Classic Rock 93.9

Fans of The Beatles were out in full force for Record Store Day Black Friday.

Billboard reports that the Fab Four’s “I Want To Hold Your Hand”/”I Saw Her Standing There” 7-inch vinyl was the top-selling single on Record Store Day Black Friday, while the 3-inch vinyl release of “All My Loving” came in at #5.

Stevie Nicks also had one of the bestselling singles, with the white-colored 7-inch vinyl of her latest single, “The Lighthouse,” landing at #3 behind Pearl Jam‘s “Waiting for Stevie (Live)”/”Wreckage (Live)” vinyl. 

U2 was also a big draw at independent record stores, with the How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb black and red colored vinyl the sixth-bestselling album on Record Store Day. Van Halen’s Live in Dallas 1981 on red colored double vinyl was #8, the Ramones’ Greatest Hits on red colored vinyl was #9 and the Grateful Dead’s four-vinyl LP set, Veterans Memorial Coliseum, New Haven, CT 5/5/77, was #10.

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Pete Townshend is once again sharing some information about the future of The Who. 

In an interview with Variety, the rocker continued to tease a possible Who tour next year, sharing, “I know that if Roger (Daltrey) and I do tour again, as I’m sure we will, it will probably be one of the last periods that we tour.”

Pete made similar comments about a Who tour back in October, telling The Standard, “We’re both getting a bit creaky, but we will definitely do something next year.”

As for new music from the band, that seems less likely. 

“I would love to do another album with Roger,” Pete tells Variety. “I really enjoyed doing the last one, but he doesn’t really want to do that — I feel like with the Who, I’m still trying to push this elephant up the hill, with Roger being resistant to doing new creative work. He always says to me, ‘Pete, you’ve done enough. We did enough in the early days. That’s what people want here. Let’s just do that.’”

As for non-Who-related projects, Pete says he’s “thought about doing solo work,” adding, “I’m still a conceptualist; I still want a story to hang the music on.”

“For me it’s about pencil sketches, poems, song lyrics, playing with the latest electronic toy, doing books. It’s about all kinds of things,” he explains. “I may have 10 years left to work, but I work very, very slowly, so one thing I’m trying to do is speed things up a bit.”

Finally, he notes, “So I may dump a couple of the projects that I’ve been working on for a long time and I may decide just to do a one-man show.”

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Blue Öyster Cult’s new live album, 50th Anniversary Live – Third Night, is out now, and to celebrate the release the band has debuted a new performance video for the track “I Love The Night.”

The album features a concert recorded during the final night of the band’s 2022 three-night stand at Sony Hall in New York. The shows had BOC playing their first three albums in their entirety, one each night, with the final night dedicated to their third album, Secret Treaties.

Blue Öyster Cult has already released live albums dedicated to the first two shows. The first, 50th Anniversary Live – First Night, where they played their self-titled debut album, was released in October 2023. 50th Anniversary Live – Second Night, dedicated to their sophomore release, Tyranny and Mutation, came out in August.

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Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour is giving fans a taste of his most recent solo tour, which wrapped in November. The rocker just released a live recording of “The Piper’s Call,” which was the first single off his latest solo album, Luck and Strange.

“The Piper’s Call Live Around The World” is a mash-up of performances from throughout his Luck and Strange tour. It features clips from The Brighton Centre in Brighton, England, Rome’s Circus Maximus, London’s Royal Albert Hall, Los Angeles’ Intuit Dome and New York’s Madison Square Garden, edited together to form one song.

“On the Luck and Strange tour, I played with the best band I’ve ever had. Their personalities, playing abilities and enthusiasm for my new music have made for a fabulous experience for Polly and me,” Gilmour shared, referring to his wife and co-songwriter, Polly Samson. “Thank you to everyone who attended the shows in Europe and America and thank you for buying Luck and Strange. I hope you found as much enjoyment in the music as we did while performing it.”

Released in September, Luck and Strange was Gilmour’s first album of new material in nine years. The album debuted at #1 in the U.K. and at #10 in the U.S.

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U2’s Larry Mullen Jr. has issues with numbers, and it’s more than just not being good at math.

In an interview with the U.K.’s Times Radio, the U2 drummer shared that he’s recently been diagnosed with dyscalculia, a learning disability that results in difficulty learning or comprehending arithmetic, sometimes referred to as “math dyslexia.” 

“I’ve always known that there’s something not particularly right with the way that I deal with numbers. I’m numerically challenged,” he shared. “And I realized recently that I have dyscalculia, which is a subversion of dyslexia. So I can’t count [and] I can’t add.” 

His issues with numbers can cause a problem when playing music, with Mullen sharing it’s often the reason he seems to have a “pained” face while drumming with the band.

“When people watch me play sometimes, they say, ‘You look pained.’ I am pained because I’m trying to count the bars,” he explained. “I had to find ways of doing this — and counting bars is like climbing Everest.” 

This is the first time Mullen has talked about his learning disability, and he made the revelation while promoting the new documentary Left Behind, which he co-produced. He also wrote two songs for the film, “Between The Lines” featuring GAYLE and “One of Us” featuring Welsh singer Donna Lewis, which are out now.

The film tells the story of the New York City mothers who fought to open the city’s first public school for dyslexic children. The subject of the film is a personal one for Mullen; his son is dyslexic.

Left Behind is set to open Jan. 17 for a weeklong engagement at New York City’s QUAD Cinema. It will then expand to select theaters nationwide.

