Classic Rock 93.9

ZZ Top’s first four albums were released as a high fidelity vinyl box set in 2024, and now their next five albums are getting the same treatment.

Rhino is set to release From the Top (1979–1990) on Friday, featuring 1979’s Degüello, 1981’s Loco, 1983’s Diamond-certified Eliminator, 1985’s Afterburner and 1990’s Recycler. All copies are cut from the original stereo master tapes and pressed on 180-gram heavyweight vinyl.

Only 3,000 individually numbered copies of From the Top: 1979-1990 will be available and can be preordered now exclusively at rhino.com.

Last year’s box set, From the Top: 1971-1976, included vinyl reissues of 1971’s ZZ Top’s First Album, 1972’s Rio Grande Mud, 1973’s Tres Hombres, 1975’s Fandango! and 1976’s Tejas. It was a sellout.

ZZ Top is set to hit the road this summer for more dates of their Elevation tour. After a performance at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, Idaho, on Aug. 1, the tour kicks off Aug. 2 in Sioux City, Iowa. A complete list of dates can be found at ZZTop.com.

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On This Day, July 1, 1967 …

The Beatles hit #1 with their eighth studio album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which featured such classic Beatles tunes as the title track, “With a Little Help From My Friends,” “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” “When I’m Sixty Four,” “Lovely Rita” and “A Day in the Life.”

Sgt. Pepper’s was The Beatles eighth #1 album and spent 15 weeks at the top of the charts in the U.S. It went on to win the Grammy for album of the year, the first rock album to ever win the top award, and was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2003.

A critical and commercial success, Sgt. Pepper’s has been certified 11-times Platinum by the RIAA.

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Celebrations are in order as Blondie‘s iconic frontwoman Debbie Harry is turning 80 on Tuesday.

Harry co-founded Blondie with guitarist Chris Stein in New York in the ‘70s. The band hit it big in 1979 with the release of their third studio album, Parallel Lines, a top-10 hit in the U.S. thanks to songs like “Heart of Glass,” their first #1 single, “One Way or Another” and “Hanging on the Telephone.”

The band went on to have four #1 singles, have sold over 40 million albums worldwide and were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. And they’re still making music, with Stein revealing that a new album’s expected out sometime this year.

Harry also launched a solo career in 1981 with the album KooKoo and dabbled in acting, appearing in such movies as 1988’s Hairspray and 2002’s Deuces Wild.

She’s also been a fashion icon throughout her career; in a new interview with Vanity Fair she discussed the pressure she’s felt to look good, sharing she’s had plastic surgery because it “made me feel better about myself.”

“Maybe it made me feel happy, or more confident. It was just something that I felt necessary at the time,” she explains. “I wanted to work, and so much of women being attractive, and being a selling point, is clearly showbiz. If you’re going to be in the business, be in it.”

As for how Harry plans to celebrate 80, back in January she told the U.K. paper The Times, “I’m going to have a whopping great party with everyone there. Though one of the bad things about aging is everyone’s gone already.”

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Pearl Jam is marking the 25th anniversary of their tragic Roskilde Festival 2000 set with a live “Love Boat Captain” video.

Nine people died in a crowd crush during the band’s performance during the Danish festival. “Love Boat Captain,” which appears on PJ’s 2002 album, Riot Act, references Roskilde with the lyric, “Lost nine friends we’ll never know/ Two years ago today.”

In the new live “Love Boat Captain” video, which was recorded at Pearl Jam’s 2024 concert at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, frontman Eddie Vedder sings, “Lost nine friends we’ll never know/ So many years ago today.”

You can watch the performance on YouTube.

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Deep Purple has shared another preview of the upcoming 20th anniversary reissue of their 18th studio album, Rapture of the Deep.

The band has released a newly remixed and remastered version of the track “Clearly Quite Absurd,” along with a B-side, “MTV (2005 Studio Jam),” which is a previously unheard instrumental take from a rehearsal session.

Both songs are available now via digital outlets.

“‘Clearly Quite Absurd’ is a very unusual Deep Purple song, which I like. We’ve always liked being unusual,” Deep Purple’s Roger Glover shares. “We don’t follow traditions, really. We are just who we are at a specific time.”

Rapture of the Deep 20th Anniversary Remix, dropping Aug. 29, will feature a remixed version of the original album along with bonus material made up of never-before-heard instrumental takes and studio rehearsal recordings.

It will be available on CD, as a three-LP black vinyl and as a limited-edition three-LP transparent sky blue vinyl, available for preorder now.

