Classic Hits

Add the late Whitney Houston to the growing list of celebrities joining the growing world of NFTs.  A demo song recorded by a then-17-year-old Whitney is about to hit the auction block.

OneOf, the NFT platform backed by Quincy Jones, announced that the track is a “never-before-heard full-length song.” The lucky winner of the auction “will have personal access to this recording in their OneOf Vault.”

The recording will be sold as part of an NFT collection that includes an accompanying music video created by 17-year-old artist Diana Sinclair featuring rare archival footage of Houston’s early days.

Joshua James, who co-founded OneOf, added, “We couldn’t be more excited to be releasing this historical song from the very beginning of her journey as an artist.”

Details of the two-day auction event are set to go live December 1. Proceeds from the sale will benefit the Whitney E. Houston Foundation, a nonprofit that continues the singer’s legacy in empowering and supporting young women.

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, allow buyers to exercise sole ownership over a unique piece of digital media, such as individual songs, videos and images.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Paul McCartney and friends walked the red carpet outside London’s Cineworld Leicester Square on Tuesday, ahead of the U.K.’s exclusive 100-minute preview of the highly anticipated three-part Disney+ documentary series, The Beatles: Get Back.

Other VIP guests on hand for the U.K. preview included Oasis‘ Noel Gallagher, Elvis Costello, James Bay, Spandau Ballet‘s Gary Kemp, Pet Shop Boys‘ Neil Tennant, Arctic Monkeys‘ Jamie Cook, Simply Red‘s Mick Hucknall, and director and Monty Python’s Flying Circus alum Terry Gilliam.

McCartney attended the event with his daughter Mary, while a number of other Beatles‘ family members also were on hand, according to the Daily Mail. They included the late George Harrison‘s son, Dhani, Ringo Starr‘s son Zak Starkey and Harrison’s first wife, Pattie Boyd.

The Beatles: Get Back, directed by Lord of the Rings filmmaker Peter Jackson, includes dozens of hours of unseen footage and audio recorded in January 1969 during sessions that yielded songs for Let It Be and the band’s next-to-last album, Abbey Road. The three episodes premiere November 25, 26 and 27 on Disney+.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Jackson Browne and Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen will headline a special concert on December 19 at the historic Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, that will celebrate some of the iconic songs that various famous artists have played at the venue over the years.

The show, dubbed “The Capitol Sessions: Songs from a Rock Palace That Impacted the World,” will raise money for the nonpartisan voter-registration organization HeadCount.

The evening is being curated by respected Americana artist Larry Campbell, whose resume includes being the longtime musical director for late Band singer/drummer Levon Helm and a one-time member of Bob Dylan‘s touring band.

The lineup also features former Rolling Stones backing singer Lisa Fischer, Helm’s daughter Amy, Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh‘s son Grahame and many more.

Tickets for the show go on sale this Friday, November 19, at 12 p.m. ET at TheCapitolTheatre.com. Those buying tickets are encouraged to donate money to support voter registration and HeadCount.

“[The Capitol Theatre is] a place where many of rock’s most beloved legends performed — The Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead, David Bowie, Janis Joplin, to name a few,” notes Peter Shapiro, founder of the concert’s co-producer Dayglo Presents. “We can’t wait to celebrate the iconic songs that have been played over the years at The Cap. It will be very cool for The Capitol Sessions to happen on the same stage where these songs were originally performed. It’s going to be an epic night!”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The second season of the Amazon Originals podcast Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums debuted today with an episode focusing on The Beatles‘ final studio effort, Let It Be.

The Let It Be episode features new interviews with surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, who share recollections about the making of the album, including the band’s historic final concert on the roof of Apple headquarters in London.

They also address the common perception that the album sessions were fraught with conflicts between the band members that foreshadowed The Beatles’ 1970 breakup.

Also appearing in the podcast are Giles Martin, late Beatles producer George Martin‘s son; Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield; and filmmaker Peter Jackson, director of Get Back: The Beatles, the upcoming Disney+ docuseries focusing on the Let It Be sessions.

In a preview clip from the podcast, McCartney recalls how his song “Two of Us” was inspired by a car ride he took with his future first wife Linda.