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On This Day, Dec. 13, 2008 …

Joe Walsh married Marjorie Bach in Los Angeles, California. Bach is the sister of actress Barbara Bach, who has been married to Ringo Starr since 1981, meaning the union made Walsh Ringo’s brother-in-law.

This was the fifth marriage for the 77-year-old Eagles guitarist. He was previously married to Margie Walsh in the ’60s, Stefany Rhodes from 1971 to 1978, Juanita Boyer from 1980 to 1988 and Denise Driscoll from 1999 to 2006.

In addition to being related, Walsh and Starr have worked together several times. Walsh was part of Starr’s All-Starr Band from 1989 to 1992, and has occasionally guested with the group between 1995 and 2019.

Walsh is currently busy performing with the Eagles at their Sphere residency in Las Vegas. Their next show is Friday.

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The rumors regarding the casting of Sam Mendes’ four Beatles films continues, with Deadline now reporting Stranger Things actor Joseph Quinn will play George Harrison.

And it sounds like he’s getting ready for the part, with Deadline citing sources in Europe who claim Quinn’s been spotted with a guitar while overseas filming his role of Human Torch in the new Fantastic Four movie. 

Quinn is no stranger to the guitar, or at least acting like he knows how to play one. His character Eddie Munson memorably played Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” in the season 4 finale of Stranger Things. 

Quinn most recently starred in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II, and if the casting rumor is true, he will be the second star from that movie rumored to be in the Beatles films. On Tuesday, Gladiator II director Ridley Scott let it slip that Paul Mescal is attached to the project; he’s rumored to be playing Paul McCartney.

As for the rest of the band, Ringo Starr recently let it slip in an Entertainment Tonight interview that Barry Keoghan had been cast to play him. Plus, Babygirl actor Harris Dickinson has been mentioned as a possible candidate to play John Lennon. When asked about it on the red carpet for the Babygirl premiere, he played coy, telling Variety “we’ll see.”

So far there has been no official announcement about the casting of the films. 

Mendes’ Beatles project was announced back in February, with the director revealing he planned to make four separate films, one for each member of the group. Sony Pictures is the studio behind the movies, and it marks the first time Apple Corps Ltd. and The Beatles have granted a studio the rights to the life stories of the band members and their legendary catalog of music.

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Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ classic tune “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” is reinterpreted on Snoop Dogg‘s just-released album, Missionary, and the song is out now.

Snoop’s version, “Last Dance with Mary Jane,” also features Jelly Roll. It opens with Petty saying “keep movin’ on” and includes Petty’s chorus playing over the hook.

Ahead of the song’s release, Snoop and producer Dr. Dre shared an archival clip of a Petty interview where he can be heard saying, “The day Dre does ‘Mary Jane’s Last Dance’ he’s gonna have a big hit,” adding, “That one’s just waiting to explode … you need somebody like Dre to do it.” 

The post then cuts to a clip of Dre explaining how Petty’s contribution came to be. He shares, “So the family sent me the files, so I actually have Tom Petty’s voice and harmonica playing on the hook.” 

Released in 1993, “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” was recorded during the sessions for Petty’s album Wildflowers, but was released as part of his Greatest Hits album. It hit #14 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Petty his first top-10 hit.

 (Video includes uncensored profanity.)

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Never Too Late, the new documentary about Elton John, premieres Dec. 13 on Disney+. Directed by his husband, David Furnish, and RJ Cutler, it features never-before-seen footage of Elton’s career and of his life today as a husband and father. It also details how he triumphed over adversity, abuse and addiction. However, he says revisiting his past via the film wasn’t always pleasant.

Asked if the documentary was difficult for him to watch at times, Elton told ABC News, “A bit, because I hadn’t seen a lot of that footage. But what it did [was], it confirmed in myself that those were great songs … I played well. We had a great band.”

Indeed, the doc points out that during one five-year period in the ’70s, Elton released 13 albums, seven of which hit #1.

“The records were amazing, and I tend to forget that because I don’t listen to the past — or my past, anyway,” Elton said. “So in that way, it made me feel good about myself and about what I did and what I composed and how I played.”

While Elton has retired from large-scale touring, he seems to be as in demand as ever. And despite the fact that he’s currently dealing the loss of his sight in one eye — which he hopes will be temporary — Elton says he feels he’s currently in a great place in his life.

“I’m so lucky. I’m the luckiest man in the world,” he gushed. “I’m so proud of the documentary. I’m so proud of what David and RJ have done. I’m proud of my sons. I’m proud of my attitude towards myself and what’s going on. I’m just very lucky and I’m very grateful.”

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Saturday, Dec. 14, marks the 40th anniversary of Foreigner’s fifth studio album, Agent Provocateur, which was a huge hit for the band.

The album was a top-five hit, landing at #4 on the Billboard 200, and earned a triple Platinum certification by the RIAA. The record is best known for its hit ballad “I Want To Know What Love Is,” which spent three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 and became the band’s only #1 song.

But despite the success of “I Want to Know What Love Is,” Foreigner frontman Lou Gramm wasn’t particularly happy that it was the album’s first single, especially since the last hit from their previous album, 4, was another ballad, “Waiting for a Girl Like You.” 

“I seriously think it did some damage to our rock credibility,” he tells ABC Audio. “There were comments in editorials about how some of our rock fans felt like we were letting them down.”

As for the album itself, Gramm says “there’s some great songs on there,” noting that some of them were “completely overlooked.”

He adds, “So, you know, I think it’s a very good album.”

But apparently the album didn’t damage their rock credibility too much, as Foreigner was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in October. Despite his feelings about the song, Gramm performed “I Want To Know What Love Is” with Kelly Clarkson during the induction ceremony.

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