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AC/DC recently announced they were bringing their Power Up tour to Australia, and their hometown fans were certainly eager to snap up tickets.

Ticketek, which handled ticket sales for the tour, reports that AC/DC moved over 320,000 tickets in a single day, breaking a record for the most concert tickets sold in one day on the platform. The previous record for the most concert tickets sold was set in 2009, also by AC/DC.

AC/DC initially announced only five total Aussie shows, in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane. After tickets went on sale they added second nights in four cities. The tour is set to kick off Nov. 12 in Melbourne and wrap Dec. 18 in Brisbane.

Next up, AC/DC brings the tour to Berlin, Germany, on Monday. A complete list of dates can be found at ac/dc.com.

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Black Sabbath was honored in their hometown of Birmingham, England, Saturday with the Freedom of the City award.

All four original members of the pioneering metal band — Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward — attended the ceremony, and received scrolls and medals from Birmingham’s lord mayor.

“The Freedom of the City honor is the [sic] one of the oldest traditional ceremonies in the country and recognizes people’s exceptional service to the city,” reads a post on Sabbath’s Instagram. “This honor recognizes Black Sabbath’s significance to the cultural and musical identity of Birmingham, their strong association with the city and continued influence as pioneers of heavy metal in both Birmingham and beyond.”

Black Sabbath will soon be rocking Birmingham during their Back to the Beginning reunion/farewell concert, taking place on Saturday. Those who aren’t attending the sold-out show can stream it online.

In other Black Sabbath-related news, the label Big Bear Records is releasing a compilation of the band’s early recordings from when their name was Earth. 

The release, titled The Legendary Lost Tapes 1969, is due out July 25 and is available to preorder now.

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Foo Fighters have shared a cover of the song “I Don’t Wanna Hear It,” originally by the influential hardcore outfit Minor Threat.

The instrumentals for the Foos version were first recorded in 1995, while the vocals were recorded 30 years later in 2025. It’s accompanied by a video featuring a slideshow of Foo Fighters photos over the last three decades, which you can watch now on YouTube.

The cover arrives as Foo Fighters have been looking back at their career leading up to the 30th anniversary of their 1995 self-titled debut album. As previously reported, the band launched a Substack account with photos and notes about each of their records, and have also been posting throwback photos and video on social media.

The most recent Foo Fighters album is 2023’s But Here We Are. The band has been through some turmoil since then, including Dave Grohl‘s 2024 infidelity scandal and the firing of drummer Josh Freese in May.

Foo Fighters are set to return to the live stage in October for a tour of Asia.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.) 



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With the 40th anniversary of Live Aid coming up on July 13, Queen is giving fans a chance to relive their electric set.

The band just announced that on the day of the anniversary they’ll be showing their set on their YouTube channel for 24 hours starting at 6:41 p.m. BST, the same time Queen took the stage at Wembley Stadium.

Live Aid, organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, took place at London’s Wembley Stadium and Philly’s John F. Kennedy Stadium. The benefit concerts, which raised more than $150 million for Ethiopian famine relief, were watched by about 2 billion people in more than 100 countries.

“Of the 16 hours of playing out on over 500 million TV sets, it was Queen’s magical 21-minute set which has come to epitomize Live Aid,” the band says in their announcement. “And when Freddie Mercury, at the climax of his famous call-and-response ‘Ay-oh’ segment, he struck what would become known as ‘The Note Heard Around the World.'”

Remembering the event, guitarist Brian May shares that Mercury “was our secret weapon,” explaining, “He was able to reach out to everybody in that stadium effortlessly, and I think it was really his night.”

Drummer Roger Taylor adds, “The whole day was one of those stand out wonderful days. A great credit to music which can move mountains if it has to! It’s beyond politics and politicians!”

Queen’s Live Aid set included performances of some of their biggest hits, including “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Radio Ga-Ga,” “We Will Rock You,” “We Are the Champions” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”

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On This Day, June 30, 2007…

R.E.M. kicked off a five night residency in Dublin, Ireland, which was billed as a “working rehearsal” for their 14th studio album Accelerate.

The shows took place at the Olympia Theatre, and featured live debuts of songs off that album, many of which were still considered a work in progress.

Throughout the five nights they also played several songs they hadn’t performed live in decades.

In 2009, R.E.M. released a live album Live at The Olympia, featuring performances from the five nights of shows. The two-CD release featured 39 songs, and included an accompanying DVD with a documentary, This Is Now a Show, about the residency.

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