Heart’s Nancy Wilson premieres extended version of her instrumental Eddie Van Halen tribute, “4 Edward”

Heart’s Nancy Wilson premieres extended version of her instrumental Eddie Van Halen tribute, “4 Edward”
Heart’s Nancy Wilson premieres extended version of her instrumental Eddie Van Halen tribute, “4 Edward”
Credit: Jeremy Danger

Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson has debuted an extended version of her acoustic instrumental tribute song for the late Eddie Van Halen, “4 Edward,” which was the final track on her recently released debut solo studio album, You and Me.

On Monday, Wilson posted a video on her official YouTube channel featuring her playing the updated version of the tune, titled “4 Edward with Love,” which runs about 40 seconds longer than the original track. The new version premieres just two days shy of the one-year anniversary of Eddie’s death.

As Nancy explained in an interview earlier this year with ABC Audio, she decided to write “4 Edward” after the guitar great died of cancer at age 65 on October 6, 2020. She said the song was inspired by an instrumental tune that he composed for her on an acoustic guitar she gave to him as a gift in the late 1970s after he revealed to her that he didn’t own one.

“4 Edward,” which clocks in at just one minute, 43 seconds, features some delicate strumming, picking and harmonics, and includes a segment that incorporates the chords from the classic Van Halen hit “Jump.”

You and Me was released in May. An expanded two-LP, blue-vinyl edition of the album will be issued on November 26 as part of the Record Store Day Black Friday event. It contains three bonus tracks, covers of The Beatles‘ tunes “Blackbird” and “Fixing a Hole” and a rendition of Steely Dan‘s “Any Major Dude.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Lady Gaga shares her reaction to hearing Tony Bennett remembering her name

Lady Gaga shares her reaction to hearing Tony Bennett remembering her name
Lady Gaga shares her reaction to hearing Tony Bennett remembering her name
Columbia Records/Interscope Records

 

Lady Gaga reunited for a pair of farewell shows in August, titled “One Last Time: An Evening with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga,” and, in a recent 60 Minutes interview, she recalled the moment Bennett, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, remembered who she was.

“Whoa, Lady Gaga,” the legendary 95-year-old crooner shouted as she entered the stage, but as Gaga revealed on Sunday’s episode 60 Minutes, it was the first time he remembered her name in a while.

“That’s the first time Tony said my name in a long time. I had to keep it together ’cause we had a sold out show and I have a job to do,” she recalled. “But I’ll tell you when I walked out on that stage and he said, ‘It’s Lady Gaga,’ my friend saw me, and it was very special.”

Gaga insisted that when dealing with someone who has Alzheimer’s “there is a way to communicate and there’s a way to touch the magic inside of them that’s still there.”

The 35-year-old performer added, “I think it’s up to us to ask ourselves what are the ways we can push through what we’re feeling so we can best communicate with them and receive our love, because it’s still there.”

“With Tony in particular, a lot of it was me making sure that I navigate his needs in any given moment,” she continued, noting that “to be honest, that’s jazz too……we’re singing different notes in every song almost every time. We improvise all the time… Once you learn [the music that was written at the time] you can play with it, but you have to listen to each other.”

Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett’s last album together, Love for Sale, is out now.

 

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Dancing with the Stars season 30 recap: Christine Chiu takes her final bow on the ballroom

Dancing with the Stars season 30 recap: Christine Chiu takes her final bow on the ballroom
Dancing with the Stars season 30 recap: Christine Chiu takes her final bow on the ballroom
ABC/Christopher Willard

Dancing with the Stars fans were left begging “Gimme More” on Monday, when the night saluted Britney Spears‘ illustrious career.  While the competitors were not “Intimidated” to push themselves on the ballroom floor, Christine Chiu‘s dreams of winning the Mirrorball Trophy were broken like “Shattered Glass.”

For the second week in a row, the audience voted Chiu into the bottom two, where the judges had to choose between saving her or Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kenya Moore. The panel chose to spare the latter.

Also on Monday night, three members of the DWTS cast were absent on the ballroom floor — pro dancer Cheryl Burke, Peloton instructor Cody Rigsby and judge Derek Hough.  Burke and Rigsby both tested positive for COVID-19 last week, despite being fully vaccinated, and Hough sat out the night out of “an abundance of caution,” as announced by host Tyra Banks.

