Sammy Hagar was among the many well-known artists who contributed original songs to the soundtrack of the classic teen comedy-drama Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which premiered 40 years ago this Saturday.
Hagar wrote and recorded the movie’s title song, a riff-heavy rock tune that Sammy notes was one of a series a tunes he recorded specifically for films around that time.
“They just would send me the script of the movie, and I would read…through it,” Hagar explains to ABC Audio. “And they didn’t ask me to write the title track. I just wrote a song called ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High.’ So…lyrically, I just kind of mimicked what was going on in the movie. You know, just a bunch of high school kids messing up…and trying to get laid, basically.”
The Red Rocker says having one of his songs as the title track of a popular movie then felt like he’d hit the “big time.”
Hagar notes that he always enjoyed writing songs for films, explaining, “I loved having a theme. For a songwriter, the first thing you need to have, after you have the [music]…I needed a title, a subject. ‘What am I writing about?’ And when they would hand that to you in a script in a movie…I just said, ‘Oh, yeah. Boom! I know what to do.'”
Meanwhile, Hagar says one of the cool things about his “Fast Times” song was getting to work with a soundtrack musician who was experimenting with synthesizers, and who added an effect that Sammy described as sounding “like a knife being sharpened.”
“It was so advanced [at the time],” Hagar notes. “It was really cool…You know, no one had ever heard anything like that before.”
Mark Ruffalo has joined Elizabeth Olsen and other Marvel movie stars in coming out swinging in defense of their recurring day jobs in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In a chat with Metro UK to promote reprising his role as Bruce Banner/The Hulk in Disney+’s forthcoming She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, Ruffalo was asked if there’s too much Marvel content out there.
“It’s not something I worry about,” Ruffalo, who has played the role for a decade, said.
“I understand that these things run their course and then something else comes along. But the thing Marvel has done well is that, inside the MCU, just as they do with comic books, they let a director or an actor sort of recreate each piece to their own style, their likeness. Marvel generally lets them bring that to the material.”
He jabbed, “If you watch a Star Wars [project], you’re pretty much going to get the same version of Star Wars each time.” He allowed that some Star Wars projects “might have a little bit of humor” or “a little bit of different animation,” but “you’re always, really, in that same kind of world.”
Instead, he offers, “with Marvel you can have a whole different feeling, even within the Marvel Universe.”
As for his character, Ruffalo noted, he’s closer to himself than some might think. “I really related to the Hulk as a kid and it’s been the same way through my life — you wrestle with anger and self-destructive behavior and then … you think, ‘Man, what was I doing?'”
She-Hulk debuts August 18 on Disney+.
ABC News’ parent company, Disney, is the owner of Marvel Studios and Star Wars.
Charlie Puth released a new version of his and Jung Kook‘s “Left and Right” today, which was remixed by EDM artist Sam Feldt. This new spin transforms the song into a dance track.
TikTok sensation Bella Poarch released “Living Hell” and its creepy music video, which sees her submerged in yellow slime and being at the mercy of an invisible force that treats her like a plaything. This is the latest single off her just-released Dolls EP.
Sean Kingston also released a new song and its accompanying music video, this time for “Side.” The hypnotic track features heavy percussion as Sean sings about not being able to get a girl out of his head. The track will be featured on his upcoming album Road to Deliverance, which is due out later this year.
Carly Rae Jepsen released the music video for “Beach House,” a tongue-in-cheek track about her standards getting in the way of finding true love when, in reality, the dating pool is filled with duds. The video flips gender roles, with Carly acting like a boss as dancing men surround her.
Joshua Bassett released “Smoke Slow” and its music video today. He said of the track, “This song is about savoring those moments together with a person you feel close to, but know you can’t be with. Since I couldn’t say it aloud, of course, I had to write a song about it.”
Nothing More has premiered a new song called “You Don’t Know What Love Means,” which will appear on the band’s upcoming album, Spirits.
In a statement, frontman Jonny Hawkins says “You Don’t Know What Love Means” reflects the “emotional and intimate side” of Spirits.
“The lyrics and tone of this one feels like it hits in a similar way that ‘Go to War’ and ‘Jenny’ did,” Hawkins shares. “It’s going to feel huge playing this next one on tour.”
