Blondie landed their fifth U.K. #1 single with “The Tide Is High,” from their fifth studio album, Autoamerican. It would be another18 years before Blondie topped the U.K. chart again, landing at #1 in 1999 with the track “Maria.”
“The Tide Is High” was a cover of a 1967 song originally performed by the Jamaican group The Paragons, with the tune’s songwriter, John Holt,singing lead on the track.
Blondie’s version of “The Tide Is High” also went on to hit #1 in the U.S., becoming their third #1 single. It also topped the charts in Canada and New Zealand.
And Blondie is still making music. Their last studio album, Pollinator, was released in 2017 and in October, Blondie’s Chris Stein revealed on Instagram that a new album is coming next year.
Ringo Starr is sharing another preview of his upcoming country album, Look Up.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer just released the new song “Thankful,” featuring Alison Krauss, a tune Starr co-wrote with his producer/engineer Bruce Sugar. It is available now via digital outlets.
“I love this track … I feel we put an LA country sound to it,” Ringo shares. “For the lyrics, I always like to focus on the positive, and for this song in particular, about what we can be thankful for.”
He adds, “I hope it brings you some joy and peace and love.”
This is the second single Ringo has shared from Look Up, following “Time On My Hands.”
Look Up, produced by T Bone Burnett, will be released Jan. 10 and is available for preorder now. Ringo plans to celebrate the release with two shows at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, billed as Ringo Starr & Friends. The shows are happening Jan. 14 and Jan. 15.
The Beatles have just revealed some new collectibles that fans are going to want to get their hands on.
The first is a new limited-edition solid silver submarine to celebrating the band’s iconic 1968 film Yellow Submarine. Only 4,000 will be available, made of almost 1 ounce of pure silver. More Yellow Submarine collectibles are expected in 2025, including a set celebrating the members of the band.
The silver Yellow Submarine collectible will be available for preorder starting in mid-December.
But that’s not all: As part of the continuing celebration of the 60th anniversary of The Beatles coming to America, a new collection of commemorative concert tickets is being released.
The set is made up of 25 tickets, one for each venue they played during their first tour of the U.S. and Canada in 1964. Each ticket is made from an ounce of pure silver and contains the date, venue and price of each show. The tickets also feature some unique details for each gig.
Only 1,964 copies of each ticket will be made available, with the first dropping on Feb. 7, which happens to be the day The Beatles landed in America. Subsequent tickets will be released throughout 2025.
Shel Talmy, the producer who oversaw seminal early recordings by The Who and The Kinks, has died. According to his rep, Talmy died in his sleep on Nov. 13 due to complications from a stroke. He was 87.
Born in Chicago, Talmy moved to the U.K. in 1962 and landed a job at Decca Records. After setting up his own company, he signed The Kinks in 1964 and produced all their records from that point through 1967, including “You Really Got Me,” “Tired of Waiting for You,” “Sunny Afternoon” and “Waterloo Sunset.”
Talmy signed The Who to his production company after hearing the song “I Can’t Explain” and got the band a record contract. He produced “I Can’t Explain,” “My Generation” and “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere,” as well as The Who’s first album, also called My Generation.
After of The Who’s manager Kit Lambert fired Talmy, he sued for breach of contract and won, though never worked with The Who again. The ongoing legal dispute held up a rerelease of My Generation until 2002.
Talmy also signed David Bowie to his first song publishing contract and produced hits for Chad & Jeremy, Manfred Mann and The Easybeats. He also worked with The Small Faces and The Damned and continued to work in production and A&R until his death.
Papers of the late songwriter and composer Burt Bacharach, who wrote such songs as “Close To You,” “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” and “I Say a Little Prayer,” have been donated to the Library of Congress.
The collection, donated by his wife, Jane Bacharach, includes musical scores and parts, as well as 180 photographs, letters and telegrams.
“On behalf of the Bacharach family, we are grateful that Burt’s collection of music has a home in the Library of Congress,” Jane shared. “Out of all of his awards and accolades, Burt was most proud of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, which was presented to him by President Obama.”
She added, “Burt poured his heart and soul into his music, and we are so proud that the Library will give others the opportunity to visit and enjoy his legacy.”
The collection will be available for researchers starting next summer.
“Burt Bacharach’s timeless songs are legendary and are championed by artists across genres and generations,” Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden added. “The Library is proud to be entrusted with ensuring Bacharach’s music and legacy will remain accessible for future generations, in hopes of inspiring them with his creativity and distinctly American musical genius.”
Bacharach died in 2023 at age 94. His more than 50-year career resulted in a slew of chart-topping hits, including 48 top-100 songs, nine #1 tunes and more than 500 compositions.
Back in 2020, Mariah Carey said she was “talking about” turning her memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, into a biopic, telling Jimmy Fallon, “I really feel like it should [be a movie]; that was always my goal.” Now it seems she may have found a director.
