Classic Hits

A new documentary is setting out to answer the question What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears? Directed by John Scheinfeld, who directed The U.S. vs. John Lennon and more, the documentary is set to hit theaters March 24. 

According to the description, the film explores how the band “was unknowingly embroiled in a political rat’s nest involving the U.S. State Department, the Nixon White House and a controversial concert tour of Yugoslavia, Romania and Poland, countries that were behind what was then known as the Iron Curtain.”

It continues, “As a result, they found themselves in the crossfire of a polarized America, as divided then as it is now.” 

Blood, Sweat & Tears is known for such hit songs as “Spinning Wheel” and “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy.” Their self-titled sophomore release won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1970, beating out such iconic records as The Beatles’ Abbey Road, Johnny Cash’s Johnny Cash at San Quentin and Crosby, Stills & Nash’s self-titled release.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott recently teamed up with Ghost for a new version of “Spillways,” a track from the Swedish rockers’ 2022 album, Impera. Well, it sounds like this may not be the last time we see Elliott and Ghost’s Tobias Forge collaborate.

“It has come up in the last while, and I’d be more than happy to,” Elliott tells NME. “Next time though, when we’ve both got some time off, I want us to actually find some neutral place where we can get together in a room with a little recorder, a couple of guitars, pen, paper, our brains, a bottle of wine and see what we come up with.” 

Elliott says it would be fun to write a song with Forge, noting, “I don’t want to do it for a job, I just want to write together to see what we’d get. I want to play around and see where it goes.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

John Fogerty regained control of the worldwide publishing rights to his music with Creedence Clearwater Revival last month and he couldn’t be happier.

“Finally getting ownership of my songs now, you can see it’s correcting something that has been wrong in my life for most of my life — you know, since my early twenties,” he tells Variety in a new interview in which he delves into his 55-year fight to get those rights back.

The news comes as many of Fogerty’s peers are actually selling their publishing rights, and the irony isn’t lost on him.

“It is ironic, certainly, that everybody else is selling and I end up buying my songs, but of course it makes perfect sense,” he says. “It has been such a wrong use of music business law, all these years. To finally own ‘Proud Mary’ is a big deal.” Fogerty adds, “I understand other people, especially older people, wanting to sell. But that’s not my frame of mind, certainly at the moment, anyway.”

How he got the rights back is long and involved, and at one point had him refusing to perform any CCR songs. But now that it’s over, he isn’t dwelling on what he’s been through.

“I am now, at this point in my life, looking to all the positiveness of this blessing, and I’m not turning around and looking at the horror that was the past,” the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer shares. “It is a blessing, for sure — it could have been a situation that never changed, but it did change, and I’m really happy.”

He adds, “I don’t know what simple phrase would work here. ‘Good things come to those who wait’ — maybe that’s one.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Dead & Company are set to play Chicago’s Wrigley Field June 9 and 10, and since it’s their final tour, it will be their final shows at the home of the Chicago Cubs. To mark the occasion, the team has announced a Grateful Dead night at the ballpark.

The special event will take place May 23 as the Cubs play the New York Mets, and each ticket comes with one of five Dead-inspired bobbleheads, each in a different color. 

A portion of the proceeds from Grateful Dead night will go to The Dead’s nonprofit, the Rex Foundation, which “provides extensive community support to small organizations making an impact in the arts, sciences, education, the environment, and social justice.”

Tickets to the game can be purchased at mlb.com.

And if you’re still hoping to see Dead & Company at Wrigley Field, there’s still time to win tickets to the sold-out shows. The band is running a contest through fandiem, with the grand prize being premium reserved seats to both shows, along with a lot of other goodies. To enter, folks need to make a donation, which will go Reverb and Headcount, by March 14. More info can be found at fandiem.com.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Leon Russell’s 2001 album, Signature Songs, is getting a reissue next month. The long out-of-print release, containing a collection of solo piano and vocal recordings of some of Russell’s classic tunes, is being released digitally and on CD, and on vinyl for the first time, on March 17.

The album, being released by Dhani Harrison and David Zonshine’s Dark Horse Records, features recordings of such songs as “A Song For You,” “Tight Rope,” “The Masquerade” and “Lady Blue.”

It is available for preorder now. 

Here’s the track list for Signature Songs:

“A Song for You”
“One More Love Song”
“Tight Rope”
“Stranger in a Strange Land”
“Hummingbird”
“Back to the Island”
“Out in the Woods”
“Lady Blue”
“Delta Lady”
“Magic Mirror”
“This Masquerade”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Def Leppard is currently on the next leg of their joint world tour with Mötley Crüe, and their guitarist, Phil Collen, seems to be having a blast with them.

