Classic Hits

Aerosmith‘s hits are still popular with fans. The band’s recent Greatest Hits compilation tops the Billboard Hard Rock Albums chart this week.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers moved 19,000 equivalent album units, 10,000 of which were from album sales, to land at #1. It’s their second chart-topper on the Rock Albums chart following 2012’s Music From Another Dimension, which was their last album of original songs.

Greatest Hits also lands at #4 on the Top Rock Albums chart and #7 on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart. It’s at #36 on the all genre Billboard 200 chart, their 31st album on that chart.

But this isn’t the first time Aerosmith has released a greatest hits package. In 1980 Columbia released Aerosmith’s Greatest Hits, which was then reissued in 1997 with hits they accumulated through 1988. They also released Big Ones in 1994, O, Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits in 2002 and Devil’s Got A New Disguise: The Very Best of Aerosmith in 2006.

The latest Greatest Hits album was released ahead of Aerosmith’s Peace Out tour, which will be their goodbye to the road. It launches Saturday, September 2, in Philadelphia. A complete list of dates can be found at aerosmith.com.

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The effect artificial intelligence will have on music has been the subject of hot debate, and Queen’s Brian May has shared his thoughts on the subject.

“I think a lot of great stuff will come from AI, because it is going to increase the powers of humans to solve problems,” May shares in an interview with Guitar Player. But he says, “[M]y major concern with it now is in the artistic area. I think by this time next year the landscape will be completely different. We won’t know what’s been created by AI and what’s been created by humans.”

He continues, “I think we might look back on 2023 as the last year when humans really dominated the music scene. … It makes me feel apprehensive, and I’m preparing to feel sad about this.”

May shares that he’s worried about “the potential for AI to cause evil” in all areas, not just music.

“I think the whole thing is massively scary. It’s much more far-reaching than anybody realized — well, certainly than I realized,” he says.

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U2’s Bono has huge FOMO, according to Noel Gallagher. The Oasis rocker revealed the fun tidbit during an interview discussing his first meeting with Bruce Springsteen. 

Gallagher tells Sunday World’s Shuffle feature that his meeting with Springsteen happened by chance when they bumped into each other in Ibiza, Spain. Noel called Springsteen an “amazing guy” and recalled the fun time he had lunching with The Boss, his wife, Patti Scialfa, and others.

“We were sat at this long table, we’d had a few bottles of wine and there’s food everywhere and we took a selfie with each other and [Springsteen] said, ‘Should we ruin Bono’s day?’ And we sent him the selfie,” Gallagher shared, suggesting the U2 frontman “has got a crippling fear of missing out.”

“And his wife called me and said, ‘When you sent him that photograph he couldn’t handle the fact that you two were in Spain having the time of your life and he wasn’t there,'” he says.

But it was all in fun, as Gallagher called Bono “one of his dearest friends.”

“He gets a lot of flack, but I f***** love him,” Gallagher said.

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While we haven’t heard any new music from ABBA since 2021, fans are getting the next best thing with a new song from member Agnetha Fältskog [Ang-NE-ta FELT-schoo-g].

Agnetha just released the track “Where Do We Go From Here?” It will be the only new song on an upcoming album reimagining the tunes from her last solo record, 2013’s A. She explains that she was inspired to reimagine the record after hearing one of the songs on the radio.

“Suddenly it hit me, what would the album sound like if we had made it today…? I couldn’t stop thinking about it,” she writes on her recently launched Instagram account. “I reached out to the boys who produced ‘A’ back in 2013 – ‘What would you guys think about reimagining “A” and making a totally new version of it?’ They loved the idea! ‘Let’s try!'” 

Agnetha’s new album, A+, will be released October 13. It is available for preorder now. You can listen to “Where Do We Go From Here?” now via streaming services and on YouTube.

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The Jimi Hendrix documentary Music, Money, Madness … Jimi Hendrix In Maui is getting a special screening in Los Angeles, with proceeds going to help the victims of the recent wildfires in Maui, Hawaii. 

The screening is happening September 20 at the TCL Chinese Theatre at 7 p.m. It will include a Q&A with the film’s producers: Janie Hendrix, Hendrix’s sister and Experience Hendrix CEO, and John McDermott, who also directed the film. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Maui Food Bank, Hawaii Community Foundation—Maui Strong Fund and Maui Humane Society. 

“Jimi loved Hawaii! His time there proved to be historic and really rather epic,” said Janie. “He was also a humanitarian in his own right, and very concerned about the human condition. This screening of the film of Jimi’s live concert in Maui is a profound opportunity for him to continue what he started there all those years ago, and at the same time help the people of Maui who have suffered such a tremendous loss.” 

Music, Money, Madness … Jimi Hendrix In Maui follows the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s 1970 visit to Maui and their participation in the critically panned counterculture film Rainbow Bridge, produced by their controversial manager Michael Jeffery.

Tickets for the special TCL Chinese Theatre screening are on sale now.

