The Beatles hit #1 with their seventh studio album Revolver, which went on to spend six weeks in the top spot.
Regarded by some critics as one of the greatest albums of all time, Revolver featured such Beatles classics as “Eleanor Rigby,” “Yellow Submarine,” “Good Day Sunshine,” “Got to Get You Into My Life” and “Taxman.”
The album was the last Beatles record released prior to the band’s retirement from touring.
Revolver’s cover, part line drawing part collage by German-born bassist and artist Klaus Voormann, won the 1967 Grammy Award for best album cover, graphic arts.
Cover of KISS’ 1975 album ‘Alive!’/(Island Def Jam Group)
It was 50 years ago — Sept. 10, 1975 — that KISS released their first-ever live album, Alive!, which helped them skyrocket to superstardom.
Before Alive!, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss and Ace Frehley weren’t having much success. While their live shows helped them gain a cult following, their first three albums — KISS, Hotter Than Hell and Dressed to Kill — failed to take off commercially.
But that all changed after the release of Alive!, a double album featuring live performances recorded at select shows on their 1975 tour.
In fact, Stanley credits Alive! for their success, telling ABC Audio it was because of that album that the public began to discover their songs like “Strutter,” “Deuce” and “Black Diamond.”
“KISS Alive! was really where those songs came to life,” he says. “The first three albums really didn’t sell particularly well. We were becoming well-known for our live show, but our record sales didn’t reflect that until KISS Alive!”
Alive! went on to hit #9 on the Billboard Albums chart and helped the band’s now signature tune, “Rock & Roll All Nite,” take off. The studio version only made it to #68 on the Billboard singles chart, but the live version reached #12.
Not only would the album save KISS’ career, but it also saved their label, Casablanca Records, which was having major money problems at the time.
The album went on to be certified Gold in the U.S. and has since sold more than 9 million copies worldwide.
As part of KISS’ celebration of the Alive! anniversary they’re sharing the story of the making of the album on their website, Kissonline.com. As the article notes, the album “cemented the group’s enduring legacy and 50 years on, it’s regarded as one of the greatest live albums of all time.”
David Byrne attends the Prime Video’s “#1 Happy Family USA” Series Premiere at Metrograph on April 16, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
David Byrne and Robert Plant are among the artists set to perform at the 2026 Big Ears Festival, taking place March 26-29 in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The festival will feature 250 performances in 20 venues, with Laurie Anderson, Pat Metheny, Flying Lotus, Don Was and more also taking part.
Byrne is set to play two shows during the festival, while Plant is on the bill with his band Saving Grace featuring Suzi Dian.
Founded in 2009, Big Ears is described as a “four-day celebration of musical and artistic adventure and discovery.” It will also include films, conversations, literary events and more, with events taking place in historic theaters, intimate clubs and other venues.
A presale for previous attendees kicks off Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET. Tickets go on sale to the general public Thursday at 9 a.m. ET. Tickets for the Byrne and Plant shows will be sold at a later date.
A complete lineup and ticket information can be found at bigearsfestival.org.
Jimi Hendrix Experience ‘Bold As Love’ box set cover/Experience Hendrix/Legacy Recordings
The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s sophomore album is the subject of a new reissue featuring plenty of extras.
Dropping Nov. 7, Bold As Love is a deluxe box set featuring the band’s original sophomore album, Axis: Bold As Love, in mono and stereo mixes. There are also 40 bonus tracks, made up of alternative versions of songs, unreleased studio takes, demos, live tracks and TV performances. That bonus material includes 28 tracks that have never been heard before, including a demo of “Stone Free/Up From The Skies,” which is out now.
There’s also a Blu-ray featuring the stereo and mono mixes of the album, along with a Dolby Atmos mix by the album’s original engineer, Eddie Kramer, and engineer Chandler Harrod.
“Jimi was fearless in his artistic expression. Each song, each lyrical composition was and is an invitation for those listening to be free to feel,” Janie Hendrix, president and CEO of Experience Hendrix, L.L.C., says. “His music was an unapologetic statement of how he perceived the world and all the emotions it evoked. Bold As Love is the creative embodiment of those feelings.”
She adds, “The Bold As Love set masterfully reintroduces the beauty of Jimi’s musical depth, highlighting a significant segment of not just his career, but his life.”
Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Bold As Love isbeing be released as a five-LP+ Blu-ray or four-CD+Blu-ray set. It is available for preorder now.
Released Dec. 1, 1967, Axis: Bold As Love was a critical and commercial success for Hendrix, peaking at #3 on the Billboard album charts. It features Hendrix classics like “Little Wing,” “Spanish Castle Magic” and “Castles Made of Sand.”
‘The Doors – Immersed 1967-1971’ Blu-ray set/(Rhino)
The Doors are continuing the celebration of their 60th anniversary with a new Blu-ray set with audio upgrades of all their albums.
The Doors – Immersed 1967-1971 drops on Oct. 24. It will feature the band’s six studio albums — 1967’s The Doors and Strange Days, 1968’s Waiting for the Sun, 1969’s The Soft Parade, 1970’s Morrison Hotel and 1971’s L.A.Woman — on Blu-ray for the first time, featuring Dolby Atmos, 5.1 surround and high-resolution stereo mixes of each album.
The Doors – Immersed 1967-1971 will be available exclusively at TheDoors.com and Rhino.com.
