The Grammys are coming up on Feb. 2, but before we find out the 2025 winners, CBS is giving viewers a look back at winners past with two Grammy specials, airing Dec. 27 and Dec. 29.
Grammy Greats: The Stories Behind the Songs focuses on past winners of the Song of the Year category. Song of the Year and Record of the Year are different because Song goes to the people who wrote the song, while Record goes to the artist, the producer and the engineer. Stars like Bonnie Raitt, Sting, Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald are all featured in the special, along with John Mayer, Alicia Keys, Mark Ronson, Billie Eilish and Richard Marx. It airs Friday at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Sunday’s special is called Grammy Greats: The Most Memorable Moments, focusing on those special duets and other events that only seem to take place on the Grammy stage. Among the artists featured in this special: Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Melissa Etheridge and Annie Lennox, as well as Dua Lipa, Ricky Martin and LLCool J. It airs at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
A happy 80th birthday to Foreigner founder Mick Jones.
Jones got his first break in music in the 1960s as a member of Nero and the Gladiators and later played in such bands as Spooky Tooth and the Leslie West Band. He formed Foreigner in 1976, with multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald, singer Lou Gramm, drummer Dennis Elliott, keyboardist Al Greenwood and bassist Ed Gagliardi.
The band released their self-titled debut album in 1977, which peaked at #4 on the Billboard chart and featured two top-10 hits, “Feels Like the First Time” and “Cold as Ice.” The album’s follow-up, Double Vision, was also a hit, peaking at #3 thanks to songs like “Hot Blooded,” which hit #3, and the album’s title track, which went to #2.
Foreigner landed their only #1 album with 1981’s 4, which spent 10 weeks on top and featured hit singles “Urgent,” “Waiting for a Girl Like You” and “Juke Box Hero.” The follow-up, 1984’s Agent Provocateur, peaked at #4 and featured the band’s only #1 single, “I Want To Know What Love Is.”
Foreigner experienced various lineup changes over the years, with Jones being the only member to appear on all of Foreigner’s albums. As of 2003 he was the only original member still touring with the group, although since 2021 his participation in their tours declined.
In February 2024 Jones revealed he had stopped performing because he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, although he insisted he was still very much involved with Foreigner behind the scenes.
Jones and Gramm were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2014, and in 2024, almost 22 years after they were first eligible, Foreigner was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, Jones’ health kept him from attending the ceremony.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s fifth studio album, Double Fantasy, hit #1 on the Billboard 200 and went on to spend eight weeks in the top spot.
The album was released in November and initially didn’t perform well, but after Lennon’s Dec. 8 death the album became a commercial success. It was eventually certified triple Platinum by the RIAA.
Double Fantasy, recorded at the Hit Factory in New York City, featured such songs as “(Just Like) Starting Over,” which hit #1 three weeks after Lennon’s death; “Woman,” which peaked at #2; and “Watching The Wheels,” which peaked at #10.
The album went on to win Album of the Year at the 1991 Grammy Awards.
Billy Corgan has shared a statement mourning the death of professional wrestler Jeremy Laymon, known by his ring name Jax Dane.
Dane passed away on Christmas Day at age 48. Dane wrestled in the National Wrestling Alliance, or NWA, which Corgan has owned since 2017.
In an Instagram post, the Smashing Pumpkins frontman writes, “Friend, mentor, absolute professional in and out of the ring, and loyalist who went out of his way to support and rebuild the NWA of today, Jax Dane loved professional wrestling deeply and he certainly loved those he fought and rode with.”
He continues, “I know I speak for all of the National Wrestling Alliance when saying Jax will be missed, and we will do our best to honor him and make his family proud as we carry forth.”
“You see those men and women who carry the legacy of a champion because they have rise to such heights,” Corgan concludes. “And then there are those that earn the respect of a champion simply because of who they are. To this I can say, simply and personally, that Jax was such a man, and will forever be in our hearts.”
Corgan’s love of wrestling and role as president of the NWA is documented in the reality series Billy Corgan’s Adventures in Carnyland, which premiered in May.
Bon Jovi had a very busy year, as they celebrated the 40th anniversary of the release of their self-titled debut album. To mark the occasion, the band debuted an archival site, dropped a new album, told their secrets in a docuseries and more.
Among the highlights:
– To kick off their 40th anniversary celebration, Bon Jovi released a deluxe version of their self-titled debut, featuring nine never-before-heard bonus tracks. They also debuted Backstage with Bon Jovi, an online archive of the band’s history.