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Fleetwood Mac has released another track off their upcoming Rumours Live double album, which drops September 8.

The latest is a live version of their classic “Go Your Own Way,” written by Lindsey Buckingham. The original was the lead single from 1977’s Rumours and became the band’s first top 10 hit. This is the third track they’ve released from Rumuors Live, following live versions of “Dreams” and “Say You Love Me.”

Rumours Live features performances from the band’s August 29, 1977, concert at the Forum in Los Angeles. The 90-minute concert was the opening night of a three-night stand, where the band performed live versions of “You Make Loving Fun,” “Songbird” and “The Chain,” as well as “Landslide,” “Rhiannon” and others from 1975’s Fleetwood Mac.

Rumors Live is available for preorder now.

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On This Day, August 31, 1945 …

George Ivan Morrison aka the legendary singer Van Morrison was born in Belfast, Ireland.

Morrison started his career in the mid-1960s as leader of the band Them, which broke up in 1966. He went on to have a hugely successful solo career: He released his debut solo album, Blowin’ Your Mind, in 1967, featuring the track “Brown Eyed Girl,” which was a top 10 hit and went on to become his signature tune.

In 1968 Morrison released the critically acclaimed album Astral Weeks, which some consider the best album of all time. That was followed by Moondance, which was his first million-selling record, with the title track and “Into The Mystic” becoming Morrison classics.

Morrison has released over 40 albums and continues to tour to this day. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003. He was also made a knight in 2016.

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Another album from The Rolling Stones is celebrating a huge milestone. August 31 marks the 50th anniversary of the band’s album Goats Head Soup, which was the follow-up to their iconic Exile on Main St.

Although it was released to mixed reviews, Goats Head Soup hit #1 on the Billboard 200 Album chart, spending four weeks in the top spot. It also went to #1 in the U.K. and several other countries.

The Stones lineup on the album included Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts and guitarist Mick Taylor. It also featured appearances by keyboardists Nicky Hopkins, Billy Preston and Ian “Stu” Stewart, as well as sax player Bobby Keys.

The most well-known song on the album is the classic “Angie,” which went to #1. Over the years there have been rumors about who inspired the tune, including David Bowie‘s wife Angela and Richards’ daughter Dandelion Angela, but Richards said in his memoir, Life, he chose the name at random. 

In 2020, The Rolling Stones revisited Goats Head Soup with the release of a super deluxe box set that included a variety of goodies for fans: a remastered version of the original, remixed by Giles Martin; 10 bonus tracks made up of alternate versions; outtakes; and three previously unheard tracks. One of those unheard tracks was “Scarlet,” which featured Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page.

The set also included a 15-track live album, The Brussels Affair, recorded during the band’s 1973 tour in support of the record.

Thanks to the reissue, Goats Head Soup returned to the U.K. chart at #1, 47 years after it first hit the top spot. By doing so, The Stones became the first band in U.K. chart history to land a #1 album across six different decades.

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John Mellencamp is off the market. During an appearance on Club Random with Bill Maher, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer revealed he’s been dating a 57-year-old woman for the past seven months.

While Maher tried to get Mellencamp to identify his lady friend, he’d only say, “She’s a beautiful 57-year-old woman who just walked into my apartment in New York unexpectedly.”

He added, “She was with a couple of friends. She walked in. She didn’t know I was going to be there. I didn’t know she was there. We met each other.” 

He also said that she “has a really high threshold for tolerance” and that she’s “never even got angry at me” in their time together.

And things must be going well because Mellencamp says she hasn’t left his side in seven months.

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Talking Heads broke up rather acrimoniously back in 1991, but keyboardist Jerry Harrison says the upcoming 40th anniversary rerelease of their iconic concert film Stop Making Sense has healed some old wounds.

During an appearance on Consequence’s Kyle Meredith With … podcast, Harrison says when they were approached by distributor A24 about rereleasing the film, it forced them to “work together to make a decision” about whether it was a good fit.

“Then A24 is going like: ‘Here’s the offer — we’re going to get really behind this, if you help us.’ And so it was like, ‘Obviously, we need to work together to make this a success,’” he says.

All four original members — Harrison, David Byrne, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz — are set to reunite for a Q&A about the film at the Toronto Film Festival on September 11.

“I think it’s been a somewhat of a healing experience for everybody,” Harrison shares. “It’s like, ‘Yeah, we actually can work together and do this.’ And this is something we’re all proud of.” He adds, “It’s not like the feelings that made people say various things are totally gone or anything like that, but it’s sort of like they’ve been voiced, do you need to voice things like that over and over again? I mean, I made my point.”

Harrison also says thanks to his success on Broadway, Byrne has gained a “new confidence” that has actually helped his relationship with his former bandmates. He notes, “It also [helped him] let bygones be bygones, because why waste our time on these petty complaints from the past? I don’t need to prove anything, because now, I have proven it.” 

A24 will release the newly restored Stop Making Sense nationally on September 23.

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