Despite being unable to perform before the audience, Rigsby and Burke were beamed in virtually and performed their jazz routine to Britney’s “Gimme More” on split screens.  Unfortunately, the two ended the night at the bottom of the pack with an overall score of 18 out of 30 — but the audience decided to give the two another chance and sent them through to next week’s show. 

Meanwhile, three competitors tied for first place on Monday, a season first, with Amanda KlootsJoJo Siwa and Olivia Jade collecting three straight eights for an overall score of 24 out of 30.

Kloots dazzled with her cha cha to Spears’ “Circus,” but judges Len GoodmanCarrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli all agreed that the Talk co-host needed to take more risks on the floor.  While the judges praised Kloots for her technical skills, saying she delivered a clean and solid routine, they felt her dance was too safe.

As for Siwa, the Nickelodeon star wowed the audience by lifting partner Jenna Johnson three separate times during their fresh and powerful Argentine tango to Britney’s “Baby One More Time.”  The complicated routine earned high praise from the three judges, but Siwa was held back by a missed step in the middle of her dance.

As for birthday girl Olivia Jade, who just turned 22, the three judges lauded the influencer’s flowing tango to “Hold It Against Me,” dubbing it the “best performance of the night.”

The judges also took note of two competitors who pushed themselves on the ballroom floor, praising Bachelor star Matt James and WWE star Michael “The Miz” Gregory for coming out of their shells and paying attention to the finer details of their routines.

Another standout was country singer Jimmie Allen, who dedicated his salsa to Britney’s “Outrageous” to wife Alexis Gale.  Allen also joked that he “did not plan to cry on this show two weeks in a row” by talking about the powerful women who made a difference in his life.

Dancing with the Stars returns Monday night at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, where the cast and crew will celebrate all things Disney.  Also, as an added twist, Mickey Mouse himself crashed the festivities to show the competitors the special “Mickey Moves” they must include in their routine, no matter what dance they are supposed to perform.
 

Here are the current standings:

Amanda Kloots, The Talk co-host, with Alan Bersten — 24/30
JoJo Siwa, Nickelodeon star, with Jenna Johnson — 24/30
Olivia Jade, influencer, with Val Chmerkovskiy — 
24/30
Melora HardinThe Office actress, with Artem Chivensky — 23/30
Michael “The Miz” Gregory, WWE superstar, Witney Carson — 22/30
Melanie C, Spice Girl, with Gleb Savchenko — 22/30
Suni Lee, Olympic Gold medalist, with Sasha Farber — 21/30
Kenya Moore, former Miss USA, with Brandon Armstrong — 21/30
Matt James, former Bachelor, with Lindsey Arnold— 20/30
Jimmie Allen, country music singer, with Emma Slater — 20/30
Brian Austin GreenBeverly Hills, 90210 alum, Sharna Burgess — 19/30

Iman Shumpert, NBA player, with Daniella Karagach — 19/30
Cody Rigsby, Peloton instructor, with Cheryl Burke — 18/30

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Lady Gaga shares her reaction to hearing Tony Bennet remembering her name

Lady Gaga shares her reaction to hearing Tony Bennett remembering her name
Lady Gaga shares her reaction to hearing Tony Bennett remembering her name
Columbia Records/Interscope Records

 

Lady Gaga reunited for a pair of farewell shows in August, titled “One Last Time: An Evening with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga,” and, in a recent 60 Minutes interview, she recalled the moment Bennett, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, remembered who she was.

“Whoa, Lady Gaga,” the legendary 95-year-old crooner shouted as she entered the stage, but as Gaga revealed on Sunday’s episode 60 Minutes, it was the first time he remembered her name in a while.

“That’s the first time Tony said my name in a long time. I had to keep it together ’cause we had a sold out show and I have a job to do,” she recalled. “But I’ll tell you when I walked out on that stage and he said, ‘It’s Lady Gaga,’ my friend saw me, and it was very special.”

Gaga insisted that when dealing with someone who has Alzheimer’s “there is a way to communicate and there’s a way to touch the magic inside of them that’s still there.”

The 35-year-old performer added, “I think it’s up to us to ask ourselves what are the ways we can push through what we’re feeling so we can best communicate with them and receive our love, because it’s still there.”