You can listen to “You Don’t Know What Love Means” now via digital outlets and watch its accompanying video streaming now on YouTube.
“You Don’t Know What Love Means” is the fourth song to be released from Spirits, following “Tired of Winning,” “Turn It Up Like (Stand in the Fire)” and the title track. The album will arrive in full on October 14.
Nothing More will be touring the U.S. ahead of the Spirits release alongside In This Moment. The outing launches August 26 in Evansville, Indiana.
Alice in Chains has announced a vinyl reissue of the band’s 1992 sophomore album Dirt in honor of its 30th anniversary.
The two-LP collection, which includes remastered audio of the original record, will be released September 23, six days before Dirt officially turns 30 on September 29.
The reissue will also be available as a super deluxe box set, which, along with the two LPs, also includes a remastered Dirt CD and each of the album’s five singles — “Them Bones,” “Down an a Hole,” “Rooster,” “Angry Chair” and “Would?” — on seven-inch vinyl, plus various memorabilia, including an 80-page photo book and exclusive art prints, posters and a reprinted set list.
The box set is available to preorder now via the Alice in Chains web store.
As previously reported, Alice in Chains is also marking the 30th anniversary of Dirt with an album-themed collection of Funko Pop! figures. Dirt was also recently certified five-times Platinum by the RIAA.
Meanwhile, you can catch Alice in Chains live on their U.S. tour with Breaking Benjamin and Bush. The outing, which just kicked off earlier this week, is currently scheduled into October.
Twenty-five years ago today, Backstreet Boys released their self-titled debut U.S. album … and they’re still performing most of the songs from it every night on tour.
This 1997 album was actually a compilation of two international albums: a 1996 release also called Backstreet Boys and a 1997 release called Backstreet’s Back. It initially debuted at #29, but thanks to the success of the group’s first big U.S. hit, “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart),” its popularity continued to grow.
In five months, the album had climbed to its peak — #4 — and sold 2 million copies. By the end of 1998, it was the third best-selling album of the year, with more than 5.7 million copies sold. To date, it’s sold more than 14 million copies.
In addition to “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart),” Backstreet Boys also included many of the group’s most beloved songs, including, “All I Have to Give,” “As Long as You Love Me,” “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back),” “I’ll Never Break Your Heart,” “We’ve Got It Goin’ On” and “Get Down (You’re the One for Me).”
The success of Backstreet Boys helped set the stage for the release of their next album, Millennium, which set a record for most copies sold in a single week — 1.124 million — when it arrived in 1999. Millennium went on to become one of the best-selling albums of all time, with 24 million copies sold.
And while BSB has gone on to release many more albums since then, the impact of Backstreet Boys can be seen in the group’s current set list, which includes no less than seven songs from that album. Their current DNA World Tour is set to wrap up this November; their first holiday release, A Very Backstreet Christmas, arrives October 14.
Ahead of the one-year anniversary of her breakout single “abcdefu,” GAYLE is ready to embark on her next chapter in music. She just dropped an all-new single and confirmed her forthcoming EP.
The teenage sensation dropped the experimental new track, “indieedgycool,” as well as its grunge-inspired music video. The song does channel ’90s grunge elements — reminiscent of Hole, Veruca Salt and Garbage.
GAYLE sings — and sometimes shrieks — in the track about how she thinks she’s such a trendsetter and “everybody is copying me.” Her voice is masked with a soft, low tone as she lists all the reasons why she isn’t mainstream.
“I’m too cool for the radio/ Got vintage kicks, I’ma let you know/ Got champagne bottles in the bathtub/ That my best friend stole from the yacht club,” she chants in the chorus. “Parents got money, but they ain’t rich/ I got Gucci, but I prefer to thrift/ I’m hot s***, you know how it is/ I’m an indie, edgy, cool kid.”
That’s not the only new offering we got from GAYLE. The singer announced her new EP, a study of the human experience volume two, that’s coming out October 7 — the day before her new North American headlining tour is set to take place.
Preorders for the new EP are now live. You can also buy tickets for her upcoming tour on GAYLE’s official website.
