Classic Hits

Rock ‘n’ roll founding father Chubby Checker is set to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Saturday night in LA, but he has said he won’t be attending the ceremony. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t like hang out with fellow Hall of Famers, though.

Checker, 84, attended ZZ Top‘s show at Santa Barbara Bowl on Tuesday, and the band’s Billy F Gibbons stopped the show to give him a shout-out. After the show, Checker hung out with Gibbons, a longtime fan of “The Twist” singer, the rest of the band and their crew, and bonded over their shared Southern roots.

Checker previously said he was going to skip the ceremony, which will be streamed live, because he’d rather be seen performing in front of a live audience. The Hall of Fame agreed to this, so at a July concert in Des Plaines, Illinois, he was given his trophy and a camera crew recorded his acceptance speech. You can tune in Saturday to see if or how this all plays out starting 8 p.m. ET on Disney+.

In 2013, when Billboard tabulated the most popular singles in the history of the Hot 100 chart, Checker’s “The Twist” topped the list.

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Elton John was recently reunited with an important artifact from his illustrious career.

Elton posted on Instagram a photo of himself and Alex Rodriguez, who owns the LA record store Record Safari and curates vinyl for Coachella. In the photo, Alex is handing Elton an orange vinyl album in a plastic sleeve marked Trident.

“Every so often, there are acts of kindness that remind you there are still a lot of good people in this world,” Elton captioned the post. “Alex Rodriguez … recently came across the original acetates from the first recordings of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. They’re still in their Trident Studios sleeves, in beautiful condition – a real piece of history.”

Elton was referring to his 1973 classic album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, which was mixed at Trident Studios in London. An “original acetate” is the first physical version of an album that’s made before it’s produced for mass consumption, so that the artist and the producers can check the sound quality. They’re extremely rare and collectible.

Elton continued in his post, “Instead of selling them or keeping them for himself, Alex reached out and offered to return them to me personally. While they’d be valuable to anyone, to me these recordings are truly priceless, and I am incredibly grateful for his kindness, generosity, and his love of music.”

“Thank you, Alex. This is a gesture I’ll never forget.”

Alex responded in the comments, “My gut feeling told me you would want this back, mostly because I know you are a fellow record collector/aficionado! Thank you for the kind words, definitely one of the coolest memories to hold on to!”

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Devo‘s Mark Mothersbaugh is featured on an upcoming new Yo Gabba Gabba! holiday album.

A Very Awesome Yo Gabba Gabba! Christmas consists of songs from the children’s series’ past holiday specials, including “Make It Yourself” by Mothersbaugh, which he performed during a 2011 episode.

The track list also includes the song “Every Snowflake Is Different (Just Like You)” by My Chemical Romance, who Devo opened for during a show in Chicago in August.

A Very Awesome Yo Gabba Gabba! Christmas will be released Nov. 14.

Yo Gabba Gabba! originally ran from 2007 to 2015. The series was revived as Yo Gabba GabbaLand! in 2024 and has featured guests including Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea.

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KISS‘ Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley revisit the video for the band’s classic song “Rock and Roll All Nite” in a new installment of the Vevo Footnotes series.

The updated clip, now streaming on YouTube, features annotations from Simmons and Stanley reflecting on the writing and recording of “Rock and Roll All Nite.”

“It was very much a collaborative effort, with Paul writing the chorus and me writing the verses that were pulled from a song I had previously written called ‘Drive Me Wild,’ which was actually a song about a car,” Simmons says. “We also brought in some of our friends and road crew and other musicians to clap and sing on the record.”

“It’s kind of a quintessential KISS song in our discography,” Stanley adds. “This song is such a big piece of our story. And it connects with people on all different levels across generations and generations of fans.”

Another annotation reads, “In response to the question of who had better face paint, Paul and Gene gave the same answer: ‘Me!'”

“Rock and Roll All Nite” originally appeared on KISS’ 1975 album, Dressed to Kill. A deluxe 50th anniversary Dressed to Kill reissue was released in October.

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Robert Plant‘s appearance on The Late Show Tuesday turned into a surprise J.R.R. Tolkien nerd-fest.

In speaking with host Stephen Colbert, the Led Zeppelin icon was asked about living in the same area where the author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit once resided.

“Tolkien was a master,” Plant began before asking Colbert if he’d heard the writer’s audio recordings. Colbert, whose love for all things Middle-earth is so well known that it got him a cameo in one of the Hobbit movies, then proceeded to recite Tolkien’s writings word for word.

“That’s magnificent,” an impressed Plant, who would reference The Lord of the Rings in Led Zeppelin lyrics, responded as he shook Colbert’s hands. 

After exchanging a few more Tolkien tidbits, Plant then asked Colbert, “Fancy a drink afterwards?”

“I’ve got a spear in the car,” Plant quipped, to which Colbert responded, “I’ve got a shield up there.”

In addition to geeking out over Tolkien, Plant released a new album, Saving Grace, in September.

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British singer Joe Cocker, who passed away in 2014, is set to be posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday.

