Classic Hits

War is celebrating last year’s 50th anniversary of their classic album The World is a Ghetto with a brand-new remix album, dropping May 12.

War: The Remixes features tracks like “The World is a Ghetto,” “Spill the Wine,” “Why Can’t We Be Friends” and more remixed by such well-known DJs as the Beastie Boys’ Mix Master Mike, DJ Logic, Jesse Perez, Preditah and Saxsquatch.

The band has also shared the first tracks from the album, Mix Master Mike’s takes on “The World is a Ghetto” and “Slippin’ Into Darkness.”

Released November 1972, The World is a Ghetto, War’s fifth studio album, went to number one on the Billboard album chart. Songs on the album have been sampled by a variety of artists over the years, including 2Pac, Cypress Hill, Janet Jackson, Method Man and more. 

Here’s the track list for War: The Remixes:

“Slippin’ Into Darkness” (Mix Master Mike Remix)
“The World is a Ghetto” (Mix Master Mike Remix)
“Why Can’t We Be Friends” (Saxsquatch & Stephen Walking Remix)
“Spill The Wine” (Jesse Perez Remix)
“Galaxy” (Preditah Remix)
“Galaxy” (DJ Logic Remix)

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Wham!‘s massive 1984 hit “Careless Whisper” continues to dominate the music landscape — especially when it comes to YouTube.

That song is now the latest offering to join YouTube’s prestigious billion-views club. Variety reports in 2023 alone its music video was watched 400,000 times on average, every day.

“Careless Whisper,” which was uploaded to the video-sharing platform in October 2009, is now the eighth song from the 1980s to earn over 1 billion views.

The song now joins other hits “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley, Cyndi Lauper‘s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” Guns N’ Roses‘ “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson, “Every Breath You Take” by the Police, Europe‘s “The Final Countdown” and A-ha‘s “Take on Me.”

“Careless Whisper,” which was written by Andrew Ridgeley and the late George Michael, was released in July 1984 and was featured on Wham!’s Make It Big album. The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 and is RIAA-certified Platinum.

The duo shot the song’s music video in Miami and tapped Duncan Gibbins as its director. Gibbins also helmed the video for Wham!’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.”

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Tom Petty’s family has paid tribute to the rocker’s former Mudcrutch bandmate Tom Leadon, who passed away March 22 at the age of 71.

Sharing a collage of pictures featuring Petty, Leadon and the rest of the band, Petty’s daughter Adria Petty writes on Instagram, “We are devastated to hear of the passing of Tom Leadon. He was a dear friend of Tom and the fellas in the band and our entire family. He was part of the brotherhood. He was an excellent and accomplished musician and was the reason Tom reformed Mudcrutch, so that the band could enjoy more time and more music together. Tom loved him deeply.”

Petty’s wife, Dana Petty, added, “I am deeply saddened and surprised by this. Tom spent a lot of time staying in our home. He was very sweet with the best memory we’d ever witnessed. He was a unique man. I’m so shocked that he’s gone.”

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On This Day, March 29, 1980 …

AC/DC’s Malcolm Young called Brian Johnson, former singer of the band Geordie, and invited him to replace their late frontman, Bon Scott.

The band released their first album with Johnson, Back In Black, in July 1980. It went on to become one of the biggest albums in music history, selling more than 25 million copies in the U.S. alone, although it never reached number one in the U.S. It featured future AC/DC classics “You Shook Me All Night Long,” “Hells Bells” and the title track.

Johnson, along with the rest of AC/DC, went on to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.  

He temporarily stepped away from the band in 2016 due to hearing problems, but rejoined the group in 2018 for their album Power Up, which was released in 2020.

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March 28 marked the 50th anniversary of Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy, and guitarist Jimmy Page marked the occasion by sharing a special treat with fans. 

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame guitarist shared an early demo he called “The Seasons,” which eventually became “The Rain Song.” He explained that the clip “was a memo to myself as a reminder of the sequence of the song and various ideas I’d had for it in its embryonic stage.”

The more than seven-minute “The Rain Song” was one of many classic tunes that appeared on Houses of the Holy. Others include “The Song Remains The Same” and “Dancing Days.”

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The Zombies are set to release their new album, Different Game, on Friday, but it may have been out earlier if the pandemic hadn’t gotten in the way. 

Lead singer Colin Blunstone says the making of the album was “an interesting adventure” for the band because they started working on it before the pandemic. While some artists made records over Zoom during lockdowns, that wasn’t what they were going for.

“We’d already decided that we wanted to record it with everyone in the studio at the same time,” Blunstone tells ABC Audio. “With the pandemic, it made it very, very difficult and so I think this album’s taken two or three years. To be quite honest, I’ve lost track of time.” 

Blunstone says it was important for the band to be together while recording, explaining, “We feel that there’s an energy in the studio when we’re all there playing together that isn’t there if we’re playing separately.”

He says he will “sing differently” when he’s in the studio with other musicians playing live, which gives a different feel to the record. He notes, “You can almost say this is very close to a live album but recorded in a studio environment.” 

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The Who’s new live album, The Who with Orchestra Live At Wembley, drops Friday, and they have shared one more track ahead of its release.

The latest is their live performance of “Eminence Front,” a song from their 1982 record It’s Hard, which features Pete Townshend on vocals. They’ve also shared a lyric video for the tune, which features some footage of the Wembley performance.

The Who with Orchestra Live At Wembley was recorded during the band’s July 6, 2019, headlining show at the famed London venue. The concert has them performing classic tunes from albums like Quadrophenia, Tommy, Who’s Next, Who Are You and more backed by a 50-piece orchestra.

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The Alarm is giving fans another taste of their upcoming album, Forwards. The band has released the third single from the record, “Whatever,” along with a video that was inspired by frontman Mike Peters’ second battle with cancer in 2022.

“I was inspired to write this song after hearing John Lennon sing ‘Whatever Gets You Thru The Night’ on the hospital radio,” Peters tells The Big Takeover, which premiered the video. “I thought to myself, ‘Never mind the night … what am I going to do to get through life?’”

He adds, “The song ‘Whatever’ was born soon after and it’s really about the most simple, yet most important things like family, friends and loved ones who help you in the hours of need and an appreciation of life’s fundamental gifts such as being able to breathe, talk and to walk.” 

Forwards will be released June 2 on both CD and vinyl, with two vinyl options available, a classic green and white star white vinyl edition, plus a limited edition metallic green vinyl, available only at independent record stores. The album is available for preorder now.

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COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc on Stevie Nicks’ solo tour.

After postponing two shows earlier this month, she’s now postponing two more “due to continued Covid illness within the band.” She has not revealed who in the band is dealing with the virus.

The latest shows affected include Thursday’s scheduled concert in Oklahoma City and Sunday’s show in New Orleans. Both concerts have already been rescheduled, with Oklahoma City moved to April 11 and New Orleans moved to April 15.

Stevie’s next scheduled concert is set for April 5 in Birmingham, Alabama, followed by a co-headlining date with Billy Joel in Arlington, Texas, on April 8. A complete list of dates can be found at stevienicksofficial.com.

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Elvis Costello will be working during his summer vacation. The singer and his band The Imposters, featuring Charlie Sexton, just announced the 23-date We’re All Going On A Summer Holiday tour, named after a line in his song “The Beat” from the 1978 album This Year’s Model.

The tour, featuring Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets, kicks off June 7 in Vancouver, British Columbia, hitting such cities as Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Nashville, Boston and New York before wrapping July 14 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Tickets for all shows go on sale Friday, March 31. A complete list of dates can be found at elviscostello.com.

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