Classic Rock News

Night Ranger is giving fans a taste of their live show with the new live album 40 Years and a Night with Contemporary Youth Orchestra, dropping October 20.

The album captures the band’s November 9, 2022, performance at Key Bank State Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio. As the title suggests, they were backed by the Contemporary Youth Orchestra, which is made up of musicians ages 12 to 18 from over 40 schools in the state. 

“It was a dream come true to have Night Ranger music accompanied by an entire symphonic band… including our own!” Jack Blades shares. “Although now, we’re spoiled, and we want to carry the orchestra with us everywhere we go!!”

Brad Gillis adds, “I can check this one off my bucket list. Having the CYO backing us for this show was just amazing and it really took Night Ranger to another level.”

And Night Ranger is giving fans a preview of the record with the release of a video performance of their track “(You Can Still) Rock in America.”

40 Years and a Night with Contemporary Youth Orchestra will be released on CD, vinyl, DVD, Blu-ray and digitally. It is available for preorder now.

Here is the track list for 40 Years and a Night with Contemporary Youth Orchestra:

“Intro”
“(You Can Still) Rock In America”
“Four In The Morning”
“Sing Me Away”
“Call My Name”
“Sentimental Street”
“High Road”
“Night Ranger”
“Goodbye”
“When You Close Your Eyes”
“Don’t Tell Me You Love Me”
“Sister Christian”
“High Enough” (Bonus Track – Japan)

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Alice Cooper has premiered a new song called “Welcome to the Show,” a track off his upcoming album, Road.

The track finds the shock rocker performing a dramatic retelling of the moment before he takes the stage each night. You can listen to it now via digital outlets.

Road will be released August 25. It also includes the the songs “I’m Alice” and “White Line Frankenstein.”

Cooper is currently out tour playing headlining dates and shows with Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard. Later in August, he’ll link up with Rob Zombie for the Freaks on Parade tour.

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Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx reveals in a new interview that the band was just as surprised as anyone when their guitarist and cofounder Mick Mars left while they were still touring with Def Leppard.

“We never saw it coming that Mick wasn’t going to be able to tour and was going to have to quit the band,” Sixx told Guitar World of Mars departure due to health issues. “In the middle – not even the middle – of a huge tour, we had to ask ourselves, ‘Do we want to let the fans down?…Do we want to let Def Leppard down? Do we want to let ourselves down because an original member of our band can’t tour anymore?’ We had to have a deep, deep look into what we were going to do.” 

In the end, they hired former Rob Zombie guitarist John 5, who they had a previous relationship with, calling the decision “a no brainer in a horrible situation.” 

Sixx says bringing John aboard “was just kind of obvious.” “If there was ‘the guy,’ John was the guy,” he said. “Like I said, we didn’t choose this, but since we had to be put in this position, we’re very happy with where we’re at right now.”

Of course, the drama didn’t exactly end there. Mars sued Mötley Crüe over a financial disagreement and suggested they’d been pushing him out for years. He also accused them of playing to backing tracks at shows, a claim the members of Motley Crüe have denied.

Well, fans still have plenty of chances to judge for themselves. Mötley Crüe’s tour with Def Leppard is currently in North America, hitting Fargo, North Dakota, on August 11. A complete list of dates can be found at motley.com.

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August 8, 1983, brought a surprise for Billy Joel fans: a brand-new album, which came less than a year after his previous release, 1982’s The Nylon Curtain.

An Innocent Man was a tribute to the music that Billy had loved as a teenager, like Motown, R&B, doo wop and The Four Seasons. He said that inspiration came from the fact that he was newly divorced and single for the first time since he became a rock star. Having the opportunity to date supermodels like Elle Macpherson and Christie Brinkley, he explained, made him feel “like a teenager all over again.”

“When you’re gonna write [songs for a new album], you write what you’re feeling. And I didn’t fight it,” he added. “The material was coming so easily and so quickly, and I was having so much fun doing it. I was kind of reliving my youth…. I think within 6 weeks I had written most of the material on the album.”

Billy also said he was pleasantly surprised when retro-sounding songs like “The Longest Time” and “Uptown Girl” became hits. In fact, the first single from the album, “Tell Her About It,” became his second #1 single.

In addition to those three songs, the album also spun off two other hits — “Leave a Tender Moment Alone” and ‘Keeping The Faith” — and has sold more than seven million copies in the U.S. alone. It also earned him two Grammy nominations, including a nod for Album of the Year. It was the second year in a row he’d been nominated in that category.