“I’ve got a very vivid memory of driving out of London in my Aston Martin with Linda, just the two of us,” Paul says in the segment. “And she was always keen on getting lost, whereas most of us guys, you know, driving, particularly driving a loved one…a new girlfriend in my case, you’re nervous about getting lost…But she would always just say, ‘Yeah, well, so let’s get lost.'”

McCartney continues, “[W]e came to a place where there’s a little parking spot in a field. And then there was a woods. I had my guitar…and just started writing that song. You know, it came very easily, ’cause it was commenting on what we were doing.”

The Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums podcast is available exclusively at Amazon Music and Wondery+.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Just in time for Christmas, ABBA has announced their first-ever holiday single. The Swedish superstars will officially release the song “Little Things” on December 3.

Taking to Instagram on Tuesday to share the track’s official artwork, the band teased, “Christmas is around the corner — Take a look at the cover art for ABBA’s Christmas song ‘Little Things’ being released December 3d on CD. Maybe something for the Christmas stocking?”

The gentle song centers on the joy parents feel waking up on Christmas morning and imagining what it’ll be like to watch their children open presents under the tree.

“Little Things” is featured on ABBA’s new album, Voyage, which is their first in 40 years.  The track is available for pre-order now. 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by ABBA (@abba)

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

A collection of eight archival concert films by Pink Floyd, guitarist David Gilmour, and Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets, the new project featuring the group’s drummer, were released worldwide for purchase and rental on multiple digital platforms today.

The Pink Floyd films are 1988’s Delicate Sound of Thunder, 1994’s Pulse and 2014’s The Endless River. The Gilmour movies are 2001’s David Gilmour in Concert, 2006’s Live in Gdańsk and Remember That Night: David Gilmour Live at The Royal Albert Hall, and 2016’s Live at Pompeii.

Rounding out the collection is the 2020 Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets concert flick Live at the Roundhouse.

Delicate Sound of Thunder features a performance by Pink Floyd’s trio lineup of Gilmour, Mason and keyboardist Richard Wright performing at New York’s Nassau Coliseum.

Pulse features the same Pink Floyd lineup performing at London’s Earls Court venue while the band promoted 1994’s The Division Bell album.

The Endless River is a film created by director Ian Emes set to the band’s final studio album of the same name, which was put together using unheard recordings from The Division Bell sessions.

David Gilmour in Concert features Gilmour performing at London’s Royal Festival Hall during the 2001 Meltdown Festival.

Live in Gdańsk features David playing in the Polish city with accompaniment from the Baltic Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.

Remember That Night captures Gilmour’s solo group performing at London’s Royal Albert Hall, joined by some famous special guests, including David Bowie and David Crosby & Graham Nash.

Live at Pompeii features Gilmour performing at Italy’s Pompeii Amphitheatre, the first artist to play to an audience at the historic site.

Lastly, Live at the Roundhouse captures Mason and his group, which pays tribute to early Pink Floyd, playing at the London venue.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Co-founding Doobie Brothers singer/guitarists Tom Johnston and Pat Simmons have joined forces to write a new memoir about their famous band titled Long Train Runnin’: Our Story of The Doobie Brothers that’s scheduled to be published on July 26, 2022.

The book features Johnston and Simmons telling the story of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band’s history in their own words.

Long Train Runnin’ follows The Doobie Brothers from their Northern California origins in the late 1960s, through their emergence in the early-to-mid 1970s as a popular roots-influenced hard-rock band led by Johnston, to their transformation into a soulful pop-rock group when singer/keyboardist Michael McDonald took over frontman duties later in the ’70s, to the band’s early-’80s breakup and eventual reformation with Tom back in the fold, and beyond.

Tom and Pat co-wrote the book with Chris Epting, whose previous projects include memoirs co-written with and about Hall & Oates‘ John Oates, Def Leppard‘s Phil Collen and Tesla‘s Brian Wheat.

Long Train Runnin’: Our Story of The Doobie Brothers can be pre-ordered now. Special bundles featuring the book packaged with such merch as a t-shirt, a mug and a tote bag are available at the band’s official online store.

