paul McCartney is celebrating the third anniversary of his solo album McCartney III with a special limited edition reissue.

McCartney III — 3×3 Edition will be released Friday, December 15, in three randomly distributed configurations, each featuring a different multicolored vinyl and unique special extra volume. 

The three editions include a tri-color vinyl with the draft lyrics to “Pretty Boys,” a three-striped vinyl with a hand-drawn sketch of the album’s artwork and a swirl vinyl edition that comes with the draft lyrics for “The Kiss of Venus.” 

All three feature new cover art and a poster of a hand-sketched draft of the original artwork, done by Ed Ruscha.

McCartney III – 3×3 Edition is available for preorder now. 

McCartney III, released in December 2020, was the third album in the former Beatles‘ trilogy of solo releases, following 1970’s McCartney and 1980’s McCartney II. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer wrote, produced and performed all the instruments on the album.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Rush’s Geddy Lee wrapped the North American leg of his My Effin’ Life book tour with an extra surprise for Rush fans. The rocker’s appearance at Massey Hall in Toronto on Thursday, December 8, featured a very special guest, his Rush bandmate Alex Lifeson.  

Fan-shot footage posted to YouTube shows Lifeson signing in for duty, with the crowd going wild with applause and cheers as his name appeared onscreen. 

According to the Canadian outlet The Globe and Mail, the pair chatted about their history, sharing stories of the band’s formation and their first meeting with drummer Neil Peart. They also briefly discussed Peart’s battle with cancer and the band’s final tour.

“Towards the end, it became sadder it was coming to a close,” Lifeson shared.

As for the big question of whether they plan to perform together again, they didn’t make any formal announcements, but they did suggest that it may happen at some point. 

While this was the final North American stop on the My Effin’ Life book tour, Geddy still has a few more stops to go. The tour hits Sheffield, England, on Wednesday, December 13.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Like a number of pop stars in the ’80s, Bryan Adams was friendly with Princess Diana. While he insists they were never more than friends, he says their relationship was one of the highlights of his entire life.

“We had a lot of really, really good conversations, I have to tell you. In fact it’s strange and surreal to think about,” Bryan tells the U.K. paper The Times. “I really, really liked Diana, she was an amazing woman and a super-great inspiration. Meeting her was truly one of the greatest things that ever happened to me.”

In 1984, Bryan wrote a song called “Diana,” in which he seemingly pleads with the princess to leave Prince Charles and run away with him. When he eventually met Princess Diana in real life, he mentioned that song, and she told him, “I’d like to hear it again.” He sent her a copy, she invited him to tea, and that’s how they became friendly.

When asked if he tried to “save” Diana, he replies, “Uh-oh,” gets quiet and then says, “Maybe, a bit.”

“When I first went round to [Kensington Palace] she wasn’t, like, ‘I really need to talk to somebody,’ and you don’t bulldoze into someone’s life wanting to know everything in the first ten minutes,” he explains. “It was, ‘Let’s have a cup of tea.’ But later the more friendly we got the more I learnt what was really going on [in her life]. ”

He notes that he stopped performing “Diana” after her death in 1997 out “of respect to her and her boys.”

Bryan will kick off a new U.S. tour in January. He just released the Live at the Royal Albert Hall box set, which documents the three shows he performed at the legendary London venue last year.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Wolfgang Van Halen may have taken Michael Anthony‘s spot in Van Halen 17 years ago, but all’s good between them now.

In an Instagram post, Anthony shared that he recently saw Wolf perform with band Mammoth WVH.

“They threw it down!!” Anthony wrote of Mammoth’s performance. “Love ya Wolf, so great to see ya!! (proud of you brother!!).”

Anthony added in the post’s comment that the show marked the first time he and Wolf had seen each other in 20 years.

Wolf also shared his own post featuring a photo of him and Anthony backstage at the show, along with the caption, “Ran into an old friend at the @mammothwvh show in Vegas tonight. (Love ya, Mikey).”

Anthony played bass in the classic lineup of Van Halen, alongside Eddie and Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth. In 2006, Van Halen parted ways with Anthony, and Wolf, Eddie’s son, was brought in to play bass. Wolf remained in Van Halen until the band ended with Eddie’s death in 2020.

You’ll be able to hear Anthony play Van Halen tunes on tour in 2024 alongside Sammy Hagar, drummer Jason Bonham and guitarist Joe Satriani.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

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.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

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.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

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.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

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.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

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.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

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.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.