Classic Hits

On Instagram, Lady Gaga paid a heartfelt tribute to her friend and musical collaborator Tony Bennett, who died at age 96 on July 21.

“I will miss my friend forever,” Gaga wrote in the lengthy caption of a photo of herself hugging the legendary crooner.  “I will miss singing with him, recording with him, talking with him, being on stage together.”

“With Tony, I got to live my life in a time warp. Tony & I had this magical power,” Gaga continued. “We transported ourselves to another era, modernized the music together, & gave it all new life as a singing duo. But it wasnt [sic] an act. Our relationship was very real.”

“Sure he taught me about music, about showbiz life, but he also showed me how to keep my spirits high and my head screwed on straight. ‘Straight ahead,’ he’d say.”

She called Bennett an “optimist” who “believed in quality work AND quality life,” and who was “always grateful.” 

Gaga wrote, “I’ve been grieving the loss of Tony for a long time. We had a very long and powerful goodbye. Though there were 5 decades between us, he was my friend. My real true friend. Our age difference didn’t matter.”

She described losing to Bennett to Alzheimer’s as “painful” but also “really beautiful,” noting, “All I wanted was for Tony to remember how much I loved him and how grateful I was to have him in my life. But, as that faded slowly I knew deep down he was sharing with me the most vulnerable moment in his life that he could — being willing to sing with me when his nature was changing so deeply.”

She added, “I’ll never forget this experience. I’ll never forget Tony Bennett.”

Gaga closed the post with, “I love you Tony. Love, Lady.”

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The new documentary Kiss the Future, featuring Irish rockers U2, is set to open the 2023 Sarajevo Film Festival this August.

Screen Daily reports that the film, which received its world premiere in February at the Berlin Film Festival and also opened New York’s Tribeca Festival in June, will be part of Sarajevo Film Festival’s Open Air program on August 11.

Kiss the Future, directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain and produced by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Sarah Anthony, follows a group of underground musicians and creatives during the siege of Sarajevo, which lasted from April 1992 to February 1996. The doc includes footage of U2’s memorable 1997 concert at Koševo Stadium celebrating the country’s liberation, along with interviews with Bono, The Edge and Adam Clayton.

The film also features interviews with Sarajevo Film Festival founder Mirsad Purivatra. He started the festival during the conflict in 1995, and only stepped down as director last year.

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A month after she landed in the ICU with a “serious bacterial infection,” Madonna is celebrating being alive and thanking those who helped her get through that difficult time.

In an Instagram update posted on July 30, she shared three photos, two of which showed her with two of her six children: daughter Lourdes and son David. She wrote. “Love from family and friends is the best Medicine. One month out of the hospital and I can reflect.”

“As a Mother you can really get caught up In the needs Of your children and the seemingly endless giving,” she continued. “But when the chips were down my children really showed up for me. I saw a side to them I had never seen before.”

Madonna then wrote about the third photo on the post, which shows her holding a framed Polaroid photo — a gift from her manager, Guy Oseary.

“If you zoom into this Picture I am holding You will see A Polaroid taken by Andy Warhol of Keith Haring wearing a jacket with Michael Jackson’s face painted on it,” she wrote. “A perfect triangle of Brilliance. Artist[s] who touched so many lives including my own.”

Madonna befriended Warhol and Haring early in her career; she and Michael Jackson attended the Oscars together in 1991.

“I sobbed when I opened this gift because I realized how lucky I am to be alive,” she concluded. “And how fortunate I am to have known these people and so many others who are also gone. Thank you@guyoseary for this gift! And Thank you to all my angels who protected me and let me Stay to finish doing my work!”

Madonna has pushed back the North American leg of her Celebration tour; it will now start in Europe in October.

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A new documentary about the legendary session musicians of the 1970s has been picked up by Magnolia Pictures, with plans for a December release, The Wrap reports.

The documentary, Immediate Family, is the follow-up to director Denny Tedesco’s 2008 documentary, The Wrecking Crew, which focused on session musicians of the 1960s.

Immediate Family tells the story of session musicians Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel and Waddy Wachtel, and features interviews with a host of A-list stars, including James Taylor, Keith Richards, Don Henley, Stevie Nicks, Jackson Browne, David Crosby, Carole King and Linda Ronstadt.

“I’m so happy to be working with the Magnolia team again for my follow-up to The Wrecking Crew,” said Tedesco. “When The Wrecking Crew was released, it went beyond all of our expectations and continues to find new fans even today. I look forward to the same experience with Immediate Family.”

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Billy Idol released the expanded edition of his self-titled album debut on July 28, and to coincide with the release, he’s dropped a video for a previously unreleased 12-minute Clubland Extended Remix of his classic tune “White Wedding.”

The clip reworks the song’s original video and even comes with a warning about strobe effects that may be sensitive to some viewers.

In addition to the remix of “White Wedding,” the two-CD Billy Idol Expanded Edition features a separate album with a previously unreleased concert, recorded August 12, 1982, at The Roxy in West Hollywood, California. It features performances of such tracks as “Hot in the City,” “Mony Mony,” “White Wedding” and more.

