An early, pre-ParachutesColdplay performance is now streaming via Amazon Prime’s Coda Collection.
The set, titled Amsterdam Sessions, was recorded at a Netherlands studio in June 2000, just a month before the U.K. band’s debut album dropped. It marked one of Coldplay’s first performances outside of their home country and has never before been released outside of Holland.
You can watch a preview of Amsterdam Sessions, featuring a rendition of the future hit “Yellow,” now on YouTube.
Since that humble performance, Chris Martin and company have since become worldwide superstars. Their upcoming ninth album, Music of the Spheres, featuring the lead single “Higher Power” and the much-anticipated BTS collaboration “My Universe,” arrives October 15.
Rolling Stone has published a brand-new list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time — it’s first since 2004 — and among the top 100 tracks on the list are hits by Taylor Swift, Kelly Clarkson, Adele, Madonna and Whitney Houston.
Highest-ranked is Madonna’s “Like a Prayer,” at number 55. Taylor’s “All Too Well,” a fan favorite from her album Red, is number 69 — in fact, it has a higher ranking than The Beatles‘ iconic song, “Yesterday.” Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” is number 82, Kelly’s “Since U Been Gone” is number 93, and Whitney’s version of Dolly Parton‘s “I Will Always Love You” is 94.
The number-one song on the list is Aretha Franklin‘s 1967 classic version of Otis Redding‘s “Respect.”
The top 50 includes such crowd-pleasers as Elton John‘s “Tiny Dancer,” Fleetwood Mac‘s “Dreams,” Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” Prince‘s “When Doves Cry” and “Purple Rain,” Lorde‘s “Royals,” Beyoncé‘s “Crazy In Love,” Bruce Springsteen‘s “Born to Run,” Queen‘s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and Nirvana‘s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
Rolling Stone‘s ranking was determined by more than 250 artists, musicians, producers, music industry figures, critics and journalists, who all submitted in their top 50 choices, which Rolling Stone then tabulated. More than half of the songs on the new list weren’t present on the 2004 list.
In case you’re wondering, the song that’s ranked #500 is “Stronger,” by Kanye West.
Last year, Dion DiMucci released a collaborative album titled Blues with Friends that featured contributions from a jaw-dropping cast of music legends. Now the doo-wop and rock ‘n’ roll great has announced plans for a similarly star-studded follow-up project.
The album, titled Stomping Ground, will be released November 5, and features Bruce Springsteen and wife Patti Scialfa, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Peter Frampton, ZZ Top‘s Billy Gibbons, Boz Scaggs, Rickie Lee Jones and more. In addition, the record’s liner notes were penned by The Who‘s Pete Townshend.
In his own album notes, Dion writes, “To make music with friends, and to make friends through music: I can’t imagine a better life than this. I am grateful to my friends who made Stomping Ground with me — and my new friends who are listening.”
Stomping Ground features 14 tracks: 13 originals, plus a cover of Jimi Hendrix‘s “Red House” that Dion recorded with folk-blues artist Keb’ Mo’. You can pre-order the album now.
Last month, Dion released one of the new songs as an advance single — “I’ve Got to Get to You,” which features Scaggs and the father-son guitar duo Joe and Mike Menza.
The album’s lead track, “Take It Back,” which features blues-rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa, has just debuted, along with a companion video. A third advance song, “Angel in the Alleyway,” featuring Springsteen on guitar and harmonica and Scialfa on vocals, is due out October 13.
Townshend writes about Stomping Ground, “This one will blow those little white things in our ears right into your brain.”
In other news, a stage musical based on Dion’s life and music, titled The Wanderer, will premiere next March at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey.
Here’s Stomping Ground‘s full track list:
“Take It Back” — with Joe Bonamassa
“Hey Diddle Diddle ” — with G.E. Smith
“Dancing Girl ” — with Mark Knopfler
“If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll ” — with Eric Clapton
“There Was a Time ” — with Peter Frampton
“Cryin’ Shame ” — with Sonny Landreth
“The Night Is Young ” — with Joe Menza and Wayne Hood
“That’s What The Doctor Said ” — with Steve Conn
“My Stomping Ground ” — with Billy F Gibbons
“Angel in the Alleyways ” — with Patti Scialfa and Bruce Springsteen
“I’ve Got to Get to You ” — with Boz Scaggs, Joe Menza and Mike Menza
“Red House ” — with Keb’ Mo’
“I Got My Eyes on You Baby ” — with Marcia Ball and Jimmy Vivino
“I’ve Been Watching ” — with Rickie Lee Jones and Wayne Hood
Rick Diamond/Getty Images for Music Business Association
Kane Brown has earned a spot TIME magazine’s prestigious TIME100 list, honoring the 100 most influential people of 2021. Darius Rucker penned the touching tribute to Kane.
“Kane Brown has that unquantifiable ‘it’ factor,” Darius praised. “He’s so laid-back and doesn’t take himself too seriously, but he also really cares about his craft and other people. And when it comes to his music, he can do that low, cool, borderline-rapping thing, and then he sings and his vocal ability just blows you away.”
Darius made great strides as a Black man in country music, strides that Darius sees Kane also achieving.
“I’m sure there are kids looking up to Kane right now just like when I looked up at Charley Pride,” Darius says. “One of the most pivotal moments of my career was when Charley shared some of the lessons he learned over the years with me … Kane is setting the bar so high for the next generation. I hope kids see him and now think, ‘I can do that.'”
Good news for customers of StubHub: You’re getting your money back.
The ticket resale platform has agreed to give refunds to customers who purchased tickets to events canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. When concerts and other events first started being canceled, StubHub initially stopped honoring its refund guarantee, instead offering customers credits to be used for future events.
