Classic Rock News

Members of The Police, Queen and The Rolling Stones were among the honorees today at the 2021 BMI London Awards, given out annually by the music-rights management and licensing company BMI.

Part of the ceremony was dedicated to the presentation of the Million-Air Awards, which recognize the songwriters of iconic songs that have been broadcast on TV and radio more than a million times in the U.S.

At the top of this list is Sting for writing The Police’s “Every Breath You Take,” which was honored for amassing 16 million performances.  That makes it the most-played song of all the tunes for which BMI administers the rights.

The honorees in the eight-million-plays category were the writers of Queen‘s “Another Bites the Dust” and “We Will Rock You,” composed, respectively, by John Deacon and Brian May; The Rolling Stones‘ “Honky Tonk Women,” penned by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards; and Steve Winwoood‘s “Higher Love,” which Winwood co-wrote with Will Jennings.

The songwriters recognized for tunes with seven million performances were Elton John for “Bennie and the Jets” and his Kiki Dee duet “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”; Gerry Rafferty for “Baker Street; Sting for The Police’s “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” and his contribution to Dire Straits‘ “Money for Nothing”; Paul McCartney for “Live and Let Die”; Freddie Mercury for Queen’s “We Are the Champions”; and ex-Whitesnake guitarist Bernie Marsden for co-writing his old band’s hit “Here I Go Again.”

As for the six-million-play honorees, they included Elton for “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues,” and former Yes members Trevor Rabin and Jon Anderson for “Owner of a Lonely Heart.”

To check out a full list of BMI London Awards winner, visit BMI.com.

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Carlos Santana has released a fourth advance track from his upcoming studio album, Blessings and Miracles, a genre-blending song titled “Joy” that features the guitar legend collaborating with Grammy-winning country star Chris Stapleton.

“Joy,” which was co-written, produced and sung by Stapleton, combines elements of reggae, rock, country, blues and gospel music.

“I was very intrigued to work with Chris,” Carlos says. “We talked on the phone about the Covid situation and how there’s so much fear in the world, and I said, ‘We need to create music as a healing force. We must bring hope and courage and disinfect twisted minds infected with darkness.’ That gave him the ammunition to write such incredible words.”

He adds, “Somewhere I said, ‘flying on the wings of angels,’ so it’s a collaboration. And what an incredible song it is. The choir in it — it’s like the Staple Singers.”

“Joy” is available now via digital formats, and you also can check out a colorful, animated lyric video for the tune at Santana’s official YouTube channel. The clip brings images from the Blessings and Miracles cover art to life.

Blessings and Miracles, which can be pre-ordered now, will be released this Friday, October 15.

As previously reported, the album features Carlos and his band teaming up with an eclectic variety of guest musicians. The three other tracks that already have been released from the record are a cover of the Procol Harum classic “A Whiter Shade of Pale” featuring Steve Winwood; the new Rob Thomas collaboration, “Move“; and “She’s Fire,” song written by acclaimed songwriter Diane Warren that also features singer-rapper G-Eazy.

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Bryan Adams has released the title track and video for his brand-new album, So Happy It Hurts, due out next year.

Bryan says in a statement, “The title song…is about freedom, autonomy, spontaneity, and the thrill of the open road. The album of the same name, touches on many of the ephemeral things in life that are really the secret to happiness — most importantly, human connection.”

Bryan says those themes were inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic.  “The pandemic and lockdown really brought home the truth that spontaneity can be taken away,” he explains. “Suddenly all touring stopped, no one could jump in the car and go.”

In the video for “So Happy It Hurts,” an upbeat rocker about the joys of hitting the road, Bryan does just that, driving a convertible with, variously, his real-life mother, a dog, a group of young girls dressed for a dance recital, a couple of women twerking, headbanging guitarists and a drummer, drag queens, a bodybuilder, and a dancing woman wearing a sari.

Bryan will no doubt perform some songs from the new album at a new residency he’s kicking off at the Encore Theater at the Wynn Las Vegas starting on November 10. Those dates run through November 20.

So Happy It Hurts will be available digitally, as well as a deluxe CD, and a limited edition box set that includes a hardbound book, the album on vinyl and an autographed photo. You can pre-order the album now.

So Happy It Hurts is scheduled for release March 11, 2022.

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Ozzy Osbourne has been dealing with a variety of health ailments over the past few years, but luckily, COVID-19 isn’t one of the them. In an interview with Metal Hammer, the Black Sabbath frontman hypothesizes that being the Prince of Darkness may have helped him in that regard.

“My wife had the virus; my daughter had the virus and I never got it,” Osbourne says. “Being a devil worshipper does have its good points!”

It’s unclear whether whether Ozzy meant his daughter Kelly or Aimee contracted COVID-19. His wife, Sharon, of course, was briefly hospitalized with the virus late last year, and has since recovered. Two of Ozzy and Sharon’s granddaughters also tested positive.

In addition to his connection with Satan, Ozzy also got the COVID-19 vaccine earlier this year.

As for Osbourne’s other health issues, the 72-year-old tells Metal Hammer he’s “in for more surgery” for his neck, which he injured in 2019 after suffering a fall in his home. He also had a bad case of pneumonia in 2019, as well, and revealed in 2020 that he’d been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

That hasn’t stopped him from making music, though — Ozzy’s next solo album, the follow-up to 2020’s Ordinary Man, is a “work in progress,” he says.