Billy Idol Expanded Edition is available now.

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Roger Waters is sharing more info about his upcoming release, The Dark Side of the Moon Redux, set to drop October 6. 

In a new YouTube video, Waters talks about all the musicians on his reimagining of Pink Floyd’s classic album, including Joey Waronker on drums, Gus Seyffert on “synthesizers and things,” Johnny Shepherd on Hammond organ, Azniv Korkejian on vocals, Jonathan Wilson on guitar and Jon Carin on synthesizers.

Of the album, Waters says, “People have to listen to it before they can form a view of what it is,” noting, “I’m very proud of it.” He adds, “I hope it will be a rallying point for people. Not just people who like music; people who like love and life.”

For fans who may be worried he strayed too much from the classic album, Waters insists that’s not the case. “The rest of it is, it’s Dark Side of the Moon,” he says. “You all know all the bloody songs for god’s sake, we’ve all known them for 50 years.”

The Dark Side of the Moon Redux is available for preorder now. It features reworkings of all the tracks on the original album. A double LP edition of the release will include a 13-minute bonus track titled “Original Composition,” which was inspired by the rerecording.

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R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe has paid tribute to the late Sinéad O’Connor, whose death was revealed Wednesday, July 26. She was 56.

Stipe shared a photo with himself and Sinéad on Instagram, writing, “There are no words.”

Stipe and R.E.M. also shared a link to a YouTube video of R.E.M. covering Sinéad’s track “The Last Day of Our Acquaintance.” The performance took place at a VH1 Honors special in Los Angeles on April 28, 1996. 

“The Last Day of Our Acquaintance” is a track from Sinéad’s second studio album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, the same album that features her #1 single “Nothing Compares 2 U.”

Rod Stewart also paid tribute to Sinéad with a performance. The singer shared a video of him covering “Nothing Compares 2 U” at a show, captioning the clip, “My heart goes out to Sinead O’Connor’s family. What a loss.”

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Ahead of her upcoming Broadway musical Melissa Etheridge: My Window, Melissa Etheridge has put out a previously unreleased song that’s featured in the show.

The song, which has been heavily bootlegged through the years, is called “Juliet.” It’s about a girl who is the object of speculation by boys and by her parents: She doesn’t seem to have a boyfriend, so they all want to know who her “Romeo” is.

Melissa, who’s played “Juliet” live many times, explained in a fan-shot performance of it on June 23 that she never released the song because “it was about a lesbian bar.” “I wasn’t out at that time,” she laughed. “Nobody was!”

Melissa will perform “Juliet” live in the Broadway show, which will debut with a nine-week residency at New York’s famed Circle in the Square Theater on September 14; the official opening night is Thursday, September 28. Tickets are on sale now via Telecharge.com.

The off-Broadway version of the show, written by Melissa and her wife, Linda Wallem-Etheridge, ran last year. It featured the Grammy-winning singer telling her life story, interspersed with live musical performances. It’s not clear what, if anything, will change in the Broadway version.

The show opens just a few weeks after the publication of Melissa’s new memoir, Talking to My Angels, which comes out September 5.

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Now that Elton John‘s tour is over, he’ll likely be spending more time at home, which means he may have time to walk all the new dogs that he and his husband David Furnish have been adding to their menagerie.

Back in June, David posted a photo of an adorable black puppy named Jacob and announced that his and Elton’s two sons, Elijah and Zachary, would be “co-fathering” the dog, with him and Elton as “grandparents.”

On July 28, David revealed the family had acquired two additional dogs: French bulldog puppies named Regine and Nicole. “Here we grow again,” wrote David, adding the hashtag #obsessed.

In March of this year, David revealed that his and Elton’s beloved cocker spaniel Marilyn had passed away just shy of her 18th birthday.

Jacob, Regine and Nicole join the pair of “pandemic puppies” Elton and David bought for their songs in 2020: two impossibly cute German shepherd pups.

It’s not clear just how many dogs Elton owns at this point: Some reports have stated that he owns or has owned as many as 20. His late cocker spaniel Arthur, Marilyn’s mate, was even the best man when he and David had their civil partnership ceremony in 2005.

Despite having a song called “Honky Cat,” Elton’s clearly a dog person; he doesn’t own any felines.

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Bad Company’s Paul Rodgers has shared another single from his upcoming album Midnight Rose, which drops September 22.

The latest is the track “Take Love,” which may not be completely new to fans. Rodgers used to perform the song live during the five years he spent as frontman of Queen. 

This is the second single Rodgers has shared from the album, following the track “Living It Up.”

You can listen to “Take Love” now via digital outlets and watch its accompanying video streaming now on YouTube. 

Midnight Rose is Rodgers’ first solo album in almost 25 years. He previously described it as “a celebration of a storied career and a feel-good, hopeful look towards the future.” 

Midnight Rose is available for preorder now.

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