– Jon Bon Jovi was celebrated as the Recording Academy’s MusiCares Person of the Year, with Bruce Springsteen, Melissa Etheridge and Sammy Hagar among the many performers on hand to honor him. Bon Jovi performed as well, marking one of Jon’s first performances since having reconstructive surgery on his vocal cords following the band’s 2022 tour. Although there were rumors original Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora was going to attend, he was a no-show.
– The band was the subject of a four-part Hulu docuseries, Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, which detailed the history of the band and also had Jon opening up about his vocal cord surgery. The docuseries also featured an interview with Sambora, although he indicated he wasn’t totally happy with it, at one point telling People, “It’s his project and it’s his perspective.” Prior to the comments, Jon said he and Richie watched the series together, insisting there was “no animosity” between them. Despite his feelings on the doc, Richie said in interviews that he’d be open to a Bon Jovi reunion.
– Ahead of the doc, Jon sat down for an interview with Michael Strahan, during which he suggested he was “not a saint” in his 35-year marriage to wife Dorothea Hurley, sharing, “I’m not saying that, that there weren’t a hundred girls in my life.” He later said he meant to say hundreds of girls had thrown themselves at him, calling his original comments an “arrogant cliché.”
– Bon Jovi released the new album Forever in June, which was their first album since 2020 and the first since Jon’s vocal cord surgery. The album debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and the band became one of only five bands to have a top-10 album in each of the last five decades.
– Jon gained a daughter-in-law when his son Jake married Stranger Things actress Millie Bobby Brown.
– Jon opened a bar in Nashville, JBJ’s Nashville, with the band turning up for a surprise performance on opening night.
– In September, Jon helped talk a distraught woman off the ledge of a Nashville bridge. He had been filming a music video with the band The War and Treaty, and he and another person approached the woman and helped persuade her to come off the ledge.
– Sayreville High School renamed its performing arts center after Jon. It’s now known as the Jon Bon Jovi Performing Arts Center and Music Suite.
Neil Young gave fans a Christmas present on Wednesday, sharing a video on social media of him performing “Silver and Gold,” a song written in the ’80s that wound up being the title track off his 2000 album.
According to Rolling Stone, Young has rarely performed “Silver and Gold” live, and the video marks Young’s first performance of the song since 2007.
The video cuts off with Young saying, “Is that our first fireside session?” Rolling Stone notes that Young went on to share that he has a new album in the works called Talkin’ to the Trees, and he’s also planning a new tour of the U.S. and Europe, with his most recent band Chrome Hearts.
Young toured with Crazy Horse in 2024, although he played about 15 shows before canceling the tour in June, citing health reasons. Since then he’s played only a handful of shows, including Farm Aid in September, which was his first with Chrome Hearts, made up of Micah Nelson, Anthony LoGerfo and Corey McCormick.
George Harrison landed at #1 with the song “My Sweet Lord,” which went on to spend four weeks in the top spot.
The chart-topper, produced by Harrison and Phil Spector, made Harrison the first former member of The Beatles to score a solo #1 in the U.S. The track, which was released as a double A-side single with “Isn’t It a Pity,” also went to #1 in several other countries, including the U.K. and Australia.
“My Sweet Lord” was featured on Harrison’s album All Things Must Pass, which was his first solo album following the Beatles’ breakup. He later released an updated version of the tune, “My Sweet Lord (2000),” for the 30th anniversary reissue of the album.
L-R: Rod Stewart, record label head Clive Davis, producer Richard Perry; L. Cohen/WireImage
Rod Stewart is “devastated” by the death of Richard Perry, who produced most of his best-selling Great American Songbook albums. Perry died of cardiac arrest on Dec. 24 in LA, according to the New York Times. He was 82.
“Dearest Richard, farewell, my dear buddy,” Rod wrote on Instagram. “They say in life a man is lucky if he can count his true friends on one hand, and you were certainly one of them. Now I’ve lost you and I’m devastated.”
“We played and worked so closely together for so many years, creating some of the most memorable music together,” he continued. “You were there when [my wife] Penny and I first started dating, encouraging our relationship. We were both in tears as I post this farewell.”
In addition to Rod’s Songbook albums, which revived his career in the early 2000s, Perry also produced classic albums like Barbra Streisand‘s Stoney End, Carly Simon’s No Secrets, which included “You’re So Vain;” Harry Nilsson’s Nilsson Schmilsson, featuring “Without You” and “Jump Into the Fire” and Ringo Starr‘s Ringo, which featured the hits “Oh My My,” “Photograph” and “You’re Sixteen.”
Other hits Perry produced include Leo Sayer’s “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing,” Carly Simon’s “Nobody Does It Better,” The Pointer Sisters‘ “I’m So Excited,” “Jump (For My Love)” and “Slow Hand,” DeBarge‘s “Rhythm of the Night” and “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before” by Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias.
