For years, Jimmy Fallon has been trying to get one of his guests to participate in a bit he calls “Straight Up Goes For It” — in which said guest would sing Train‘s “Drops of Jupiter.” Well, it took him years to find someone willing to do it, but Thursday night, he finally succeeded.
Thursday was the 1,500th episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and, after “dozens of famous people that you know and love” told Fallon no, Game of Thrones star Kit Harington finally said yes. And even though the actor best known as Jon Snow can neither sing nor play the piano, Fallon said, “He’s doing it because he’s cool, and he’s funny and he gets it.”
And Harington did, indeed, “straight up go for it,” pretending to play the piano decorated with candles and roses as he belted out the Grammy-winning 2001 hit. While his voice wasn’t great, he made it through the entire song — even to the “nah nah nahs” at the end — though he did get tripped up by the admittedly bizarre lyrics several times.
The Who‘s fifth studio album, Who’s Next, considered one of the group’s finest moments, was released 50 years ago this Saturday, August 14.
The follow-up to the legendary British band’s classic 1969 “rock opera” Tommy, Who’s Next was put together from songs that The Who’s main songwriter and songwriter Pete Townshend composed for a multimedia project called Lifehouse that was based around the concept of a future society where music was outlawed.
Townshend’s grand vision for Lifehouse proved impossible to pull off, and the project was abandoned, but some songs and sonic ideas, including the use of synthesizers, were salvaged for Who’s Next.
The album peaked at #4 on the Billboard 200, and was the group’s only release to reach #1 on the U.K. albums chart. It features some of The Who’s most popular and enduring songs, including “Baba O’Riley,” “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “Behind Blue Eyes” and “Bargain.”
“Won’t Get Fooled Again” and “Behind Blue Eyes” also were released as singles, and both made it into the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #15 and #34, respectively.
“Baba O’Riley,” the album’s lead track, is often incorrectly referred to as “Teenage Wasteland.” Its title was inspired by the names of Townshend’s guru, Meher Baba, and one of Pete’s musical inspirations, minimalist composer Terry Riley.
The album’s iconic cover humorously appears to show the band members having just relieved themselves on a huge concrete monolith. However, only Townshend actually urinated on the structure; rainwater was used to mimic the effect for the group’s other members.
Who’s Next is The Who’s most successful U.S. album, selling over 3 million copies. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked it at #77 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Here’s the Who’s Next track list:
“Baba O’Riley”
“Bargain”
“Love Ain’t for Keeping”
“My Wife”
“The Song Is Over”
“Getting in Tune”
“Going Mobile”
“Behind Blue Eyes”
“Won’t Get Fooled Again”
Jennifer Hudson says she received a special mandate from the Queen of Soul when she took on the role of Aretha Franklin in the new biographical film Respect.
In the film, which captures the life and career of Franklin, Hudson plays the singer as an adult. The movie focuses not only on Aretha’s struggles with her relationships, but also with the male-dominated music industry that often tried to control her. Hudson tells ABC Audio that Franklin wanted to make sure that she did her story justice.
“I remember our very first meeting, and [Franklin] said, ‘How are you going to portray me?’ And I said, ‘Well, however you would like to be portrayed,'” the singer says, laughing.
According to Hudson, Aretha wanted the Oscar winner to make her biopic be more than just about the drama.
“I think the biggest thing was just holding onto her roots — and my roots as well — which is her faith,” Hudson explains. “And that was key to me, and the most important thing throughout the entire film in portraying her.”
Respect, also starring Forest Whitaker and Marlon Wayans, is now in theaters.
The metal legends have announced the premiere date for The Metallica Podcast: Volume 1 — The Black Album. The eight-episode series will make its debut next Friday, August 20.
As its title suggests, the podcast will chronicle the making of Metallica’s iconic 1991 self-titled record, aka The Black Album, in honor of its 30th anniversary. Members James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett will all appear on the show to recall their experiences, as will former bassist Jason Newsted and producer Bob Rock.
Also contributing will be “studio and touring personnel, music critics, fellow musicians, friends, and many more,” a press release promises.
