If you need motivational anthems to keep you pumping iron at the gym, Queen will, Queen will rock you — thanks to Apple+ Fitness.
The Apple+ Fitness app has just debuted a Queen playlist specifically designed to make you yell “Don’t Stop Me Now!” while you’re doing the Fandago with free weights, the treadmill, the bike or workout machines. The playlist will “lift your spirits and deliver that extra shot of energy for whatever your goal might be,” according to Apple.
In addition to the inevitable “We Will Rock You,” “Another One Bites the Dust,” “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “We Are the Champions,” the playlist also includes hits and classic cuts like “I Want It All,” “Keep Yourself Alive,” “Tie Your Mother Down,” “Hammer to Fall,” “Death on Two Legs,” “Killer Queen,” “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” “You’re My Best Friend,” “Stone Cold Crazy,” “Radio Gaga,” “Headlong,” “Fat Bottomed Girls,” “I Want to Break Free,” “Now I’m Here” and more.
You can check out a video on the Apple Fitness+ website showing a snippet of a Queen-soundtracked workout. There are also playlists from ABBA and Korean boy band BTS, if you feel like dancing.
KISS‘ upcoming archival release Off the Soundboard: Live at Donington doesn’t come out until June 10, but the band has released a track from the album to whet fans’ appetites.
It’s a live version of “Do You Love Me,” from the band’s 1976 album Destroyer. It’s now available on all the streaming services, as well as on YouTube. As previously reported, KISS — Off the Soundboard: Live at Donington 1996 features a 17-song headlining set the band played at the Monsters of Rock festival at England’s Donington Park on August 17, 1996.
In other KISS news, Paul Stanley‘s custom C8 Corvette 3LT convertible is going under the hammer at Barrett-Jackson’s 2022 Las Vegas Auction, taking place June 30 to July 2. Chevrolet presented the vehicle — with VIN 001, indicating that it’s the first Corvette produced for the 2022 model year — to Stanley, but he’s selling it because he’s not much of a car collector.
“I want to make it available to somebody who might be able to get more out of it, whether it’s to add to a collection or to drive it,” he says in a statement. The highest bidder will also get a signed Ibanez PS120 Paul Stanley Signature guitar.
“The guitar is another part of my life, another aspect of who I am. So I thought that whoever [might] acquire the car would have another piece of who I am,” he said, adding, “For me, my life has always been about the joy I can bring to other people. So here’s a car and a guitar. Go enjoy.”
Daryl Hall is currently on the road celebrating his new solo retrospective BeforeAfter, but if you weren’t able to see him on the first leg of the tour, here’s a reminder that you can enjoy it from home this weekend.
On Sunday, April 24, you can watch Daryl’s full set, recorded April 3 at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, via the livestream platform Mandolin. Twenty bucks gives you access the show, which features Daryl performing solo hits like “Dreamtime” as well as Hall & Oates hits like “Sara Smile,” “I Can’t Go for That,” “You Make My Dreams” and “Wait for Me.”
The second leg of the tour launches May 12 in Seattle, Washington.
BeforeAfter is a two-disc set featuring 30 tracks from all five of Daryl’s solo albums, as well as six never-released performances from his Live from Daryl’s House series.
Sting‘s partnership with reggae star Shaggy is continuing with a very unexpected project.
The former Police frontman and the chart-topping “It Wasn’t Me” singer won the Best Reggae Album Grammy in 2019 for their joint album, 44/876. Now they’ve teamed up for a new album, due out May 25, called Com Fly Wid Me.
Conceived and produced by Sting, the album features Shaggy singing reggae versions of Frank Sinatra classics like “Fly Me to the Moon,” “Luck Be a Lady,” “Under My Skin” and more. Turns out Sting came up with this unconventional idea three years ago, when he and Shaggy were on a boat in Norway and Sting heard Shaggy singing along with a Sinatra tune that was playing on the boat’s sound system.
In a statement, Sting says, “This idea of getting my friend to sing ten iconic songs from the Frank Sinatra songbook in a reggae style had been brewing for a while…I know, it sounds crazy! But every time the idea crossed my mind, it made me smile. And what does the world need now, more than anything else…something to smile about!”
“He’s not trying to be Frank, he’s Shaggy,” Sting adds. “So, relax and let that smile soothe the cares of the world away,” Sting adds.
A one-night-only performance celebrating the album’s release will take place May 26 at New York City’s Blue Note Jazz Club. Details of the gig will be announced soon.
Friday, April 22 is Earth Day, so here’s a reminder that you can score some unique and rare tracks today — and fight the global climate crisis at the same time.