“With Tony in particular, a lot of it was me making sure that I navigate his needs in any given moment,” she continued, noting that “to be honest, that’s jazz too……we’re singing different notes in every song almost every time. We improvise all the time… Once you learn [the music that was written at the time] you can play with it, but you have to listen to each other.”

Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett’s last album together, Love for Sale, is out now.

 

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Trent Reznor, The White Stripes, Radiohead among Pitchfork’s 200 Most Influential Musicians of last 25 years

Trent Reznor, The White Stripes, Radiohead among Pitchfork’s 200 Most Influential Musicians of last 25 years
Trent Reznor, The White Stripes, Radiohead among Pitchfork’s 200 Most Influential Musicians of last 25 years
ABC

Pitchfork has unveiled its list of the 200 Most Influential Musicians of the last 25 years to coincide with the site’s 25th anniversary.

The ranking is divided into 50 “Icons” and 150 “Essentials,” each presented in alphabetical order. Trent Reznor, for example, is listed among the “Essentials,” while bands including The White Stripes and Radiohead find themselves among the “Icons.”

“The key to Reznor’s longevity is his willingness to experiment,” Pitchfork writes of the Nine Inch Nails frontman. “He’s a connected industry guy who thinks like a cult artist — he’ll make weird instrumental music aimed at his most devoted fans one moment and then his next project will be a soundtrack to a Hollywood blockbuster.”

Other rock and alternative artists who made the ranking include Arctic Monkeys, Billie Eilish, Paramore, Lorde, Arcade Fire, Bjork, Fiona Apple, Lana Del Rey, The Strokes, Tame Impala, Vampire Weekend, The 1975, Death Cab for Cutie‘s Ben Gibbard, Blur and Gorillaz‘s Damon Albarn, Brittany Howard, The xx, HAIM, St. Vincent, Phoebe Bridgers, TV on the Radio and Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

For the full list, visit Pitchfork.com.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Michael Buble is now selling merchandise based on those Christmas memes

Michael Buble is now selling merchandise based on those Christmas memes
Michael Buble is now selling merchandise based on those Christmas memes
143/Reprise

If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, which is why Michael Buble is now offering fans the chance to buy t-shirts based on one of those memes that poke fun of his identification with the Christmas season.

On TikTok, Michael explains, “Every time the holiday season comes around, it’s like clockwork. I hear the jokes, I see the memes: ‘Buble’s coming out of the cave, Buble’s defrosting, Christmas is near.'”

He then asks, “Did you guys ever wonder WHY someone might spend that much time in a cave?”

Cut to Michael wearing a Batman mask and cape.

“It’s because I’m f***ing Batman, you a**holes,” he growls, doing his best Michael Keaton impression.

“And now you’ve probably cost me THAT job, so I’m forced to have to sell these t-shirts,” he concludes, holding up the new merchandise. 

The tee uses the photo of the meme that shows Michael wearing a suit and appearing to be exiting a cave.  The meme’s caption reads: “‘Christmas Is Coming.’ Michael Buble emerges from his cave.”

The shirt, which simply shows the pic along with the words “Christmas Is Coming…Michael Buble,” is now available in Michael’s online shop for 30 bucks.

As previously reported, Michael is releasing a Super Deluxe Edition of his 2011 album Christmas to mark its 10th anniversary.  You can buy that on the site too.

(Video contains censored profanity.)

@michaelbuble

I have an announcement.

♬ original sound – Michael Bublé

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Scoreboard roundup — 10/4/21

Scoreboard roundup — 10/4/21
Scoreboard roundup — 10/4/21
iStock

(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Monday’s sports events:

NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION PRESEASON
Toronto 123, Philadelphia 107
Boston 98, Orlando 97
Miami 125, Atlanta 99
Charlotte 113, Oklahoma City 97
Minnesota 117, New Orleans 114
San Antonio 111, Utah 85
Sacramento 117, Phoenix 106
Final Golden State 121, Portland 107
LA Clippers 103, Denver 102

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE PRESEASON
Columbus 5, Buffalo 3
New Jersey 4, Washington 1
Toronto 3, Ottawa 1
Philadelphia 2, Boston 1 (OT)
Chicago 6, Detroit 4
Minnesota 3, Colorado 1
Edmonton 4, Calgary 3
Anaheim 3, San Jose 2 (OT)

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
LA Chargers 28, Las Vegas 14

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

COVID-19 live updates: Daily deaths nearly 8 times higher than in July

COVID-19 live updates: Daily deaths nearly 8 times higher than in July
COVID-19 live updates: Daily deaths nearly 8 times higher than in July
Halfpoint/iStock

(NEW YORK) — The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.