The 16-times RIAA-certified Platinum Black Album officially celebrated its 30th anniversary earlier this week. The party will continue with a massive deluxe reissue, as well as the all-star The Metallica Blacklist tribute compilation, featuring 53 artists covering every song off The Black Album. Both releases arrive September 10.
The Killers have premiered the video for “Quiet Town,” a track off the band’s just-released new album, Pressure Machine.
The animated clip reflects the story of the song, in which frontman Brandon Flowers details the tragedies that have befallen his hometown, while also expressing love for where he came from. You can watch it now streaming on YouTube.
Pressure Machine, which is out today, arrives less than a year after the last Killers record, Imploding the Mirage, dropped in August 2020. With their touring plans canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Flowers and company decided to return to the studio to knock out another album.
“It was the first time in a long time for me that I was faced with silence,” Flowers explains. “And out of that silence [Pressure Machine] began to bloom, full of songs that would have otherwise been too quiet and drowned out by the noise of typical Killers records.”
Pressure Machine also includes a collaboration with Phoebe Bridgers titled “Runaway Horses.”
Grace and Frankie fans woke up to exciting news on Friday with the announcement that four new episodes from the final season are now available to stream on Netflix.
Series’ stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin engage in their onscreen banter as the titular characters in a video message to fans, and after a back-and-forth exchange, Lily reveals that the first four episodes of season seven have dropped.
“We’ve missed you, but more important, you’ve missed us,” she quips, adding that if she’d had it her way, fans would’ve instead gotten gift cards to her character’s favorite restaurant, Del Taco.
“But don’t worry, there’s plenty more to come. We just wanted to give you something special until we finish the rest of the season,” Jane assures.
The remaining 12 episodes of the final season will be released in 2022.
Since its debut in 2015, Grace and Frankie has been nominated for multiple Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. It’s also the longest-running original series in Netflix’s history.
Earlier this week, Elton John and Dua Lipa teased their joint single, “Cold Heart,” and from a snippet, it sounded like a mashup of two Elton singles: 1990’s “Sacrifice” and the 1972 classic, “Rocket Man.” “Cold Heart” is now out and it turns out the track, created by Australian dance duo Pnau, is actually a mashup of four Elton songs.
In addition to “Sacrifice” and “Rocket Man,” the song also includes snippets of Elton’s 1983 single “Kiss the Bride” and a 1976 track called “Where’s the Shoorah?”
In the track, Elton sings the “Sacrifice” line, “Cold, cold heart/ hard done by you/ Some things look better baby/ Just passing through.” Then Dua follows by singing a line from “Rocket Man” — “And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time/ ’til touchdown brings me ’round again to find/ I’m not the man they think I am at home” — plus a line from “Kiss the Bride”: “And this is what I should have said/I thought it but I kept it hid.”
Elton and Dua have been friends since last year, when they performed at each other’s events. He reached out to her to work on “Cold Heart.”
“Having the opportunity to spend time with Dua, albeit remotely has been incredible,” Elton says in a statement. “She’s given me so much energy. She’s a truly wonderful artist, and person, absolutely bursting with creativity and ideas.”
Dua adds, “Ever since we first ‘met’ online, we totally clicked. Elton is such an inspirational artist and also has the naughtiest sense of humor — a perfect combination. It has been an absolute honor and privilege to collaborate on this track with him.”
A trippy animated video for “Cold Heart,” featuring cartoon versions of Elton and Duo, is streaming now.
Stranger Things star Joe Keery has offered his two cents into the ongoing celebrity bathing habits debate.
Speaking to GQ, the 29-year-old actor revealed that he not only doesn’t wash his hair, he also rarely ventures into the barber’s chair. Keery said he doesn’t “get” haircuts, but that they “simply happen” to him as part of his job.
Fans do take Keery’s hair seriously, as he sports long brunette locks on the popular Netflix horror series as the lovable bad boy Steve Harrington. That said, when he rocked a bowl cut during a red carpet event in 2019, it became a headline craze as fans outwardly demanded on social media that he bring back his old look.
Little did his fans know, he was counting on their outrage. The 29-year-old actor admits he is aware of what is expected of him and goes out of his way to subvert those expectations, which he says is fun.