As previously reported, Michael Stipe has teamed with legendary producer Brian Eno for a new single called “Future if Future,” which is one of about 100 songs that are available today with sales benefiting groups focused on raising awareness and fighting climate change.
In addition to the Stipe track, you’ll also find a never-before-released version of Peter Gabriel‘s classic 1982 track “Shock the Monkey,” as well as a version of Coldplay’s “Humankind” recorded live in Mexico City. There are also songs by ex-Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, Nile Rodgers and Eno himself.
Sales of the tracks benefit an organization that Eno founded, EarthPercent. Proceeds will go to organizations developing promising solutions to the climate crisis. All of the songs are now available for streaming and download at Earthpercent/bandcamp.com.
Part of EarthPercent’s mission is dedicated to addressing the environmental impact of the music industry, such as lowering the carbon footprint of touring artists. EarthPercent is asking the music community and related businesses to pledge a small percentage of what they make to the cause, with a goal of raise about $100 million by 2030.
Cynthia Albritton, who as Cynthia Plaster Caster became famous for immortalizing the genitalia of male musicians in plaster, has died, Variety reports. She was 74.
Albritton started her career in Chicago in 1968, thanks to a plaster casting assignment from her college art teacher. She came up with the idea of casting the male member, and her first celebrity “subject” was Jimi Hendrix. After meeting Frank Zappa, he became her patron and moved her to LA, where she found plenty of other willing subjects.
Among her dozens of subjects: Jimi Hendrix Experience bass player Noel Redding, MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, The Rascals’ Eddie Brigati, The Lovin’ Spoonful‘s Zal Yanovsky, Beach Boys drummer and Rutles member Ricky Fataar, Foghat‘s Tony Stevens, Jello Biafra of The Dead Kennedys, Pete Shelley of The Buzzcocks, and Television guitarist Richard Lloyd.
In 2000, Albritton expanded her repertoire by casting the breasts of female musicians, including Suzi Gardner of L7 and Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
As Variety reports, Zappa and Albritton decided in 1971 that the casts should be kept somewhere safe for a future exhibition, and gave them to Zappa’s business partner, Herb Cohen. In 1993, Albritton had to initiate legal proceedings to get back the casts she’d given Cohen for safekeeping. All but three of the 25 were returned.
Albritton has either inspired or been mentioned in several songs, including KISS’ “Plaster Caster” and Jim Croce‘s “Five Short Minutes.” A recording of a telephone conversation between her and famed groupie Pamela Des Barres appears on Permanent Damage, the first and only album by the all-girl group The GTOs, which was produced by Zappa. She was also the subject of the documentary titled Plaster Caster.
The Who launches its The Who Hits Back! tour tonight in Hollywood, Florida, which sees the British rock legends returning to the road for the first time since wrapping up their Moving On! trek in October 2019.
As previously announced, the band’s 2022 North American tour features two legs, with the first wrapping up May 28 in Bethel, New York, and the second running from an October 2 concert in Toronto through a November 4-5 engagement in Las Vegas.
Notable stops on the outing’s first leg include an April 30 headlining performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and a May 15 show at Cincinnati’s TQL Stadium. The latter gig will mark the first time in 43 years that the band will play Cincinnati, the site of the tragic 1979 incident in which 11 people were killed at Riverfront Coliseum when fans rushed the doors of the venue ahead of a Who show there.
Meanwhile, just in time for the start of the tour, The Who have announced the lineup of artists that will be opening for them at most shows. The support acts for the first leg include singer/songwriter Leslie Mendelson, soul singer Amythyst Kiah, Texas roots rockers Los Lonely Boys, veteran singer/songwriter Willie Nile, and contemporary British rock band The Wild Things.
Opening for The Who during the second leg are ex-Barenaked Ladies frontman Steven Page, Tom Petty guitarist Mike Campbell and his current band The Dirty Knobs, and, again, The Wild Things, who will perform at the two-show finale in Las Vegas.
Like the Moving On! tour, the new trek will feature The Who accompanied by an orchestra at all shows.
Visit TheWho.com to check out the band’s full tour schedule and which support act will be performing at each concert.
A collection of rare recordings by 10cc co-founders Kevin Godley and Lol Creme from the late 1960s will be released on June 10.
Frabjous Days — The Secret World of Godley & Creme 1967-1969 includes tracks that the duo made under the name Frabjoy and Runcible Spoon for a planned 1969 album for British music impresario Georgio Gomelsky‘s Marmalade label that was never released.