After the one-two punch of The Nylon Curtain and An Innocent Man, Billy fans waited three more years for his next album of original music: 1986’s The Bridge.

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Guns N’ Roses just launched their North American tour, and there’s apparently even more in the works from the “Welcome to the Jungle” rockers.

A press release recapping the first show of the tour, which took place August 5 in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, teases that you should “stay tuned to Guns N’ Roses socials for more news coming soon.”

Notably, there have been recent rumors that a previously unreleased GN’R song called “Perhaps,” which they previously rehearsed during a soundcheck for a June show, is set premiere sometime soon. According to NME, a link to a presave page was briefly active before disappearing. However, nothing has been officially announced.

Guns N’ Roses shared two previously unreleased songs, “Hard Skool” and “Absurd,” in 2021. Both tracks dated back to the sessions for GN’R’s infamous Chinese Democracy album.

The group’s tour continues Friday, August 11, in Hersey, Pennsylvania, and is currently scheduled into October. Openers on the outing include Alice in Chains, Pretenders, Dirty Honey, The Warning and country star/noted GN’R fan Carrie Underwood.

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Van Halen is revisiting the Sammy Hagar years with a new box set.

The Collection II, dropping October 6, will feature newly remastered versions of the band’s four #1 albums with Hagar – 1986’s 5150, 1988’s OU812, 1991’s For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge and 1995’s Balance.

It will also include a fifth album, Studio Rarities 1989-2004, featuring eight non-album Hagar-era tracks, including “Crossing Over,” the B-side to the Balance tune “Can’t Stop Lovin’ You,” and their two songs from the Twister soundtrack: “Humans Being” and “Respect The Wind.”

You listen to the newly remastered version of “Humans Being” now via digital outlets and watch the accompanying video streaming now on YouTube.

“This stuff sounds so good,” Sammy shared on social media about the remastered set. “You know how long we’ve been waiting for this. I know you’re gonna enjoy it.” 

The Collection II is the follow-up to Van Halen’s first box set, The Collection, which was released in 2015 and featured the band’s six studio albums with David Lee Roth. It  will be released as a five-LP or five-CD set, both of which are available for preorder now.

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On This day, August 9, 1995…

The original KISS lineup — Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss — reunited at Sony Music Studios in New York to record MTV Unplugged.

The show was the first and only time all original members performed together without wearing their iconic stage makeup. The performance also included Eric Singer and Bruce Kulick, making it the first time Frehley and Criss had shared a stage with the musicians who replaced them in the band.

Songs performed during the show included “Comin’ Home,” “Beth,” “Rock and Roll All Nite” and more.

The recording was such a success that in 1996, the original four members teamed for a new tour, the first time they’d hit the road together since 1979.

KISS Unplugged was released on CD in March of 1996, along with a standalone VHS and DVD documentary. 

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One of James Taylor’s classic albums is getting a new vinyl reissue. The singer’s 1979 studio album, Flag, will be getting a limited-edition reissue by Music on Vinyl.

Only 1,000 copies of the new pink-colored vinyl will be available on September 1 courtesy of Music on Vinyl. It will be released on 180-gram audiophile vinyl, with a gatefold sleeve with linen laminate finish.

Released in May 1979, Flag was Taylor’s ninth studio album and featured such songs as “Millworker,” “Brother Trucker” and a cover of “Up On The Roof,” which was his final top-40 hit as a solo artist.

The limited-edition vinyl Flag is available for preorder now.

Music on Vinyl has already released several James Taylor albums on limited-edition vinyl. Previous releases include 1985’s That’s Why I’m Here, 1977’s JT, 2002’s October Road and 1993’s James Taylor Live.

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Freddie Mercury will soon receive another prestigious honor. The late Queen frontman will be posthumously inducted into the Asian Hall of Fame later this year.

“Inductees and Artist Ambassadors inspire courage, character, and service for the betterment of our country and humanity,” Grammy member Maki Hsieh, president and CEO of the Asian Hall of Fame and CEO of the organization’s founder, the Robert Chin Foundation, shares.

Mercury was born in Zanzibar, but both his parents were Asian, from the Parsi community of western India.

The Asian Hall of Fame Class of 2023 will be celebrated at a fundraiser taking place at the Biltmore in Los Angeles on October 21. Tickets for the gala are on sale now.

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