Classic Hits

With the 50th anniversary of the release of Don McLean‘s classic anthem “American Pie” approaching, a special “bookazine” has been released featuring information and stories about the famous tune and photos of the singer/songwriter throughout the years.

The 96-page publication, titled Don McLean’s American Pie: The Official 50th Anniversary Celebration, is available wherever magazines are sold. Those who purchase the bookazine will be able to download for free a digital copy of the new a cappella version of the song that McLean recorded with country vocal group Home Free.

“American Pie” originally was released on October 24, 1971, and appeared on McLean’s album of the same name, which also was issued that day. The song spent four weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 during early 1972, while the album topped the Billboard 200 for seven weeks around that same time.

Using the tragic 1959 plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper — now commonly called “The Day the Music Died” — as its launching point, the epic eight-and-a-half-minute tune features allegorical imagery that appears to chronicle key historic and cultural events of the late ’50s and the 1960s. The song also includes poetic reflections on the disillusionment felt by the generation who came of age during the volatile 1960s.

As previously reported, McLean has co-written a new children’s book inspired by “American Pie” that will be published in September as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations for the song.

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Veteran hard-rockers Tesla will get their show on the road for the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic last year with a new U.S. trek dubbed the “Let’s Get Real!” tour.

The outing is scheduled to kick off on August 5 in Grants Pass, Oregon, and is mapped out through a November 20 concert in Tupelo, Mississippi.

The band has almost 30 confirmed gigs on its schedule, including headlining shows, festival appearances and dates opening for such well-known acts as Styx, Kid Rock and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Tesla actually will support Skynyrd at nine concerts this year.

“We are so excited and anxious to get back to performing ‘real’ live concerts again,” says founding Tesla guitarist Frank Hannon. “There’s nothing like the energy of being in the same spontaneous moment with an audience of people.”

He adds, “We are planning some surprises for our fans on this upcoming tour by playing some deeper Tesla cuts as well as a fresh brand new song we just wrote. Of course we will play the hits as well, but introducing a fresh new track on this return is something we are very excited about!”

You can check out the group’s tour schedule at TeslatheBand.com.

Tesla’s most recent studio album, Shock, was released in 2019.

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Depeche Mode is continuing its 12-inch vinyl singles reissue campaign with the release of Ultra — The 12″ Singles on September 10.

The deluxe box set features eight 12-inch vinyl discs, including B-sides, alternate mixes and live versions of four singles from the band’s 1997 album Ultra: “Barrel of a Gun,” “It’s No Good,” “Home” and “Useless.”  “Barrel of a Gun” and “It’s No Good” were both hits on Billboard‘s Alternative Airplay chart.

Ultra was the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers’ first album as a trio since 1982. It peaked at number five in the U.S. and inspired the name of Miami’s annual Ultra Music Festival.

The Ultra 12-inch singles box follows the release of similar box sets focusing on the singles from the Depeche Mode albums Speak & Spell, A Broken Frame, Construction Time Again, Some Great Reward, Black Celebration, Music for the Masses, Violator and Songs of Faith and Devotion.

You can pre-order the box set now.

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A new compilation from the NOW That’s What I Call Music! folks focusing specifically on classic songs from the 1980s will be released on August 6.

NOW That’s What I Call a Decade 1980s is an 18-track collection that will be available everywhere on CD and digital formats, and as a vinyl LP sold exclusively via Walmart.com and at Walmart stores.

The album features classic rock hits including Journey‘s “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart),” Daryl Hall & John Oates‘ “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do),” John Mellencamp‘s “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A. (A Salute to 60’s Rock),” Foreigner‘s “I Want to Know What Love Is,” Billy Idol‘s “Rebel Yell” and Toto‘s “Africa.”

The compilation also features hits from Tears for Fears, George Michael, Eurythmics, Simple Minds, Duran Duran, Survivor, Rick Springfield, Wang Chung, A-ha, INXS, The Clash and The Bangles.

NOW That’s What I Call a Decade 1980s can be pre-ordered now.

