Classic Hits

Legendary Jamaican musician Bob Marley will release Africa Unite, a posthumous album featuring his greatest hits. 

A fusion of reggae and Afrobeats, the ten-track project blends some of the icon’s most beloved songs, like “Waiting In Vain” and “Three Little Birds,” with the contemporary sounds of popular African musicians Tiwa Savage, Teni, Sarkodie and more. 

“Africa Unite is an album that showcases the importance of Bob Marley in modern day Africa,” Marley’s daughter Cedella Marley said. “The artists that feature on this album have reimagined Bob Marley’s classics in a way we know he would have loved and been proud of.”

Three of the 10 songs are available for streaming today, while the full release of Africa Unite is expected on August 4.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Queen is back with episode 23 of their weekly YouTube series Queen The Greatest Live, where they are still delving into the process of adapting their studio hits for the live stage.

This time, they are focused on the 1980 classic “Another One Bites The Dust,” which became one of the band’s biggest hits. The clip features archival footage of their performance at the first of their two shows at Wembley Stadium in July 1986.

“I listened to a lot of soul music when I was in school, and I’ve always been interested in that sort of music,” bassist John Deacon previously told Bassist & Bass Techniques about the song. “I’d been wanting to do a track like ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ for a while, but originally, all I had was the line and the bass riff. I could hear it as a song for dancing but had no idea it would become as big as it did.”

That song was totally transformed live, thanks to frontman Freddie Mercury, who led the Wembley crowd of over 72,000 fans in a call and response, with Brian May improvising guitar licks on his Red Special guitar. 

Next week on Queen The Greatest Live, the group gets into “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

On this Day, June 30, 1973…

George Harrison hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth),” from his #1 album Living in the Material World.

The song actually bumped Paul McCartney & Wings’ hit “My Love” from the top spot, pushing it to down to #2. It marked the first and only time that two former Beatles held the top two spots on that chart.

“Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” was one of three Harrison songs to hit #1 over the course of his solo career. The other two were “Got My Mind Set on You” in 1987 and “My Sweet Lord/Isn’t It a Pity” in 1970.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Elvis Presley’s famed 1968 comeback special is the subject of a new feature length documentary set to premiere on Paramount+ in August.

Reinventing Elvis: The ’68 Comeback gives fans insight into the special from its director, Steve Binder. It features interviews with Elvis experts, a well as concert attendees, and will also feature performances of Elvis’ hits by musicians like Darius Rucker, America’s Got Talent finalist Drake Milligan and more.

“The world is filled with stories about Elvis and his historic 1968 comeback special, but no one has ever told this story the way only I can tell it — because I was there for every moment of it,” Binder shares. “I’m so proud of this film, because it presents Elvis as he really was, and looks at a specific moment in time — when Elvis took control of his life, his career and his legacy. There’s never been a television moment quite like this one.”

Elvis’ comeback special aired December 3, 1968, on NBC and became the most watched TV event of that year. It was Elvis’ first live performance after seven years of primarily making films.

Reinventing Elvis: The ’68 Comeback will debut August 15 on Paramount+, just one day ahead of the 46th anniversary of Elvis’ death. The movie will have a limited run in theaters ahead of the streaming debut.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Queen’s Brian May is once again sharing some behind-the-scenes info on his 1983 side band, Star Fleet Project, which included, Eddie Van Halen, Alan Gratzer, Phil Chen and Fred Mandel.

In the third mini doc about the project, May discusses their time in the studio, admitting, “I didn’t know if it was going to work. I really didn’t.”

“You know, we didn’t gel immediately, but it didn’t take very long before we did,” he says, explaining that the best thing about it was they felt “no pressure because there was no end product.” “We didn’t say, ‘We’re going to make a record here’,” he says. “It’s just like, ‘Let’s have some fun and see what we can do’.”

When it comes to being in the studio with Van Halen, May admits he “was in awe” of him. “It would be easy to kind of go down the road of being jealous and resenting someone who can do something that you can’t do, but for some reason that doesn’t really happen with guitar players,” he says. “So although I felt like I’m in the presence of a god here, there was also this feeling of pure joy, pure joy of being in the room with that guy.” 

May will celebrate the Star Fleet Project’s 40th anniversary with the release of a new box set, Brian May + Friends: Star Fleet Project, on July 14, which features several outtakes from the sessions.