Meanwhile, The Doobie Brothers wrapped up the 2021 portion of their 50th anniversary tour in late October. A 2022 leg is scheduled to kick off on June 22 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Visit TheDoobieBrothers.com to check out the group’s full schedule.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Early spring will be the time of the season for British Invasion legends The Zombies to return to the U.S. for a 2022 tour.

The monthlong trek, dubbed the Life Is a Merry-Go-Round Tour, will kick off on April 1 in Orlando, Florida, and is mapped out through a May concert in Fall River, Massachusetts. The outing apparently is named after a new song by the group called “Merry Go Round” that they played at some of their most recent shows and that likely will appear on the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers’ forthcoming studio album.

Veteran singer-songwriter Bruce Sudano, who is the widower of late disco great Donna Summer, will be The Zombies’ special guest on the tour through an April 14 show in Knoxville, Tennessee, while singer-songwriter-pianist Jesse Lynn Madera will serve as the opening act for the rest of the trek.

Tickets and VIP packages for most of the concerts will go on sale this Friday, November 19, at 10 a.m. local time. Visit TheZombiesMusic.com/live for more information.

The Zombies’ U.S. tour will begin right after the band wraps up a stint on the 2022 Flower Power Cruise, which sets sail from Miami on March 28.

The band also has a series of 2022 U.K. shows lined up in February and early March, a Canadian trek scheduled for July, and a tour of mainland Europe set to take place in September.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

KISS has just introduced its Drink It Up brand of liquors to the U.S. The alcoholic beverage line, which already was available in Europe, Australia and Japan, features three varieties of premium rum and a premium gin, all named after songs or albums by the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers.

Currently, only two of the Drink It Up rum varieties can be purchased: KISS Black Diamond Premium Dark Rum and KISS Detroit Rock Premium Dark Rum, which are being sold in 25 states across the U.S., as well as at DrinkItUpbyKiss.com. Coming soon will be KISS Premium Distilled Cold Gin and the limited-edition Monstrum Ultra Premium Dark Rum.

“From Monstrum to Cold Gin, we wanted each spirit in the portfolio to reflect the energy of our band,” says KISS frontman Paul Stanley. “We didn’t just slap a label on and call it a day, we’re proud to say that each bottle in the Drink It Up by KISS portfolio was carefully curated and each unique spirit has earned its name.”

The gin, of course, is named after KISS’ 1974 song “Cold Gin,” while the rums’ monikers were inspired by the band’s tunes “Black Diamond” and “Detroit Rock City, and their 2012 album, Monster.

To produce the Drink It Up line, KISS partnered with the Epic Rights licensing company and the award-winning Swedish spirits producer Brands for Fans.

Each variety was created by an in-house master blender.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Vanilla Fudge has announced plans to release a remastered version its 2007 cover of Led Zeppelin‘s “Ramble On” as a digital download and via streaming services on November 30.

The song is the third advance track from a remastered edition of a full Led Zeppelin covers album called Out Through the In Door that the band originally put out in 2007, and which will be released with a new title, Vanilla Zeppelin, and updated packaging at an as-yet-unannounced date.

You can pre-save the track now on Spotify and Apple Music, and also check out a 30-second clip of the tune, which features Vanilla Fudge putting their own keyboard-driven spin on the hard-rocking Led Zeppelin song. The other remastered Zeppelin cover that the band released in advance of the Vanilla Zeppelin album were “The Immigrant Song” and “Rock and Roll,” which arrived in September 2020 and March 2021, respectively.

Vanilla Fudge’s most recent release was a new cover of the classic 1965 Supremes hit “Stop in the Name of Love,” which the band issued in September. The track featured the final recording of original Fudge bassist Tim Bogert, who died of cancer in January of this year.

In other news, Vanilla Fudge has three concerts lined up this week that will feature the band supporting Doors guitarist Robby Krieger and his solo group. They take place in New York City at Sony Hall tonight and on Tuesday, November 16, and in Ridgefield, Connecticut, at the Ridgefield Playhouse on Wednesday, November 17.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.