Here’s the complete track list:

George Michael — “Monkey” (7″ Edit Remastered)
Eurythmics — “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” (Remastered)
Simple Minds — “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” (12″ Version)
John Mellencamp — “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A. (A Salute to 60’s Rock)”
The Clash — “Rock the Casbah” (Bob Clearmountain Mix)
Duran Duran — “Rio”
Tears for Fears — “Shout”
Survivor — “Eye of the Tiger”
Rick Springfield — “Jessie’s Girl”
Wang Chung — “Everybody Have Fun Tonight”
A-ha — “Take On Me”
Billy Idol — “Rebel Yell”
INXS — “Need You Tonight”
The Bangles — “Walk Like an Egyptian”
Daryl Hall & John Oates — “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)”
Toto — “Africa”
Foreigner — “I Want to Know What Love Is”
Journey — “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)”

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The 2020 edition of the Farm Aid was a virtual event because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but this year’s installment of the festival, which supports family-run and independent farms in the U.S., will return to being a live, in-person extravaganza.

Farm Aid 2021 is scheduled for September 25 in Hartford, Connecticut, at Xfinity Theatre, the same venue where the 2018 festival was held. As usual, the event will be headlined by Farm Aid board members Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and Willie Nelson, with Matthews playing as a duo with his longtime collaborator, Tim Reynolds.

This year’s lineup also features Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Margo Price, Sturgill Simpson, Bettye LaVette, Jamey Johnson, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real and more. Tickets for the festival go on sale to the public this Friday, July 23, at 10 a.m. ET. A limited number of pre-sale tickets can be purchased now at FarmAid.org/Festival.

“The experience of the past 18 months has reminded us how much we need each other,” says Willie Nelson, Farm Aid’s president and co-founder. “I’m so glad that music is bringing us all back together at Farm Aid 2021 to celebrate family farmers. When we combine music, family farmers and good food, we have the power to grow the kind of agriculture that strengthens all of us.”

The festival will feature local and organic foods produced at family farms, and will offer various agricultural-themed activities and forums presented by farmers and artists.

In addition, a silent auction featuring rare and signed memorabilia, including guitars and prints, will be held to raise money for Farm Aid. The sale will run from September 25 to October 8 at FarmAid.org/auction.

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For a guy who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of lung cancer earlier this year, Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood is extremely busy. He received a clean bill of health in March, and he’s got his hands in several different projects.

Wood tells The Times of London, “Me and Mick [Jagger] have done nine new tracks for the re-release of Tattoo You.”  Wood adds that Jagger, who underwent heart surgery in 2019, is “fighting fit,” and says, “We both can’t wait to get working again.”

Tattoo You will mark its 40th anniversary on August 24; the reissue has yet to be officially announced.

On top of that, Wood says, “Me, Rod [Stewart] and Kenney [Jones] have been recording some new Faces music.”  He’s also putting the finishing touches on Mr. Luck — A Tribute to Jimmy Reed: Live at the Royal Albert Hall, a live album originally recorded in 2013 that will be released September 3.

As Ronnie puts it, “I’ve had a front-row seat on some amazing rock ‘n’ roll projects these past couple of weeks. I’m making every day count. Not wasting a moment.”

In August, two life-size fiberglass lions that Wood, a respected painter, has been decorating over the past couple of months will go on display in London. They’ll be auctioned in November for the charity Tusk, which supports animal conservation in Africa.

Wood adds, “I go through art phases when music is secondary, but right now I really want to get out there and play.”

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Mick Jagger has eight children who range in age from 50 to four years old, and his current girlfriend has now given us a glimpse of the Rolling Stones front man with his youngest.

Ballet dancer Melanie Hamrick, Mick’s girlfriend, shared a photo on Instagram of herself along with Mick and little Devereaux.  Hamrick, 34, is kissing Mick, 77 on the cheek while Devereaux peeps out from behind his dad’s leg.  The photo, posted on Sunday, evidently was taken around the time of Hamrick’s birthday.

Mick’s children include Karis, his daughter with Marsha Hunt; Jade, who he shares with Bianca Jagger; Georgia, Lizzie, James and Gabriel, who he shares with Jerry Hall, and Lucas, who he shares with his ex Luciana Morad.

Some of the kids seem pretty close: Georgia, 29, posted some photos of herself with Luca, 22, in L.A. just last month.

 

 

 

 

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What did a year with no live gigs do to the fortunes of rock’s biggest stars?  Well, they definitely took a hit, but the lucky few who managed to get some live dates in before the pandemic shut things down did well, as did sales and streaming of new releases and catalog reissues.

