Classic Hits

There’s nothing quite like seeing Bruce Springsteen play a show close to his home in New Jersey, and now the rocker is sharing some of his favorite local performances with fans.

The Boss, who turns 74 on Saturday, just shared The Live Series: Songs of New Jersey, a playlist made up of previously unreleased live performances recorded in the New Jersey/New York area, many of which are about the Garden State.

They include such performances as “Born To Run,” live from the Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on July 9, 1981; “Jersey Girl,” performed at Giants Stadium, also in East Rutherford, on August 22, 1985; “My Hometown,” from St. Rose of Lima School in Freehold, New Jersey, on November 8, 1996; “Atlantic City” from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on January 31, 2016; and “My City of Ruins” at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford on August 25, 2016.

You can listen to The Live Series: Songs of New Jersey now streaming on digital outlets.

Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band are currently on a break from touring, after postponing September shows so The Boss could recover from a peptic ulcer. Their next show is scheduled for November 3 in Vancouver, Canada. A complete list of dates can be found at brucespringsteen.net.

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The Rolling Stones’ latest single, “Angry,” is featured on the official Spotify soundtrack to EA SPORTS FC24, the football (soccer to most folks in the U.S.) entertainment platform with a community of over 150 million users. 

“Angry” is the first single off The Stones’ upcoming album, Hackney Diamonds, dropping October 20. EA Worldwide Executive and President of Music Steve Schnur tells HitsDailyDouble the band approached them about featuring the song on the soundtrack.

“The premiere of EA Sports FC 24 delivers a definitive global soundtrack that builds on innovation and authenticity,” Schnur shares. “We’ve curated a player experience that celebrates diversity and discovery via new music that defies genres, erases borders, creates football culture and powers football life.” 

Other artists featured on the soundtrack include Kendrick Lamar, Jack Harlow, Run the Jewels and more.

EA SPORTS FC24 comes out September 29.

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Foghat has unveiled the latest track from their upcoming album, Sonic Mojo. The new tune, “She’s a Little Bit of Everything,” was co-written by founding drummer Roger Earl’s former Savoy Brown bandmate, the late Kim Simmonds, before he passed away in December 2022. 

“As soon as I heard this song, I knew it was for us,” Earl shares. “I claimed that it was written about Kim’s wife, Debi, but she is far too fine a person to ever admit that that’s where it came from. I really believe that this is where Kim got the inspiration for this song.” He adds, “It’s probably my favorite.”

Guitarist Bryan Bassett adds, “The song is a straight blues rocker that’s quickly becoming a crowd favorite in our live show.”

You can listen to “She’s A Little Bit of Everything” via digital outlets and on YouTube.

“She’s A Little Bit Of Everything” is one of three songs Simmonds co-wrote for the album along with the already released “Drivin’ On” and “I Don’t Appreciate You,” which is coming October 20.

Sonic Mojo, Foghat’s first album in seven years, drops November 10. It is available for preorder now.

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Fleetwood Mac is back on the charts. The band’s recent release, Rumours: Live, lands at #4 on the Billboard Top Album Sales chart this week.

It’s been a pretty long time since Fleetwood Mac has been ranked this high on the chart. The last time was back in 2003 when their album Say You Will debuted at #2. 

Rumours Live is a double album of the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers’ August 29, 1977, concert at the Forum in Los Angeles. It features live versions of most of the songs on 1977’s Rumours, including “Never Going Back Again,” “Songbird” and “The Chain” as well as tracks from 1975’s Fleetwood Mac, including “Landslide” and “Rhiannon.”

Of course, Rumours was a huge hit for Fleetwood Mac. The album spent 31 nonconsecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200, a record for any album by a group.

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Dolly Parton has shared another preview of her upcoming album Rockstar, releasing her take on the 4 Non-Blondes classic “What’s Up?” It features a guest appearance by the song’s writer and lead singer, Linda Perry. 

The new release comes with an accompanying video, shot at Eakin Elementary School in downtown Nashville. It has Dolly and Linda singing the song as they are slowly joined by a group of young school children.

“First of all, I love Linda Perry. Second of all, I love this song written by Linda. Third of all, I love being a part of this video to try to make people think about what’s going on in this world today,” Dolly says. “If our children don’t make it, then what will? Again, I ask ‘What’s Up?’ Enjoy.”

It sounds like Perry was thrilled to have Dolly perform her tune.