Lee Daniels, who directed Mariah in the film Precious, posted a video on Instagram of him and Mariah together. “Here we are again,” he said. “With all different eras of our lives.”
“With Leeeeee!” Mariah squealed, throwing her arms around the director.
“Getting ready to go on another journey, Oh my God,” Daniels concluded.
He captioned the post, “The Meaning of Mariah … A long time coming … I love this woman!”
When asked recently by BuzzFeed if she planned to tour the world in 2025, Mariah said, “I know that I’m working on a project that needs to be finished, so I don’t think I can go on a world tour. I would if I were able to finish the project while on tour, but I can’t.”
Could she have been referring to a movie? Stay tuned.
A new Tom Petty& The Heartbreakers video is set for release on Friday.
The clip will be for the song “Never Be You,” a track that was originally recorded by Rosanne Cash, with Petty’s version appearing on the recently released Long After Dark (Deluxe Edition) reissue.
The video was directed and animated by Jeff Scher. A previewgives a glimpse of the making of the animated clip, featuring drawings of Petty, who passed away in 2016.
Long After Dark (Deluxe Edition) was released in October and featured the remastered original album, plus 12 bonus tracks, including “Never Be You” and “Ways to Be Wicked,” as well as tracks taken from sessions for French TV.
Originally released in 1982, Long After Dark featured the singles “You Got Lucky,” “Change of Heart” and “Straight Into Darkness,” and was the first to feature new Heartbreaker Howie Epstein on bass.
A new video has just been released for Bruce Springsteen’s collaboration with Jesse Malin on “She Don’t Love Me Now,” which appears on the Malin tribute album, Silver Patron Saints.
The video takes place at the New York bar Heaven Can Wait and centers on a man drinking away his sorrows. He’s soon moved by the music and begins dancing to the tune.
Springsteen doesn’t appear in the clip, although Malin makes a quick cameo as a patron offering a nod to the dancing man.
Springsteen’s take on “She Don’t Love Me Now” features Jesse’s band backing The Boss, along with E Street Band saxophonist Jake Clemons. The tune originally appeared on Malin’s 2015 album, New York Before The War.
Released in September, Silver Patron Saints benefits Malin’s Sweet Relief artist fund. The rocker had a spinal stroke in 2023 that left him paralyzed from the waist down.Other artists on the album include Elvis Costello, Green Day‘s Billie Joe Armstrong, Rage Against the Machine‘s Tom Morello, Bleachers and the late MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer.
A benefit concert for Malin is set to take place Dec. 1 at the Beacon Theatre in New York, featuring Costello, Lucinda Williams, Jakob Dylan, members of Counting Crows, Rickie Lee Jones and others, with Malin teasing, “More surprises to come.”
Members of the prog rock band Yes are being sued over a song that appeared on their 2021 album, The Quest.
Riz Story, whose legal name is Rudolph Zahler, filed a copyright suit in Los Angeles claiming Yes guitarist Steve Howe and Jon Davison, the band’s lead singer since 2012, stole the music of his song “Reunion” for the track “Dare To Know,” adding their own lyrics.
In the court documents, Story says he wrote the music for “Reunion” around 1981 when he was just 15, and while it was never released as a single, it was used in the 2014 movie A Winter Rose, and he subsequently copyrighted the song.
He says in 2022 he discovered his music being used in “Dare To Know,” insisting he didn’t give them permission, and contending they violated his copyright by performing the tune and using it to promote their album.
As for how Howe heard the song, Story says it was through his relationship with Davison. They’ve known each other since being introduced by the late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins around 1990. All three were in the band Anyone together.
Story also claims Davison once asked for help co-writing songs for Yes because “he didn’t think he was up to writing songs of a caliber” the band would expect, but Story refused. He says instead Davison opted to “steal” the song “Reunion,” giving songwriting credit to Howe on the album.
The suit also notes that Story has hired a musicologist who insists the two songs have “a pitch similarity percentage of 96%, which is extremely high.”
Story is suing for monetary damages, and wants an injunction forcing Yes to stop distributing the song and to give him sole songwriting credit for the music of “Dare to Know.”
Led Zeppelin and Rod Stewart were among the inductees who entered the U.K. Music Hall of Fame, which honored musicians of all nationalities for their lifetime contributions to music in the United Kingdom.
The ceremony took place at Alexandria Palace in London, with Queen’s Roger Taylor inducting Zeppelin and guitarist Jimmy Page on hand to accept the award.
Stewart was inducted by U.K. artist James Morrison, who performed “The First Cut Is the Deepest” and “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy.” He accepted his award via satellite from Los Angeles.
Other inductees that year included Bon Jovi, Prince, Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, James Brown and Dusty Springfield, with The Beatles producer George Martin receiving an honorary membership.
