Classic Hits

On This Day, March 9, 1987…

U2 released their fifth studio album, The Joshua Tree, which went on to be one of the world’s best-selling albums. It was the Irish rockers’ first number-one album in the U.S. and spent nine weeks in the top spot on the Billboard 200, the longest reign at number one for the band.

The record included future U2 classics “With or Without You” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” which remain U2’s only number-one singles in the U.S., as well as “Where the Streets Have No Name.”

The Joshua Tree sold over 25 million copies and won two Grammys, including Album of the Year and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group. In 2014, it was selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in the U.S. National Recording Registry, a distinction that body reserves for sound recordings that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

In 2017, U2 celebrated The Joshua Tree‘s 30th anniversary with a tour of North America, Europe and Latin America, playing the album in order, in its entirety. The tour grossed more than $316 million, making it the highest-grossing tour of the year worldwide. They then added more dates through 2019, bringing in another $390.8 million.

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The Cure is coming back to North America. The band just announced a new set of tour dates, which has them hitting 30 cities in the U.S. and Canada, including three-night stands at New York’s Madison Square Garden and at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. 

The Shows of a Lost World Tour, featuring special guests The Twilight Sad, kicks off May 10 in New Orleans, Louisiana, wrapping July 1 in Miami, Florida.

A Ticketmaster Verified Fan presale begins Wednesday, March 15. A complete list of tour dates, plus information on how to sign up for Verified Fan, can be found at thecure.com.

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Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks‘ joint stadium tour gets underway Friday in Inglewood, California. And Billy says you just might hear him singing “Landslide” at the shows, while she sings “Just the Way You Are” — or something along those lines.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times about the pairing, Billy says he and Stevie met about 10 years ago backstage at a Fleetwood Mac show. “We’ve never worked together, even though we both kind of hit at the same time,” he notes. “So this’ll be a completely new thing for me. I’ll probably do one of her songs and she’ll probably do one of mine.”

Asked which Stevie song he’s considering, he says, “That’s up to her.”

Billy traded songs with Elton John when the two toured together years ago, and he says teaming up with another artist, like Stevie, really appeals to him. 

“I did very much enjoy touring with Elton John. It was like I joined something. As a solo artist, it’s always ‘me, me, me’ — gets kind of boring,” he admits. “But when I hooked up with Elton, I got to play his material, which was a hell of a lot of fun. I miss that.”

And speaking of Elton, Billy, who’s nine years into his Madison Square Garden residency, in addition to the stadium shows he does each year, says a farewell tour like the kind Elton’s doing isn’t really for him.

“I have a disdain for capitalizing on that: ‘Let me threaten that it’ll be the end, and then I’ll make a lot of money,'” he tells the Los Angeles Times. “I’ve seen bands so many times announce their farewell tours and then they never go away.”

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The show must go on for Lynyrd Skynyrd. Despite the loss of their last founding member, guitarist Gary Rossington, last Sunday, it has been confirmed that the band will play Florida’s Strawberry Festival this Sunday as planned.

“Our Festival has lost a great friend, entertainer, and music icon,” Florida Strawberry Festival President Paul Davis shares, according to Planet Rock. “Our hearts go out to his entire family, all his fans and to the thousands of people whose lives he has enriched.”

He adds, “We know we will have a special guest and guardian angel watching over this performance.” 

In addition to the Strawberry Festival, Lynyrd Skynyrd has several other shows on their schedule, including an upcoming summer tour with ZZ Top. A complete list of tour dates can be found at lynyrdskynyrd.com.

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A battle over the name Earth, Wind & Fire may be headed to court. Rolling Stone reports that Earth, Wind & Fire LLP, the rights holders of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame group’s trademark, has filed a lawsuit against Substantial Music Group and Stellar Communications over their Earth, Wind & Fire Legacy Reunion, which is basically a cover band featuring of unnamed “former members” of the R&B group.

The real Earth, Wind & Fire consists of HOF band members Verdine White and Philip Bailey; they just announced a tour with Lionel Richie. The lawsuit contends the Legacy Reunion show doesn’t have the legal right to use the band’s copyrights to promote concerts.

The suit argues that Substantial Music Group and Stellar Communications “hired a few musicians who previously had played with the real Earth, Wind & Fire as side musicians for brief periods” for their tour and “hatched a scheme to falsely imply in advertising that this new group was the real Earth, Wind & Fire.”

They say by using the real band’s logos, word mark and more they are “misleading consumers and selling more tickets at higher prices.” It’s so confusing that the plaintiffs say even ticketing sites have gotten confused and mixed up the two bands’ tour dates on their sites.

Earth, Wind & Fire LLP is demanding a court force Substantial Music Group and Stellar Communications to stop using all copyright-infringing promotional materials. They are seeking “all revenues” from the concerts and performances of “Legacy Reunion,” along with “a monetary judgment reflecting its compensatory and general damages at trial, or in the alternative, statutory damages.”