So, would he ever shave off the hair he admittedly doesn’t wash all that much anyway? Keery admittedly has been thinking of getting a buzz cut for quite some time.
The actor is set to reprise his role as Steve in the upcoming fourth season of Stranger Things and he revealed he did not expect his character to last this long.
“I figured I was going to get killed,” he said, noting the type of character he plays — “d****ey sort of boyfriend” — is always “the first guy to die.”
Thankfully, the showrunners fell in love with Steve and his magnificent mane, so they bumped him up to the main cast.
(NEW YORK) — With the CDC estimating that the delta variant accounts for more than 90% of new COVID cases in the U.S., scientists are still learning more about what makes this variant different from prior versions of the virus.
There are dozens of COVID-19 variants. Some emerge and quickly fade away. Others emerge and sweep the globe. The delta variant first emerged in India in December 2020 and quickly became the dominant strain there and then in the United Kingdom.
It was first detected in the United States in March 2021 and proved so dominant it supplanted the prior strain, called the alpha variant, within a few short weeks.
Now, experts say there’s good news and bad news when it comes to this new variant.
Here’s what we know now:
1. The delta variant is more contagious than earlier strains of COVID
Delta is more contagious because it “sheds more virus into the air, making it easier to reach other people,” said Dr. Loren Miller, associate chief of infectious disease at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and Researcher at Lundquist Institute in Torrance, CA .
“There is also some evidence that the virus can more easily attach to human cells in the respiratory tract,” Miller said. This means that “smaller amounts of virus [particles] are needed to cause infection compared to the original strain.”
2. It could cause more serious illness in unvaccinated persons, but scientists don’t know for sure.
Scientists are racing to study the severity of the delta variant in real time. Until more studies are verified by a panel of scientific experts or gain “peer-approval,” public health officials cannot definitively say for sure that it does cause more serious illness.
Here is what we know so far:
One peer-reviewed study in Scotland looked at over 19,000 confirmed COVID cases between April to June 2021. Scientists were able to differentiate between the delta variant and the alpha variant by molecular testing for one of multiple mutated genes known as the S gene.
About 7,800 COVID cases and 130 hospitalized patients had the delta strain confirmed by presence of the gene. Scientists noted that there was an increased risk for hospitalization in patients with delta when adjusting for common factors such as age, sex, underlying health conditions, and time of disease.
Another recent study awaiting peer approval in Singapore, noted that the delta variant was significantly associated with increased need for oxygenation, admission to an intensive care unit, and death when compared to the alpha variant.
Similarly, a Canadian study awaiting peer approval looked at over 200,000 confirmed COVID cases and found that the delta variant was more likely to cause hospitalization, ICU admission and death.
It’s hard to know whether delta is in fact making people sicker or if it is just affecting more vulnerable, unvaccinated populations with high case numbers and overburdened healthcare systems.
3. Delta is now the dominant variant in the US and around the globe.
COVID cases are skyrocketing again in the U.S., particularly where vaccination uptake has been particularly slow.
According to the CDC, more than 90% of COVID cases in the U.S. are currently caused by the delta variant. We know that “there is a lot of Delta out there … from the public health authorities who regularly survey for delta [and other strains] using special tests called molecular typing” said Miller.
4. COVID vaccines still work against the delta variant.
The “majority of currently hospitalized COVID patients are unvaccinated,” said Dr. Abir “Abby” Hussein, clinical infectious disease assistant professor and associate medical director for infection prevention and control at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, Wash.
Studies show that vaccines still dramatically reduce the risk of hospitalization and death, though the delta variant may be more likely than prior variants to cause asymptomatic or mild illness among vaccinated people.
Still, even amid the delta surge, this is still a “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.
Although there are rare cases of severe breakthrough infections that require hospitalization that can occur in persons with a “weakened immune system,” Miller said. This comes in time for the new guidelines for booster COVID shots in immunocompromised patients.
5. The delta variant surge is hitting younger, unvaccinated people harder
More COVID cases are being reported in teens, young and middle-age adults. That’s not because delta is inherently more dangerous for younger people — but rather, because younger people are less likely to be fully vaccinated.