Among veteran artists, The Eagles were tops. They came in fourth on Billboard‘s ranking of the highest-paid musicians of 2020 in the U.S.,  behind pop superstars Taylor Swift, Post Malone and Celine Dion.  That’s because they were lucky enough to have played 10 shows before the pandemic hit, netting them about $11 million. The rest of their $16.3 million paycheck came from streaming radio and sales and streaming of recordings.

Queen rank number seven with earnings of $13.2 million, thanks to royalties from record sales, publishing and massive streaming numbers.  In fact, their on-demand audio streams outranked every other veteran act on the list.

The Beatles ranked number eight with $12.9 million thanks to physical sales of their albums — most of which were pricey vinyl reissues — plus an impressive 1.8 billion streams, which Billboard says is rare for a rock band.

Just out of the top 10, AC/DC came in at #13 with $10.1 million, thanks to sales of its 2020 album Power Up, its back catalog and nearly 1.5 billion streams

Here’s how some other veteran acts ranked in terms of their U.S. paychecks:

18. Metallica, $9 million
20. Pink Floyd, $8.8 million
29. Fleetwood Mac, $6.6 million (thanks to that viral “Dreams” TikTok video)
33. KISS, $6 million
34. Rolling Stones, $5.96 million
39. Billy Joel, $5.49 million
40. Aerosmith, $5.35 million

Globally, though, Queen soar to number one in the rankings.

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What did a year with no live gigs do to the fortunes of rock’s biggest stars?  Well, they definitely took a hit, but the lucky few who managed to get some live dates in before the pandemic shut things down did well. Streaming of new releases and catalog reissues also helped.

Billie Eilish is the highest-ranking rock act on Billboard‘s list of the highest-paid musicians of 2020, thanks to three pre-pandemic concerts she performed.  However, she made the bulk of her $14.7 million in streaming and publishing, as well as physical album sales.

Queen came in at number seven with earnings of $13.2 million, thanks to some 2020 tour dates, plus royalties from record sales, publishing and massive streaming numbers.  In fact, their on-demand audio streams outranked every other veteran act on the list.  Globally, Queen soared to number one in the rankings.

Just out of the top 10, AC/DC came in at #13 with $10.1 million, thanks to sales of its 2020 album Power Up, its back catalog and nearly 1.5 billion streams.  Metallica came in at #18 with $9 million, mostly thanks to the sales of their August 2020 live album S&M2 and their digitally remastered catalog.

Also in Billboard‘s Top 40: The Lumineers, who managed to play 20 shows in 2020 and earned $6.8 million; Tool, coming in with $6.17 million thanks to nine shows they did in 2020 prior to the pandemic; KISS with $6 million thanks to their 20 live dates, and Aerosmith, who earned $5.35 million thanks to streaming and the shows they played as part of their Las Vegas residency before COVID cut them off.

The list shows just how much rock bands depend on touring revenue; as Billboard notes, the top earners collectively took home $387 million in 2020. By comparison, in 2019, the top earners raked in $969 million.

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Legendary violinist and founding member of the rock band Kansas, Robby Steinhardt, has passed away at age 71, his family confirms.

His widow Cindy shared the news in a statement on Facebook Monday, writing that Steinhardt was admitted to a hospital in Tampa, Florida, with acute pancreatitis in May and later went into acute septic shock and was placed on life support.

She says he bounced back “much to the amazement of his entire medical staff,” but on July 17, the day he was supposed to move to a rehab center, the sepsis returned and he passed away in her arms.

“We are beyond devastated as our lives were about to start a new adventure,” Cindy writes. “Robby just recorded his first solo album with the talented music producer Michael Franklin at Solar Studios. A tour to start in August, Robby was so looking forward to being back on stage doing what he loved.”

She encouraged fans to share pictures and stories of Robby on his page and to “Hug your loved ones, be happy, stay safe and be well.”

Steinhardt made his mark on the music world with violin and vocals on such Kansas classics as “Dust in the Wind,” “Point of No Return” and “Carry on Wayward Son”

In addition to his wife Cindy, he is survived by his daughter Becky. A memorial will be announced at a later date.

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