He says about the set, “You can hear us feeling our way and gradually gaining confidence and locking in and becoming a really tight unit, which was amazing.”

Brian May + Friends: Star Fleet is available for preorder now.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The last concert featuring Lynyrd Skynyrd’s late founding member Gary Rossington is set to hit theaters in July, and now, fans are getting their first look at that particular performance.

A sneak peek of The 50th Anniversary of Lynyrd Skynyrd: An Exclusive Concert Film Experience has just been released, featuring the band performing the Skynyrd classic “Gimme Three Steps.”  

The concert, which took place in November 2022 at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, featured a host of special guests, including Jelly Roll, Brothers Osborne‘s John Osborne, Marcus King, Shinedown‘s Brent Smith and 38 Special‘s Donnie Van Zant — brother of current Skynyrd frontman Johnny Van Zant and late frontman Ronnie Van Zant.

Rossington had stopped touring regularly with Skynyrd in 2020 but joined them for most of the Ryman show, which was his final concert with the band. He passed away March 5, 2023.

The 50th Anniversary of Lynyrd Skynyrd: An Exclusive Concert Film Experience will have a weeklong run in movie theaters, drive-ins and outdoor venues from July 8 to 14. Tickets are on sale now.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival, which raises money for his Crossroads rehab center in Antigua, is returning in September. In a new post on Instagram, he explains why the festival is so badly needed now that the pandemic is over.

Clapton says the pandemic was particularly hard for those battling addiction, explaining, “For people that wanted to get well from alcohol or drugs or anything, it was a tough time, because the normal network of AA meetings was pretty much off limits.” He adds that “treatment centers were really badly hit because people couldn’t travel; and they were very fearful of going out,” noting many “voluntarily locked themselves down.”

Clapton explains, “A lot of people, and I think a lot of the community that I know, either died or dropped off or stopped going to meetings, as it was just too risky.”

The seventh installment of the Crossroads Guitar Festival will take place September 23 and 24 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, with a lineup that includes Clapton ZZ Top, Robbie Robertson, Santana, Stephen Stills, Gary Clark, Jr., John Mayer Trio, Sheryl Crow, Robert Randolph, Roger McGuinn, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan, Joe Bonamassa, Jakob Dylan and more.

More information, including the complete lineup, can be found at crossroadsguitarfestival.com.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Madonna has been released from the hospital, a source close to the singer’s camp confirms to ABC News.

The 64-year-old superstar is now at home and feeling better following a serious bacterial infection that landed her in the ICU.

As previously reported, the health scare led Madonna to postpone her upcoming The Celebration Tour, which was set to kick off July 15 in Vancouver.

“On Saturday June 24, Madonna developed a serious bacterial infection which led to a several day stay in the ICU,” her manager, Guy Oseary, wrote on Instagram Wednesday, June 28. “Her health is improving, however she is still under medical care.” He noted, “A full recovery is expected.”

Oseary also addressed the tour postponement, writing, “We will share more details with you as soon as we have them, including a new start date for the tour and for rescheduled shows.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

U2 frontman Bono is helping raise money for Ukraine with some of his original artwork.

The rocker has teamed with UNITED24, the official fundraising platform of Ukraine’s government, for a limited-edition merch line featuring the drawing he did of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the June cover of The Atlantic. 

“My drawings are not cartoons, but they are often caricatures of character. In the case of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, we have burdened him with impossible expectations – and impossibly, he has not let us down,” Bono says. “I suppose that’s because President Zelenskyy is not now one person, he’s the Ukrainian people.”

The merch line, on sale now at U2.com, consists of T-shirts and hoodies with the artwork, as well as a lithograph of the drawing. All money raised will go toward the purchase of ambulances for Ukraine.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The Recording Academy has set the date for the 2024 Grammy Awards. The 66th Grammy Awards will take place Sunday, February 4, at Los Angeles’ Crytpto.com Arena, airing live on CBS at 8 p.m. ET and streaming on Paramount+. 

Fans will know who’s in the running for awards before the holidays, with this year’s nominees to be announced Friday, November 10.

The 2024 awards will see several changes, including three new categories: Best African Music Performance, Best Alternative Jazz Album and Best Pop Dance Recording. It will also see the Record of the Year and Best New Artist categories scaled down from 10 to eight nominees.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.