(NEW YORK) — Author Salman Rushdie was attacked at an event in New York state on Friday, according to witness accounts and law enforcement reports.
Rushdie was scheduled to give a lecture at the education center Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, in southwestern New York, Friday morning.
At around 11 a.m., a man “ran up onto the stage and attacked Rushdie and an interviewer,” according to New York State Police.
Rushdie suffered an apparent stab wound to the neck and was transported by helicopter to the hospital, police said. His condition is unclear.
The Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Department also confirmed to ABC News there was a stabbing at the event where Rushdie was speaking.
The suspect was taken into custody by a state trooper, police said.
In the aftermath of the attack, Rushdie, 75, was seen being tended to while on the stage.
The interviewer suffered a minor head injury during the attack, police said.
The Chautauqua Institution said it is “currently coordinating with law enforcement and emergency officials on a public response” following the attack on its stage and will provide more details at a later time.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called the attack “horrific,” and said she has directed state police to “further assist however needed in the investigation.”
“Here is an individual who has spent decades speaking truth to power, someone who has been out there, unafraid, despite the threats that have followed him through his entire adult life,” Hochul remarked during a press briefing on an unrelated matter on Friday.
Police have not commented on a possible motive in the assault, and the suspect has not been identified.
The British-Indian writer faced years of death threats after his novel, The Satanic Verses, was published in 1988.
The late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini accused the author of blasphemy over the book and in 1989 issued a fatwa against Rushdie, calling for his death.
Rushdie spent years in hiding, which he chronicled in his 2012 memoir, Joseph Anton. The book was nominated for the United Kingdom’s top nonfiction award, the Samuel Johnson prize.
In 2018, the Iranian foreign minister said that the country no longer supported the fatwa against Rushdie, though a bounty for his death continues to be offered by an Iranian religious foundation. In 2012, the group increased the bounty from $2.8 million to $3.3 million.
Others have been attacked in connection with “The Satanic Verses,” which was banned in several countries following its publication. Among them, Hitoshi Igarashi, who translated the book into Japanese, was stabbed to death in 1991 on the campus where he taught literature.
(WASHINGTON) — The FBI executed an unprecedented raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Monday, in search of evidence that sources tell ABC News is tied to his alleged mishandling of classified documents.
It’s believed to be the first search by the federal agency of the residence of a current or former U.S. president. Trump and other Republicans have sharply criticized the raid as a partisan attack and have demanded an explanation.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Aug 12, 12:43 PM EDT
House Republicans attack integrity of DOJ and FBI
Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee defended former President Donald Trump while attacking the integrity of the Department of Justice and the FBI during a press conference on Capitol Hill Friday.
“President Donald Trump is Joe Biden’s most likeliest political opponent in 2024 and this is less than 100 days from critical midterm elections,” Rep. Elise Stefanik, the No. 3 House Republican, said. “The FBI raid of President Trump is a complete abuse and overreach of its authority.”
Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Michael Turner, R-Ohio, told reporters that Republicans on the committee are “glad” the Department of Justice has begun the process of releasing “some” of the information about the raid to the public, but called for more. Turner said committee Republicans want access to the affidavit outlining the “imminent security threat” justifying the raid.
“Our request remains that the director of the FBI and the attorney general disclose to this committee the imminent national security threat upon which they based their decision to order a raid on the president’s home, again underscoring that there were many other options available to them,” Turner claimed. “We believe after the release today that these questions will remain unanswered.”
“The real story will be with the release of the affidavit itself,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., added. “The bureau and the attorney general and the DOJ obviously made the decision that this extreme measure was necessary. We will await their rationale for why that extreme measure was justified and not some lesser intrusive means.”
Turner did not call for the public disclosure of the underlying affidavit, which is expected to remain under seal, but did say that members of the intelligence committee and other committees of jurisdiction should have access. He called on committee Democrats to support a subpoena for this affidavit if there is non-compliance.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy dodged ABC News’ questions about whether he supports the release of the warrant authorizing the raid, instead saying he’d like to see the subpoena against Trump.