Known for his soulful voice, Cocker rose to fame starting in the late ’60s and is remembered for his iconic performance at the Woodstock festival in 1969.

Some of his biggest hits were covers of songs made famous by other artists, including The Beatles’ “With a Little Help From My Friends,” which was later used as the theme for the series The Wonder Years; “You Are So Beautiful to Me,” written by Billy Preston; and “Feelin’ Alright,” written by Traffic’s Dave Mason.

He also had a #1 hit in the ’80s with the An Officer and a Gentleman song “Up Where We Belong” with Jennifer Warnes, which won a Grammy, Oscar and Golden Globe.

Cocker’s been eligible for the Rock Hall for 31 years, and there are plenty of artists who think his induction is long overdue. In fact, when the nominations were announced in April, artists like Paul McCartney, Billy Joel and ZZ Top’s Billy F. Gibbons came out in support of Cocker’s induction.

McCartney released a letter calling him “a great man and a fine singer whose unique style made for some fantastic performances,” while Joel shared a video in which he read a 2014 letter he sent to the Rock Hall, urging them to induct Cocker. Gibbons called Cocker “the very embodiment of rock and roll in terms of talent and spirit.”

And Simon Kirke, who’s being inducted into the Rock Hall this year with Bad Company, says he’s happy to see Cocker getting in with them. He tells ABC Audio, “The guy should have been inducted years and years ago. Such a great singer.” 

The 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held Saturday in Los Angeles and will stream live on Disney+ starting at 8 p.m. ET. ABC will also air a highlights special on Jan. 1, 2026, at 8 p.m. ET.

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Patti Smith details discovering the identity of her biological father in her new memoir, Bread of Angels.

According to People, Smith writes that she “wept” after learning that she and her sister were actually half sisters upon taking a DNA test in 2012.

“The results of our test put a great strain on my thought processes and for some time, I was unable to write,” Smith says. “Every morning, without fail, I had sat in a local café with my notebook and coffee, now I was obliged to question the validity of what I had written.”

Smith’s parentage had been questioned throughout her life — her maternal great-grandmother maintained that her son, Patti’s great-uncle, was actually her father.

“I had all but accepted the fact that I was fathered by my mother’s Uncle Joe,” Smith writes.

Smith then turned to her daughter, who she’d given birth to at age 20 and placed for adoption before reconnecting years later, for help in tracking down her biological father. They learned that his name was actually Sidney.

“I knew he was my father before I saw his face,” Smith writes.

Smith never got to meet Sidney, as he died young. His widow, who lived into her 90s, had also passed.

“I wasn’t sure what to do with this information, because I wanted the book I was writing to be very truthful, and all of a sudden, I had a parallel truth,” Smith tells People. “And I felt if I didn’t write about it, then it felt like truth was compromised.”

Bread of Angels is out now.

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Toto has announced a 2026 U.S. tour.

The outing, dubbed An Evening with Toto, kicks off Feb. 18 in Milwaukee and wraps up March 13 in New Buffalo, Michigan. It also includes a performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Miami on Feb. 28.

A presale begins Wednesday at 10 a.m. local time, before tickets go on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m. local time.

For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit TotoOfficial.com.

Toto will close up their 2025 with a Dec. 30 show in Las Vegas.

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ZZ Top‘s Billy F Gibbons has announced a 2026 U.S. tour.

The outing runs from Jan. 20 in Napa, California, to Feb. 28. in Atlanta. For the shows, Gibbons will be joined by his BFG Band, which features Chris “Whipper” Layton of Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble on drums and Mike “The Drifter” Flanigin on Hammond organ, bass and backing vocals.

“I’m joined with Whipper and The Drifter, in our collective Texas collective blues tradition,” Gibbons says. “There’s a bond that speaks volumes about our sonic skew.”

“One might hear a surf tune or some other detour of loudness as what we do is looser than our collective background might suggest,” the “La Grange” rocker continues. “We predict good times as we always say, ‘Ya’ can’t lose with the blues.'”

Presales begin Wednesday at 10 a.m. local time, and tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday at 10 a.m. local time. 

For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit BillyGibbons.com.

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Bob Dylan has been awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

The distinction recognizes the folk icon’s “lifetime of songwriting that changed the sound and scope of modern music.”

“Thank you, Berklee College of Music, for bestowing on me this prestigious honor. What a pleasant surprise,” Dylan says. “Who knows what path my career might have taken if I’d been fortunate enough to learn from some of the great musicians who taught at Berklee. It’s something to think about.”

“This is an incredible moment for this institution,” adds Berklee President Jim Lucchese. “Bob Dylan’s music has shaped how the world hears itself. He’s an artist who has never stopped evolving, who keeps chasing truth through sound and language. That’s the spirit we try to cultivate here every day. Honoring him feels like a reaffirmation of the creative impulse that built this place.”

Berklee has previously given honorary doctorates to artists including Joni Mitchell, Ringo Starr and Aretha Franklin.

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