In 2023 Bruce Springsteen was forced to postpone his tour with the E Street Band due to a bout with peptic ulcer disease, but he didn’t stay away from the stage for long. The Boss returned to the road in April 2024, kicking off his rescheduled tour in Phoenix, and then spent a good portion of the year touring, with the trek hitting both the U.S. and Europe.
He did have to postpone a few shows in Europe due to vocal issues, but that just led to him announcing another tour of Europe next summer.
But that was only one of the many Springsteen-related highlights this year. Among the others:
– In early January it was reported that a movie about the making of Springsteen’s 1982 album, Nebraska, was in the works. Deliver Us From Nowhere will be based on the Warren Zanes book Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, with The Bear star Jeremy Allen White cast to play The Boss. The film, directed by Scott Cooper, is currently in production.
– In the middle of his tour, Springsteen flew across country from San Diego to Brooklyn to join Zach Bryan on stage for two songs, including “Sandpiper,” a collaboration between the two that appeared on Zach’s album The Great American Bar Scene. Springsteen also showed up at Bryan’s Philadelphia concert in August, where they performed “Sandpiper” and Bruce’s “Atlantic City.”
– Springsteen made a guest appearance on the HBO Max comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm, in an episode in which star Larry David gives him COVID-19.
– The Boss was chosen as the next Academy Fellow of The Ivors Academy, the U.K. organization that presents The Ivor Novello Awards, which celebrate excellence in British and Irish songwriting. He became the first international songwriter to earn a fellowship, which is the highest honor handed out by the Ivors.
– In June, Bruce celebrated the 40th anniversary of his iconic album Born in the U.S.A., which spent seven weeks at #1 in 1984. As part of the celebration he released an anniversary edition of the album on translucent red vinyl.
– In July, Forbes magazine claimed Bruce was now a billionaire, although he later denied the report.
– Springsteen brought his live show home, headlining the Sea. Hear. Now festival in his old stomping ground of Asbury Park, New Jersey. He popped in during sets by fellow New Jersey natives Gaslight Anthem, as well as the Trey Anastasio Band, with his headlining set filled with songs from the early days of his career.
– He appeared on the tribute album for longtime New York City punk fixture Jesse Malin, called Silver Patron Saints, contributing the song “She Don’t Love Me Now” featuring Jesse’s band and E Street Band saxophonist Jake Clemons.
– Bruce wrapped the year by giving fans a peek behind the scenes at his live show with the Hulu documentary Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. In the doc, Bruce’s wife, Patti Scialfa, revealed that in 2018 she was diagnosed multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, which has made it hard for her to perform and is why she wasn’t on tour with him.
– And if all of that wasn’t enough, The Boss also turned 75 in September.
Bruce’s bandmate Stevie Van Zandt also had a great year. Not only were he and and his brother — playwright, actor and director Billy Van Zandt —honored with a street named after them in their hometown of Middletown, New Jersey, Stevie was featured in his very own documentary. Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York and debuted on Max in June. The film also earned a Grammy nomination for Best Music Film.
2024 was a milestone year for Billy Joel, in more ways than one.
It started in February, when he released “Turn the Lights Back On,” his first pop single since 2007’s “All My Life.” The ballad was cowritten by Billy, Freddy Wexler, Arthur Bacon and Wayne Hector, and was reminiscent of his classic sound. The video, which used AI to morph him from his ’70s, ’80s and ’90s selves into his present-day self, upped the nostalgia factor, too.
“Turn the Lights Back On,” which Billy performed at the Grammy Awards days after its release, returned Billy to the Billboard Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts — as an artist, not just a writer — for the first time since 1998.
Billy was back on CBS in April for a special documenting the 100th show of his Madison Square Garden residency. Billy Joel: The 100th – Live at Madison Square Garden aired April 14, but it was delayed due to coverage of the Masters Tournament, then cut short for local news programming. CBS mollified angry fans by reairing the show, which won three Emmys, on April 19.
On May 9, Billy celebrated his 75th birthday onstage at Madison Square Garden. On July 25, he officially ended his 10-year residency with his 150th career show at the Garden, where he was joined by Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose and by his young daughters, Remy and Della.
According to Billboard, the residency grossed a total of $267 million. Only Céline Dion‘s two residency shows in Las Vegas have earned more.
Billy also performed stadium shows across the country in 2024, but added a new twist: He coheadlined with, variously, Stevie Nicks, Sting and Rod Stewart. He’ll continue performing with all three of them into 2025.