Trump received a subpoena in the spring for documents that he did not return to the National Archives, ABC News has reported. It’s unclear to what extent, if at all, he complied. The Justice Department has not publicly confirmed the existence of a subpoena.
Stefanik promised a “fulsome investigation” if Republicans retake the gavel in November.
“House Republicans are committed to immediate oversight, accountability and a fulsome investigation to provide needed transparency and answers to the American people,” Stefanik said.
The group also emphasized that they’re in “full support” of those who serve in the FBI and law enforcement agencies and condemned any violence against agents, while also repeatedly calling into question the credibility of law enforcement.
Aug 12, 12:28 PM EDT
Pelosi slams GOP for rhetoric following raid
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is blasting Republicans for their rhetoric following the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago.
Asked by ABC News about concerns over possibly increasing levels of violence against law enforcement and public officials after recent rhetoric from the GOP, Pelosi said Friday that she knows “very well how vicious” some of those threats can be, and said they’ve been “exacerbated” by former President Donald Trump.
“You would think there would be an adult in the Republican room that would say, ‘Just calm down. See what the facts are and let’s go for that.’ Instead of … instigating assaults on law enforcement,” Pelosi said.
When asked if she wants Congress to open more investigations into the material that Trump allegedly took, Pelosi said she’s not currently making plans for that and is going to let the investigation unfold.
Pelosi said she was not briefed on any aspect of the FBI raid or what classified information was being held.
She said she only knows “what’s in the public domain,” but she added, “if the nature of these documents is what appears to be, this is very serious.”
Aug 12, 8:44 AM EDT
Washington Post: Nuclear documents sought at Mar-a-Lago
The Washington Post is reporting that classified documents related to nuclear weapons were among the items agents sought by federal agents at Mar-a-Lago.
Multiple sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News that the Justice Department and the FBI believed Trump continued to keep sensitive classified documents that had national security implications and that in recent weeks additional information came in suggesting that Trump was not complying with requests to provide the information the Justice Department believed he had in his possession.
Aug 12, 8:00 AM EDT
DOJ believes Trump held onto sensitive classified documents and associates questioned, sources say
Multiple sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News that the Department of Justice and the FBI believed former President Donald Trump continued to keep sensitive classified documents that had national security implications, and that in recent weeks additional information came in suggesting Trump was not complying with requests to provide the information the Justice Department believed he had in his possession.
The information was sensitive enough that authorities wanted to take it back into possession immediately.
-ABC News’ Pierre Thomas, Alexander Mallin, Luke Barr, Katherine Faulders, and John Santucci
Aug 12, 7:07 AM EDT
Trump calls for ‘immediate release’ of search warrant
Former President Donald Trump is calling for “the immediate release” of the warrant that allowed FBI agents to search his Mar-a-Lago estate on Monday.
“Not only will I not oppose the release of documents related to the unAmerican, unwarranted, and unnecessary raid and break-in of my home in Palm Beach, Florida, Mar-a-Lago, I am going a step further by ENCOURAGING the immediate release of those documents, even though they have been drawn up by radical left Democrats and possible future political opponents, who have a strong and powerful vested interest in attacking me much as they have done for the last 6 years,” Trump said late Thursday in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social.
“This unprecedented political weaponization of law enforcement is inappropriate and highly unethical,” he added. “The world is watching as our Country is being brought to a new low, not only on our border, crime, economy, energy, national security, and so much more, but also with respect to our sacred elections!”
(NOTE CONTENT) Nicki Minaj is a “Super Freaky Girl.” Don’t believe it? Then listen to her new song of the same name.
The track, which dropped Friday, hears the star spit racy lyrics over a sample of Rick James‘ 1981 hit “Super Freak.”
“You can smack it, you can grip it, you can go down and kiss it,” Nicki raps. “And every time he leave me ‘lone, he always tell me he miss it.”
Nicki previously teased “Super Freaky Girl,” sharing a snippet of the single on TikTok and previewing it during her set at this year’s OVO Fest. The full song is now available on streaming services.
In other Nicki news, the rapper officially launched another season of her Queen Radio show on Amp, Amazon’s new live radio app. She is set to receive the Video Vanguard Award at the 2022 VMAs later this month.