In addition, on Oct. 17 Rhino will release The Doors’ Greatest Hits as part of their Rhino Reserves premium vinyl series, cut from the original analog masters and pressed on 180-gram vinyl.
The Doors, formed in California in 1965, have been celebrating their 60th anniversary all year with new reissues, an anthology book and more. Guitarist Robby Krieger is celebrating with a special show on Oct. 30 at LA’s Greek Theatre, where he’ll be performing the Morrison Hotel album, plus other Doors hits.
U2 gave away their new album Songs of Innocence, with the record automatically appearing in the music libraries of some 500 million iTunes users.
The album, the 13th studio release from the Irish rockers, included the lead single “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone),” which was featured in a TV ad for Apple. Other singles included “Every Breaking Wave” and “Song for Someone.”
But not everyone wanted Songs of Innocence. In fact, angry Apple customers compared the unwanted album to “spam” or “junk mail,” and Apple was forced to create a way for users to delete it from their accounts.
Bono later apologized, taking “full responsibility” for the stunt.
The music of Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles band Wings is being explored in a new collection.
Simply titled Wings, the anthology, personally overseen by McCartney, will be released digitally and as a three-LP or two-CD set. It features remastered versions of such Wings classics as “Band on the Run,” “Live and Let Die,” “Jet,” “Silly Love Songs,” “Let ‘Em In” and more.
There will also be a three-LP, limited edition color vinyl version; a Blu-ray that will feature the first ever Dolby Atmos mixes of the songs; a one-LP and a one-CD version.
In addition to the music, the physical releases will feature a 32-page booklet with trivia, photos and paintings, as well as original artwork created by Humphrey Ocean, the artist in residence for Wings’ 1976 tour. There are also extensive notes on the artwork, written by Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell of Hipgnosis, the design studio responsible for the covers of seven Wings albums.
The anthology will come out just days after McCartney releases a new book about his Wings era: Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run will be released Nov. 4.
The Zombies’ ‘Odessey and Oracle’/Beechwood Park Records
The Zombies are set to reissue their iconic sophomore album, Odessey and Oracle,on Sept. 26, and members of the band will celebrate the release with some special events in England.
Frontman Colin Blunstone and bassist/co-songwriter Chris White are set to appear at two events: an acoustic performance and Q&A on Sept. 25 at EartH Theatre in London, and a listening party and Q&A at Pioneer Club in the band’s hometown of St. Albans.
After Odessey and Oracle was recorded in 1967,the album was remixed in a then-new stereo format. According to a press release, that “sacrificed key elements from the mono recording.” The new reissue will be in mono, with the band noting in an Instagram post that it allows fans a chance to “experience the album the way it was intended to be heard and seen: raw, rich and timeless.”
Released in April 1968, Odessey and Oracle was not a commercial success when it came out. In fact, The Zombies has already broken up by the time the album was released. But the album’s third single, “Time of the Season,” became a hit in the U.S. almost a year later, peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. It went on to become an iconic song for the band.
CheapTrick’s Rick Nielsen and Daxx Nielsen, Toto’s Steve Porcaro and The Go-Go’s Jane Wiedlin are among the artists taking part in the upcoming Freezing Man concerts, raising support for epilepsy research and education.
The concerts, put on by the nonprofit Joey’s Song, will take place Jan. 9 and 10 at The Sylvee in Madison, Wisconsin, and will feature all-star collaborations from over 35 artists.
Other artists on this year’s bill include The Bangles‘ Vicki Peterson and Debbi Peterson, Garbage’s Butch Vig and Duke Erikson, and members of such bands as Silversun Pickups, Belly, Letters To Cleo, Portugal. The Man and Eve 6.
Freezing Man will consist of two different shows, an unplugged night on Jan. 9 and an electric show on Jan. 10, with Vig acting as musical director and his covers group The Know-It-All Boyfriends acting as the house band.
Tickets for the shows go on sale Friday at JoeysSong.org.
The organization Joey’s Song was founded 15 years ago in memory of a young boy named Joey Gomoll (Gum-ahl), who passed away before turning 5 after a battle with a severe form of epilepsy. Previous benefit concerts have raised more than $1.5 million for epilepsy research and education.
Cover of Duff McKagan’s ‘Lighthouse: Live in London’/(Earmusic)
Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan is giving fans at home a taste of his live show. The rocker is set to drop Lighthouse: Live From London, a new live album and concert film highlighting a show from his Lighthouse Tour ’24, on Oct. 31.
The concert is a recording of McKagan’s Oct. 25, 2024, concert at London’s Islington Assembly Hall and features performances of songs from his third solo album, 2023’s Lighthouse, including the track “Longfeather,” which is out now.
The album also features other songs from McKagan’s career, a performance of the Guns track “You’re So Crazy” and several covers. There’s also an appearance by Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones on covers of David Bowie’s “Heroes” and Johnny Thunder’s “Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory.”
Lighthouse: Live From London will be released digitally, and on CD and as a CD+Blu-ray set that includes the complete Live From London concert film. It will also be released as a two-LP black vinyl set that comes with a replica concert ticket signed by McKagan.
McKagan and his Guns N’ Roses bandmates are getting ready to hit the road again. They kick off a fall Latin American tour on Oct. 1 in San Jose, Costa Rica.