Hussein explains that this is likely due to early vaccination efforts to vaccinate older high-risk people, particularly those who live in nursing homes. According to the CDC, more than 80% of adults over the age of 65 have been fully vaccinated and more than 90% of adults over 65 have had one dose (of a two-dose vaccine).
“Unfortunately, many younger adults have not been vaccinated, resulting in this shift to younger hospitalized patients,” Hussein said.
Collectively, experts agree that the delta variant poses a new threat. Stopping transmission is the key to controlling all variants, not just delta. The best way for everyone to protect themselves against delta includes tools that are already at our disposal — vaccination, masking, social distance and hand washing.
While we all want to return to a state of normal, Miller said “sticking to these basic messages is a very powerful way to prevent COVID transmission and protect yourself.”
(JACKSON, Miss.) — As Mississippi faces a “skyrocketing” surge in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations — its highest increase on record — health officials are sounding the alarm about a state hospital system on the brink of collapse.
The University of Mississippi Medical Center, in partnership with state officials, will reopen a surge facility Friday in the medical center’s parking lot, with help from the federal government.
Doctors, nurses, pharmacists and respiratory therapists will be deployed to work at the field hospital for at least the next 14 days.
“Unfortunately, we were standing in a tent again. None of us wanted to come back to this point, but it’s gotten to the point where we’re just not able to care for the patients at UMMC, and in the state of Mississippi, that need the care with COVID,” Dr. Alan Jones, associate vice chancellor for clinical affairs, said at a press conference on Thursday. “I think when you’re seeing a field hospital at a major academic medical center, we’re pretty much at a collapse-like system.”
The arrival of federal assistance comes as the state faces an influx of coronavirus patients, with more than 1,500 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state, marking the highest number of patients receiving care since the onset of the pandemic.
The bed capacity is “extremely tight,” said Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine. “Our ICUs today are full. Our patient beds are full.”
Prior to the field hospital’s opening, ABC News received an inside look as federal teams worked to set up the facility Thursday afternoon.
“I feel like we’re beyond disaster. … It really should be a scary time for everybody because it means that we feel like we have no capacity to deal with the things that we should be able to take care of,” Jones told ABC News correspondent Elwyn Lopez. “It really needs to be a wake-up call for those people.”
Although the facility will give the hospital a buffer to help manage the surge, Jones said, ultimately, “it’s just a Band-Aid,” or a temporary fix, for the problem.
The surge facility will give the hospital system a bit of relief, officials said, in managing both COVID-19 patients and other patients, as the number of hospitalizations continues to increase.
“We do not believe that we’re at a point where we’ve hit the peak or we’re turning the corner. In fact, we think we’re still on that upward climb,” Woodward said.
On Thursday, Mississippi reported more than 4,400 new cases, according to State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs, almost 1,000 more than the state’s previous record, he said, which will inevitably result in more hospitalizations and deaths.
“That means we’re gonna have about 93 more deaths, just for today. It means we’re gonna see over 300 new hospitalizations, just from the day. And that’s on top of a system that is already overtaxed. Let us be very clear that the vast majority of cases, and hospitalizations, and deaths are unvaccinated,” Dobbs continued.
Officials reported that they continue to see a rise in “relatively healthy” younger patients, the vast majority of them unvaccinated, in need of care. Similar to the uptick seen nationally, UMMC, which is the state’s only children’s hospital, has seen a concerning increase in pediatric patients.
“A large proportion, much larger than we’ve ever seen before, proportion of children being hospitalized, or hospitalized in the ICU, and these are not chronically ill children, these are healthy children that are being hospitalized,” Jones said.
Despite a recent bump in the state’s vaccination rate overall, Mississippi continues to struggle with its vaccine rollout, with just 35% of residents fully vaccinated — the second-lowest inoculation rate in the country.
It is of critical importance that people get the information about vaccines from reputable sources, Dobbs stressed.
“We should not be here, y’all. This is not necessary,” said Dobbs. “Too many people are getting information from wrong sources. … These Facebook conspiratorial lists are going to spread and run, and have no accountability for the people who are dying, and we’re here, picking up the mess.”