The compilation also features a 1969 solo track that Godley and Creme’s future 10cc band mate Graham Gouldman recorded for Marmalade called “The Late Mr. Late,” and two unreleased songs written by Gouldman that the duo recorded in 1969 — “Hot Sun” and “Virgin Soldiers.”
Other tracks on the album include two songs from a January 1968 single that Godley and Crème released under the moniker The Yellow Bellow Room Boom, and two unreleased tracks from a June 1968 acetate recording.
Frabjous Days comes packaged with a 28-page booklet featuring a new essay, as well as rare photos and memorabilia.
“These songs sound like they were written and recorded before we were born…and in a sense they were,” Godley says. “It’s the sound of two young art students messing around at weekends, stringing chords and words together for the sheer, explosive buzz of hearing what happens. There’s a thrill in not knowing what you’re doing but aiming high anyway and that, I believe, is exactly what’s going on in these recordings.”
The Marmalade Sessions 1969
1. “I’m Beside Myself” (album version)*
2. “Chaplin House”*
3. “Cowboys and Indians”*
4. “It’s the Best Seaside in the World”*
5. “Fly Away” (Frabjoy and Runcible Spoon LP version)*
6. “Take Me Back”*
7. “Today”*
8. “Hot Sun”*
9. “Virgin Soldiers”*
10. “The Late Mr. Late” — Graham Gouldman
11. “To Fly Away” (Marmalade sampler LP version)
12. “I’m Beside Myself” (single version)
13. “Animal Song”
Bonus tracks (recorded 1967-1969)
14. “Seeing Things Green”
15. “Easy Life”
16. “One and One Make Love”*
17. “Over and Above My Head”*
18. “Hello Blinkers”
19. “Goodnight Blinkers”
1-7: Unreleased Frabjoy and Runcible Spoon album, recorded circa September 1969
8-9: Unreleased acetate of Graham Gouldman songs performed by Godley and Creme, recorded circa July 1969
10-11: From label sampler Marmalade – 100% Proof, released June 1969
12-13: Frabjoy and Runcible Spoon single, released September 1969
14-15: The Yellow Bellow Room Boom single, released January 1968
16-17: Unreleased acetate, recorded circa July 1968
18-19: Promo vinyl pressing for Blinkers nightclub, circa late 1969
The latest trend among country music superstars is opening their own bar, restaurant or music venue in downtown Nashville. Now it seems as though Jon Bon Jovi may want a piece of the action.
The Nashville Business Journalshared reports this week that Jon might be attaching his name to a new venue at the prime downtown location of 405 Broadway. That site is currently a vacant lot situated between a famous honky tonk and an upscale restaurant, on the same block as iconic Nashville locations like Tootsies Orchid Lounge.
The Business Journal cites multiple unnamed reports linking Jon to the new development. Though his involvement hasn’t been confirmed, the Nashville Postreports that work is underway at the site, with a “celebrity partner” in the mix.
Nashville-based investment group Big Plan Holdings owns the property, and founder and CEO Josh Joseph has hinted that he’ll soon reveal the star who’s partnered in the project.
Though Bon Jovi isn’t country, the band has had a country hit: In 2006, they put out a duet version of “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” with country star Jennifer Nettles, which hit number one on the country charts. It won Bon Jovi their only Grammy, for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. Bon Jovi re-teamed with Jennifer in 2020 for a duet version of “Do What You Can.”
Bon Jovi also recorded songs with country acts Big & Rich and LeAnn Rimes on the band’s 2007 album Lost Highway.
George Harrison‘s widow, Olivia Harrison, will publish an illustrated book of poetry called Came the Lightening on June 21, in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Beatles guitarist’s death.
The book features 20 poems written by Olivia and dedicated to her late husband. The collection finds Olivia musing on her life with George and the emotional bond they shared, as well as reflecting on the loss of her husband and on the passing years.
Came the Lightening features an introduction by legendary director Martin Scorsese, who describes the book as “a work of poetic autobiography.”
To accompany the poems, Olivia has chosen a selection of photos and mementos, including pics of her with George. Among the images are previously unseen photos taken photographers including Henry Grossman, Sue Flood, Marcus Tomlinson and Paul McCartney‘s daughter, Mary. The book also features a drawing by artist and musician Klaus Voormann, a longtime friend of and collaborator with the members of The Beatles.
“I hope you enjoy these personal stories, recollections and reflections,” Olivia says in a statement. You also can check out a short video trailer for the book on YouTube featuring a voiceover from Olivia, who comments about putting out a collection of 20 poems 20 years after George’s passing, “I didn’t plan it that way, it just sort of happened.”