On Wednesday, several state attorneys general announced a settlement with StubHub that forces the ticket reseller to reverse the policy and honor refunds for tickets purchased prior to March 25, 2020. The settlement also requires StubHub to be more forthcoming about its refund policies and honor those policies when events are cancelled.
The company will be able to avoid paying a multi-million-dollar penalty if it promptly coughs up the refunds owed to customers. Instead of refunds, StubHub had tried to offer credits of $120% of ticket purchase prices for future events.
The multistate investigation began after several customer complaints, and Stubhub’s “lack of responsiveness” to the inquiries, the attorneys general said.
Now, the bad news: The settlement only involves StubHub customers in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.
Lady Gaga will promote her new duets album with Tony Bennett, Love for Sale, with a TV takeover.
The two will star in three different specials, one of which will air on CBS, one of which will air on MTV, and a third which will stream on Paramount+.
The first special is titled One Last Time: An Evening with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, which will air on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend in November at 8 p.m. ET/PT. The hour-long special was filmed during the two shows Gaga and Bennett did in August at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, which were the 95-year-old crooner’s final public performances.
Then, sometime this winter, an MTV Unplugged special will air, which Gaga and Bennett filmed together in New York in August. It was Bennett’s 1994 appearance on the original MTV Unplugged — captured on a hit album that went on to win the 1995 Grammy for Album of the Year — that revived his career.
Finally, a documentary called The Lady and the Legend will stream on Paramount+ in 2022; no premiere date has yet been announced. It’ll include footage from the Love for Sale sessions, as well as from the duo’s first album, 2011’s Cheek to Cheek.
Love for Sale arrives October 1. A video for the title track will premiere on Friday at noon ET.
TIME magazine is out with its annual list of the 100 Most Influential People, and some of music’s biggest stars made the list, including Billie Eilish, Lil Nas X and Britney Spears.
TIME has tapped fellow celebs to pen essays about each honoree. Meghan Thee Stallionwrites of Billie, “[She’s] a unique soul, with a voice, style and attitude all unapologetically her own…She is a rare spirit who speaks from her heart with no pretenses….one who is strong, but still learning and still growing. A woman who stands up for herself and advocates for women everywhere.”
Rapper and actor Kid Cudi writes of Lil Nas X, “What he’s doing is what we need right now. To have a gay man in hip-hop doing his thing, crushing records — that is huge for us and for Black excellence. The way he’s unafraid to make people uncomfortable is so rock ’n’ roll. He’s a true rock star.”
Britney’s old pal Paris Hiltonwrites of the newly engaged star, “When I think of Britney Spears, I see the sweetest soul. A mother. A friend. A fighter. A young woman who grew up in the tabloid culture of the 2000s, when the paparazzi machine was accepted, unforgiving and cruel.”
“Despite the darkness that has surrounded her life, Britney embodies joy and shares the light of her beautiful heart, forever the superstar, Paris adds. “So we stand by her and root for her as she turns pain into purpose, her unwavering spirit stronger than ever.”
Miley Cyrus is also featured, penning a tribute to her godmother, Dolly Parton. “Dolly is not only my idol because of her incomparable career — she’s also my role model because of her steadfast morals and values,” Miley writes. “At her core, she is the definition of a humanitarian.”
Scotty McCreery is sharing another song from his upcoming Same Truck album. The American Idol alum dropped “Damn Strait,” one of only two songs he did not write on his new record.
“Every now and then you hear a song that sounds so much like you,” Scotty says of the song, which was written by Trent Tomlinson and Jim Collins. “I grew up as a huge George Strait fan, and when I heard this song, I raised my hand to say, ‘I want this one.’ Every country fan has a George Strait story, and everyone has a memory attached to their favorite songs.”
It was George, along with a couple of other country music legends, who inspired Scotty to become a singer.
“The first country music concert I ever went to was George Strait, Reba [McEntire] and Lee Ann Womack,” Scotty says. “When I saw that show, I said, ‘I’m gonna do that one day.’”
Same Truck will be released on Friday, September 17. Scotty’s current single from the album, “You Time,” is currently in the top 5.
A scary situation erupted right outside Ariana Grande’s Hollywood Hills home last week.
TMZ reports that a man, identified as 23-year-old Aaron Brown, showed up at Ari’s house around 2 a.m. local time on Friday and waved a knife at her security when they tried to give him the boot.
According to the report, Brown demanded an audience with the “Positions” singer and when security told him to scram, he brandished the knife, forcing security to call police.
Brown was arrested after the altercation and is now facing a felony charge.
It is unclear if Ariana was home at the time of the incident, but TMZ reports that she applied for a temporary restraining order against Brown, which was approved by a judge. The protection order will be in effect until an upcoming hearing, which will determine if the order will remain in effect.
The date of the upcoming hearing was not disclosed.
Just days after announcing her engagement, Britney Spears has disappeared from Instagram — but have no fear, she’s only taking a breather.
Taking to Twitter on Tuesday, the 39-year-old pop icon addressed concerns surrounding why her account on the social media app went missing, tweeting, “Don’t worry folks … just taking a little break from social media to celebrate my engagement [ring emoji] [wink face emoji] !!!!”
“I’ll be back soon,” she promised.
Spears’ absence from Instagram comes a few days after she revealed that she got engaged to her 27-year-old boyfriend, Sam Asghari. The pair, who first met while filming Britney’s 2016 music video, “Slumber Party,” shared the exciting news with the world on Sunday that the two are one step closer to marriage.
While the “Toxic” singer’s Instagram shows a broken link, Asghari’s Instagram is still active.
Don’t worry folks … just taking a little break from social media to celebrate my engagement 💍😉 !!!! I’ll be back soon 💋🌹✨