“It’s great. We’ve known ’em for years,” Collen shares in an interview with Radioacktiva Colombia. “It’s like being at school with all of your best friends. It’s really fun. We’ve got this airplane that all of us are on there. And it’s great.” 

Collen says the fact that both bands are still rocking “means more as you get older.” He explains, “There’s this thing being young … but there’s something about really doing it still later on that makes you — I don’t know — appreciate it more.” 

The Mötley Crüe/Def Leppard tour hits Lima, Peru, on Tuesday.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Def Leppard is currently on the next leg of their joint world tour with Mötley Crüe, and their guitarist, Phil Collen, seems to be having a blast with them.

“It’s great. We’ve known ’em for years,” Collen shares in an interview with Radioacktiva Colombia. “It’s like being at school with all of your best friends. It’s really fun. We’ve got this airplane that all of us are on there. And it’s great.” 

Collen says the fact that both bands are still rocking “means more as you get older.” He explains, “There’s this thing being young … but there’s something about really doing it still later on that makes you — I don’t know — appreciate it more.” 

The Mötley Crüe/Def Leppard tour hits Lima, Peru, on Tuesday.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

On this day, February 28, 1983…

U2 released their third studio album War, produced by Steve Lillywhite. The album, which is considered the band’s first overtly political record,  featured two future U2 classics, “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “New Year’s Day,” which became the band’s first single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

The album became the band’s first U.K. number one, knocking Michael Jackson’s Thriller out of the top spot. In the U.S., it peaked at 12 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and went on to become the band’s first album to be certified Gold by the RIAA.

A remastered version of the album was released in July of 2008, including a deluxe version that featured a bonus CD made up of B-sides, live tracks and rarities.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

April 20 marks the 50th anniversary of David Bowie’s classic album Aladdin Sane. The Southbank Centre in London will be celebrating with a slew of events, including live performances and a monthlong exhibition dedicated to the album’s iconic artwork.

The artwork exhibition is set to run from April 6 to May 28. It was curated by Chris Duffy, the son of photographer Brian Duffy, who shot the cover, and Geoff Marsh. 

“My father’s image of Bowie is often called the Mona Lisa of Pop,” Chris shares. “It’s extraordinary how it’s lasted and been endlessly reworked. Wherever I go in the world, it’s always somewhere on a t-shirt.”

The celebration will also include a tribute concert to Aladdin Sane on April 21 at the Royal Festival Hall, featuring Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears, Mercury Prize nominee Anna Calvi and others performing the album in full.

Other planned events include a free display celebrating Bowie’s history with the Southbank Centre, dance parties, talks and poetry events.

A full list of Aladdin Sane events, plus ticket information, can be found at southbankcentre.co.uk.

News of the Aladdin Sane celebrations comes just days after it was revealed that 80,000 objects from Bowie’s archives have been acquired by London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, the largest donation in the museum’s history. The archive will eventually be housed in the V&A’s new site at East London’s Olympic Park, in The David Bowie Centre for the Study of Performing Arts. It is expected to open in 2025.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Olivia Newton-John was remembered during a state memorial service in Melbourne, Australia, on Sunday.
Delivering emotional speeches at the event were the late Grease star’s husband, John Easterling, and daughter Chloe Lattanzi. Olivia died of breast cancer in August 2022 at the age of 73.

“My heart is broken in two,” Chloe, 37, said at the memorial service. “The other half is with my mama. I know she’s holding it for me until we meet again.”

“I stand here before you so desperately wanting to feel strong and confident and speak eloquently, but the truth is I feel like a little girl lost without her mother,” she continued. “She was my safe space, my guide, my biggest fan and the earth beneath my feet.”

She added, “I know she’s here, standing beside me and within me. I can hear her voice [saying], ‘You are safe, my darling. Don’t be afraid. You are so much stronger than you think. Speak from your heart. That’s all you have to do.'”

“I love how she loved: fully and completely,” she continued. “She would want us all to laugh and reminisce together in joy and celebrate her life. This life experience is temporary, and my mother is the perfect example of a life truly lived.”

Easterling, who married Olivia in 2008, became emotional when he recounted how she’d proposed to him during a game of charades.

Others who paid tribute to Newton-John via prerecorded messages included Dolly Parton, Nicole Kidman, Pink, Mariah Carey, Keith Urban, RuPaul, Hugh Jackman and Elton John.

During the service, Australian singer Delta Goodrem performed a medley of Olivia’s hits, including “Physical,” “You’re the One That I Want” and “Hopelessly Devoted to You.”

The memorial service is available to stream at Vic.gov.au until March 5.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.