More than 702,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.8 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Just 65.5% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.

Latest headlines:
-Child hospitalizations fall but kids still make up quarter of all new cases
-Daily deaths nearly 8 times higher than in July
-Myocarditis extremely rare among vaccinated people

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.

Oct 04, 7:56 pm
Pentagon mandates vaccines for civilian employees

The Pentagon announced Monday that all of its civilian employees must be fully vaccinated by Nov. 22.

“Vaccinating (department) civilian employees against COVID-19 will save lives and allow for the defense of our nation,” Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks wrote in a memo sent out to Pentagon leadership Monday. “Thank you for your focus on this critical mission.”

There is already a vaccine mandate for military members, but each branch of service has its own deadline.

ABC News’ Luis Martinez

Oct 04, 6:02 pm
Newly approved rapid test will double US capacity, FDA says

The Food and Drug Administration approved a new rapid test Monday that it said will double the at-home testing capacity in the U.S. over the next few weeks.

The ACON Laboratories Flowflex COVID-19 Home Test will ideally assuage the shortage of over-the-counter, at-home rapid testing that has gone on since schools and other businesses have returned to in-person work.

“By year’s end, the manufacturer plans to produce more than 100 million tests per month, and this number will rise to 200 million per month by February 2022,” the FDA said in a press release Monday.

ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett

Oct 04, 5:48 pm
Judge agrees to hear another request to halt NYC school staff vaccine mandate

A Manhattan federal judge has agreed to hear another request to halt New York City’s vaccine mandate for public school employees.

A group of 10 teachers, educators and administrators filed an emergency motion Monday for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to prevent the city from further enforcing the mandate.

“This policy is reckless, senseless, and not only violates the fundamental rights of thousands of New Yorkers but will also put over 1 million New York City public school children at risk of imminent harm,” the petition said.

The judge scheduled a hearing for Tuesday morning to consider the request and preliminary injunction.

Earlier Monday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said 95% of all full-time Department of Education employees are vaccinated, including 96% of all teachers and 99% of all principals.

ABC News’ Aaron Katersky

Oct 04, 3:12 pm
Child hospitalizations fall but kids still make up quarter of all new cases

Last week, the U.S. reported more than 173,000 child COVID-19 cases, marking the first week with fewer than 200,000 new cases reported since mid-August, according to a newly released weekly report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.

Even with the decline, last week children still accounted for 26.7% of reported weekly cases. (Children make up 22.2% of the population.)

The South is reporting the highest number of pediatric cases followed closely by the Midwest.

The number of children hospitalized with COVID-19 is also declining. About 1,700 children are currently hospitalized across the country, according to AAP and CHA.

Severe illness due to COVID-19 remains “uncommon” among kids, the two organizations wrote in the report. However, AAP and CHA warned that there is an urgent need to collect more data on the long-term consequences of the pandemic on children, “including ways the virus may harm the long-term physical health of infected children, as well as its emotional and mental health effects.”

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are back after hours-long shutdown

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are back after hours-long shutdown
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are back after hours-long shutdown
iStock/luchezar

(NEW YORK) — Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are back.

The apps, owned by Facebook, stopped working Monday for millions of users across the U.S., according to outage site Down Detector.

Both the mobile and web browser editions of the apps were not working as of 11:42 a.m. ET, the site reported.

They were down for more than six hours.

“To the huge community of people and businesses around the world who depend on us: we’re sorry. We’ve been working hard to restore access to our apps and services and are happy to report they are coming back online now. Thank you for bearing with us,” Facebook said Monday evening, once the apps began working again.

On Monday afternoon, a Facebook company spokesperson told ABC News, “We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.”

The company added that it was experiencing “networking issues” and gave no timeline for a fix.

“Sincere apologies to everyone impacted by outages of Facebook-powered services right now,” Facebook said at the time. “We are experiencing networking issues and teams are working as fast as possible to debug and restore as fast as possible”

The Instagram and Facebook outages come shortly after a whistleblower came forward and claimed to CBS News that the company could do more to protect against hate speech and misinformation but prioritizes profits over its users.