“How is one supposed to react when the greatest and most prolific songwriter in the world wants to cover a song YOU wrote?” Perry shares. “Her version of ‘What’s Up?’ is so good. Her spin on it made me feel like it was her song. No surprise there.”

Rockstar, which also features guest appearances by The Beatles‘ Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, Steven Tyler, Steve Perry, Sting, Stevie Nicks, Elton John and more, comes out November 17. It is available for preorder now.

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On This Day, September 22, 1985…

Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp headlined the first-ever Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois.

The trio organized the all-star event to raise money to help family farmers in the United States. They were inspired by comments Bob Dylan made during the Live Aid concerts, in which he said he hoped some of the money could go to help struggling farmers.

Dylan also performed at the first Farm Aid, as did Billy Joel, Tom Petty, B.B. King, Loretta Lynn and Roy Orbison.

The first concert raised over $9 million.

Since then Farm Aid has held concerts almost every year, with the 2023 edition scheduled for September 23 in Noblesville, Indiana. A full lineup can be found at farmaid.org.

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Queen frontman Freddie Mercury has often been hailed as one of the greatest frontmen in rock ‘n’ roll, and that was certainly apparent to anyone who ever got to see him perform live with the band. Well, now Queen is giving fans insight into the man for the latest edition of their weekly YouTube series, Queen the Greatest Live.

This week’s episode features archival interviews with the late Mercury, in which he shares why it was so important for Queen to put on a spectacle at each live show.

“People want to be entertained. How boring if we reproduce note-for-note what was on the album,” Freddie says in one clip. “People might as well just sit at home and listen to the album. It’s a show, it’s entertainment, and our songs take on a different meaning when we do a stage show.” 

He notes that for years, artists like The Rolling Stones and others have used visual theatrics in shows, noting “It’s a form of entertainment. It’s like you do your music and then entertainment plus.” 

“And I, sort of personally, you know, I just like doing that anyway,” he adds. “I’d hate to go onstage and just sit and sing my songs. I have to move.”

Next week on Queen The Greatest Live: “Freddie Mercury – Part 2.”

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As the saying goes, “One is random, two is a coincidence, three times is a trend,” so welcome to the Phil Collins trend.

Specifically, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer’s debut solo single, “In The Air Tonight,” is suddenly everywhere. First, Sean “Diddy” Combs sampled the iconic drum break from the song on his new single, “Another One of Me,” which features The Weeknd.

Next, country star Chris Stapleton, rap icon Snoop Dogg and drummer Cindy Blackman Santana teamed up to record a new version of “In the Air Tonight,” which is being used as ESPN’s new Monday Night Football theme.

And now, country/pop crossover star Kane Brown has released a new song called “I Can Feel It,” which also interpolates the “In The Air Tonight” drum break. Kane has also given Phil a writing credit on the song, telling Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, “It’s a legendary drum fill and it’s a legendary song. There’s no way I could not do that … Phil could have said no, so I’m glad that he let me use the song.”

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After weeks of hints on social media, Cher has finally revealed that she’s celebrating the 25th anniversary of her hit dance album Believe with a new box set.

Believe (25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) is being released November 3, featuring the classic album along with a compilation of remastered remixes. It will be released digitally and as a two-CD set. There will also be a limited-edition three-LP set that comes pressed on clear, sea blue and light blue vinyl, and includes a numbered lithograph.

Released October 22, 1998, Believe was Cher’s 22nd studio album and turned out to be a huge hit for the singer, peaking at #4 on the Billboard 200 Album chart. The popularity was mostly due to its Auto-Tune-heavy title track, which hit #1 in 23 countries. It went on to sell over 11 million copies and is still the highest-selling single by a solo female artist.

Other popular songs on the record include “Strong Enough,” “All or Nothing” and “Dov’è l’amore.”

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Ringo Starr took a little tumble onstage during a concert in New Mexico on Wednesday.

Video posted by TMZ shows The Beatles legend walking up some stairs to return to the stage; as he heads toward his microphone, he trips, hitting the stage hard. 

The rocker’s band was in the middle of singing “Give Peace A Chance” at the time of the fall, and he got back on his feet to join his bandmates on the chorus. He joked, “I fell over just to tell you that,” referring to the song’s classic refrain.

Ringo and His All-Starr Band, made up of Toto‘s Steve Lukather, Men at Work‘s Colin Hay, Edgar Winter, Warren Ham, Hamish Stuart and Gregg Bissonette, next play Kansas City, Missouri, on September 22. A complete list of dates can be found at ringostarr.com.

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