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It seems like even Gene Simmons doesn’t fully believe that KISS‘ “final” concerts, scheduled for New York’s Madison Square Garden December 1 and 2, will truly be the end.

While speaking to The Las Vegas Review-Journal, Simmons was asked if the band would ever again play a show in Las Vegas, considering they canceled a scheduled residency at Planet Hollywood’s Zappos Theater, which would have run from December 2021 to February 2022. 

“I actually don’t know, because we have been so inundated by people wanting to see us wherever we go. I mean, every guy whoever [sic] washed my dog or did my dry cleaning is hitting me up for tickets for his entire family, three generations back,” Simmons said.

“Vegas? I don’t know, it would be nice to do a Vegas residency,” he continued. “But I don’t know any of these things.”

What Simmons does know is that he’s hosting a VIP event May 5, 6 and 7 at the Rio Hotel & Casino, the location of the KISS by Monster Mini Golf and World Museum attraction, and tickets costs thousands of dollars. The bassist tells the Review-Journal that even though the band is — allegedly — ending their touring career, he’s still excited about the potential of the KISS brand.

“We have KISS everything — I want to sell KISS Air,” he says, meaning actual oxygen. “Have you seen the KISS air-guitar strings? Just a plastic bag with nothing in it. People buy cases of them. We have condoms and caskets.” 

He laughs, “I’m thinking of a church, ‘KISS-Tianity.’ What do you think? It’s like everything else in the KISS empire, just throw open the doors and await the masses.”

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March 8 marks 50 years since the death of The Grateful Dead’s co-founder and first frontman, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, and the day isn’t going unnoticed.

First, The Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast, the official podcast of The Grateful Dead, is kicking off its seventh season Wednesday with two episodes devoted to Pigpen. It will delve into Pigpen’s life and career, featuring newly unearthed documents and recordings, including excerpts from some never-before-heard 1964 tapes, one featuring Jerry Garcia. There’s also audio from what is believed to be the only surviving full-length Pigpen interview.

In addition, on May 5 a remastered 50th anniversary edition of History of The Grateful Dead, Volume 1 (Bear’s Choice) will be released. The live album, which originally came out in March 1973, was curated by Dead sound engineer Owsley “Bear” Stanley and features Pigpen singing lead on three of the seven tracks.

The release will come out digitally and on vinyl, along with 5,000 copies of a custom vinyl version with two different custom labels, featuring artwork with the iconic Grateful Dead Dancing Bears. It is available for preorder now at dead.net.

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Billy Squier is back with new music. The rocker just released the new track “Harder On A Woman,” which is his first new single in 25 years. 

The song was written around a hook Squier first heard during a writing session with New Orleans blues artist C.C. Adcock back in 2012. He says he felt compelled to write the tune after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. 

Billy enlisted a host of well-known musicians for “Harder On A Woman,” including G.E. Smith on guitar, Bad Company’s Simon Kirke on drums and Mark Clarke, who appeared on Squier’s 1981 album Don’t Say No, on bass. 

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The 2023 Bourbon & Beyond Festival returns to Louisville, Kentucky, in September, with a lineup that includes The Black Crowes, Duran Duran and Blondie. 

The festival is set for September 14 to 17 at Highland Festival Grounds at the Kentucky Exposition Center, with a lineup of over 50 artists, including headliners Brandi Carlile, The Killers, Bruno Mars and The Black Keys, along with Mavis Staples, Brittany Howard, Bastille and The Gaslight Anthem.

Tickets for the festival are on sale now. More info and the complete lineup can be found at bourbonandbeyond.com.

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It’s been 23 years since American Psycho hit theaters and Huey Lewis still hasn’t seen it, even though his hit song “Hip to Be Square” is featured in the film. As for why, he reveals on Mark Hoppus’ After School Radio podcast that it stems from a disagreement over the movie’s soundtrack.

Lewis says he gladly allowed the song to be in the Christian Bale film, noting, “When I read the book, it was like a review of art stuff,” referring to the Bret Easton Ellis novel. “And not only us, but Phil Collins and Tina Turner, and man, he really knew this stuff, he got us pretty much correct.”

The problem revolved around the soundtrack, with Lewis explaining that he “politely declined” to let the song be included on it because he didn’t want to “make our fans buy that for just that one song.”

Following Lewis’ rejection, the studio issued a press release claiming he didn’t want the song on the soundtrack because of the violence in the film, which he says they did “to pump up interest.” “That pissed me off, frankly,” he shared, “so I boycotted the film. I’ve never seen the film.”

But he couldn’t escape the movie completely. Lewis says he did see a clip of the film when he appeared in a spoof of it for Funny Or Die back in 2014. He also saw the musical, which hit Broadway in 2016, calling it “very good.”

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