Following the Sunday “60 Minutes” interview with the whistleblower, identified as Frances Haugen, a data scientist, the company put out a statement defending itself.

“We’ve invested heavily in people and technology to keep our platform safe, and have made fighting misinformation and providing authoritative information a priority,” the company said in a statement. “If any research had identified an exact solution to these complex challenges, the tech industry, governments, and society would have solved them a long time ago.”

After the whistleblower’s identity was made public, Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., announced the Senate will hold a hearing in the Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee Tuesday to hear from Haugen about Facebook and Instagram’s impacts on young users.

Facebook’s stock took a severe hit Monday following the whistleblower’s revelations and the outage, recording its worst day of the year. At closing, the stock was trading at $326.23 a share, down 16.78 points or 4.89%.

The situation promoted other social media sites to make some fun jokes.

Twitter’s official account tweeted, “Hello literally everyone,” Monday afternoon.

The tweet prompted several funny replies from other major accounts, including McDonald’s, Burger King, and Starbucks, which tweeted, “Perfect time for a coffee break.”

Twitter users later on Monday reported some issues with the app due to an increase in users, but Twitter’s support page said the matter was fixed.

“Sometimes more people than usual use Twitter. We prepare for these moments, but today things didn’t go exactly as planned. Some of you may have had an issue seeing replies and DMs as a result. This has been fixed. Sorry about that!” Twitter Support tweeted.

On Monday afternoon, the Facebook status page came back online with a message for users. “Major disruptions: Platform Status,” it read. “We are aware that there is an ongoing issue impacting our service. Our engineers are working on it. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

Facebook’s safety head was questioned by lawmakers last Thursday over what the company knew about the potential for Instagram to be harmful to young users’ mental health.

The Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Security convened the hearing in the wake of a Wall Street Journal investigation citing Facebook’s own internal research, allegedly leaked by a whistleblower, which found Instagram adversely impacted mental health issues in teens, especially girls.

“We’re here today because Facebook has shown us once again that it is incapable of holding itself accountable,” Blumenthal said in his opening remarks last week.

Facebook defended itself against the bipartisan scrutiny at the hearing.

“We understand that recent reporting has raised a lot of questions about our internal research, including research we do to better understand young people’s experiences on Instagram,” Antigone Davis, Facebook’s global head of safety, stated in written testimony. “We strongly disagree with how this reporting characterized our work, so we want to be clear about what that research shows, and what it does not show.”

The new, upcoming committee hearing, titled “Protecting Kids Online: Testimony from a Facebook Whistleblower,” is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday.

ABC News’ Victor Ordonez contributed to this report

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Jackson Browne, Cyndi Lauper to perform during virtual concert event benefiting Native American scholarship

Jackson Browne, Cyndi Lauper to perform during virtual concert event benefiting Native American scholarship
Jackson Browne, Cyndi Lauper to perform during virtual concert event benefiting Native American scholarship
Courtesy of Mandolin/VVS Native American Scholarship

Jackson Browne will headline the 2021 edition of the Dream Concert, a virtual charity event that will stream live on October 9 at 6 p.m. PT via Mandolin.com.

Browne originally launched the event as an annual in-person concert in Sedona, Arizona, to support the Verde Valley School Native American Scholarship he created in 1990.

The show raises funds to support Indigenous students who attend Sedona’s Verde Valley School and also to raise awareness about issues Native American communities are facing.

Other artists on the Dream Concert lineup include Cyndi Lauper, Shawn Colvin, Taj Mahal and many more. Early-bird tickets can be purchased now for $10 at Mandolin.com; the price will increase to $20 on the day of the show. People also can donate additional money to the cause at the website. For more information about the school and the scholarship fund, visit VVSAZ.org.

In other news, Browne is scheduled to launch the second leg of his joint 2021 U.S. tour with James Taylor on October 16 in New Orleans. The trek is mapped out through a December 13 concert in Buffalo, New York.

Browne released his latest studio album, Downwhill from Everywhere, in July. Last week, he issued a new single from the record, “Until Justice Is Real.” That song also is featured in a teaser trailer for a new documentary called How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? that focuses on racial injustice in the U.S.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.