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A veritable menagerie of well-known musicians have lent their talents to a new tribute to Pink Floyd‘s classic 1977 concept album Animals that will be released November 19 on CD and digital formats.

Animals Reimagined: A Tribute to Pink Floyd includes contributions from former Yes keyboardists Rick Wakeman and Patrick Moraz, current Yes singer Jon Davison and bassist Billy Sherwood, longtime Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre, ex-Blue Öyster Cult bassist Joe Bouchard, and many others.

The album, which can be pre-ordered on CD and digitally now, also will be issued as a vinyl LP in 2022.

Among the other artists featured on the tribute project are theatrical psych-rock legend Arthur Brown, Vanilla Fudge/Cactus drummer Carmine Appice, Cutting Crew frontman Nick Van Eede, former Rainbow singer Graham Bonnett, UFO guitarist Vinnie Moore, Utopia bassist Kasim Sulton, Dream Theater frontman James La Brie and keyboardist Jordan Rudess, King Crimson drummer Pat Mastelotto, jazz-rock guitar great Al Di Meola, and Bauhaus‘ David J.

In advance of the album, a cover of the track “Dogs” recorded by Bonnett, Moore, Sulton, Rudess and Mastelotto has been released as a digital single.

Pink Floyd’s Animals was released in January 1977 and peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200. It has gone on to sell more than four million copies in the U.S. The album, which was written mostly by singer/bassist Roger Waters, featured lyrics that compares the classes of human society with three animals — pigs, dogs and sheep.

Animals Reimagined follows a similar star-studded project released in May that paid tribute to Pink Floyd’s 1975 Wish You Were Here album.

Here’s the Animals Reimagined: A Tribute to Pink Floyd track list, along with the musicians featured on each song and the groups they’re associated with:

“Pigs on the Wing 1” — Nick van Eede (Cutting Crew), Martin Barre (Jethro Tull)
“Dogs” — Graham Bonnet (Rainbow), Vinnie Moore (UFO), Kasim Sulton (Utopia), Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater), Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson)
“Pigs (Three Different Ones)” — James LaBrie (Dream Theater), Al Di Meola, Joe Bouchard (Blue Öyster Cult), Patrick Moraz (The Moody Blues/Yes), Billy Cobham (Mahavishnu Orchestra)
“Sheep” — Arthur Brown, Rick Wakeman (Yes), Jan Akkerman (Focus), David J. (Bauhaus/Love & Rockets), Carmine Appice (Cactus/Vanilla Fudge)
“Pigs on the Wing 2” — Jon Davison (Yes), Albert Lee, Billy Sherwood (Yes)

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It’s been over 50 years since Paul McCartney announced that The Beatles were going their separate ways. While fans still speculate who initiated the breakup, Sir Paul has again set the record straight.

“I didn’t instigate the split. That was our Johnny,” McCartney, 79, said regarding the late John Lennon when talking to BBC Radio 4’s This Cultural Life.  The Guardian obtained an advanced copy of the special, which is scheduled to air October 23.

McCartney recalled, “John walked into a room one day and said, ‘I am leaving The Beatles.'”

Paul said that announcement led to “the most difficult period” of his life. He and his band mates Ringo Starr and George Harrison were “left to pick up the pieces” by being forced to keep Lennon’s exit a secret.

“So for a few months we had to pretend. It was weird because we all knew it was the end of The Beatles but we couldn’t just walk away,” Sir Paul reflected.

The pressure eventually got the best of McCartney. He said he became “fed up of hiding it” and admittedly “let the cat out of the bag” when promoting his eponymous debut solo album on April 10, 1970.

McCartney also reflected on the infamous lawsuit he brought against his band mates, saying it was because he didn’t want to be controlled by manager Allen Klein.

“I had to fight, and the only way I could fight was in suing the other Beatles,” he remarked. “They thanked me for it years later.”

McCartney also thinks that, had Lennon stayed, The Beatles “could have” survived for longer. “This was my band, this was my job, this was my life, so I wanted it to continue,” he said.

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With the holiday season approaching, Blondie has released a new three-track EP featuring a rare 1981 Christmas tune called “Yuletide Throwdown” that the band recorded with hip-hop legend “Fab 5 Freddy” Brathwaite, as well as a new remix of the song created by DJ/producer Cut Chemist.

“Yuletide Throwdown” originally was released on a flexi-disc given away by U.K. magazine Flexipop, and was co-written with and co-produced by Fab 5 Freddy. The song features Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry and Freddy rapping Christmas-themed lyrics over what actually is the original music for the band’s chart-topping 1981 smash “Rapture.”

The Yuletide Throwdown EP is available now digitally and via streaming services, while a limited-edition 12-inch vinyl version will be released on November 5, pressed on either black or magenta-colored vinyl.

“Yuletide Throwdown” recently was rediscovered while Blondie was going through its personal archives in preparation for a new box set that will be released in August 2022.

“It has been an impossible amount of time since I believed in Santa Claus, but I could very well believe again if he was Freddy Brathwaite!!” says Harry in a statement. “Some of my best times have been making music with [Blondie guitarist/songwriter] Chris Stein and Freddy B.”

Adds Stein, “Freddy has done as much as any multi-platinum selling Hip-Hop star to promote rap culture.”

Meanwhile, Fab 5 Freddy notes, “In the beginning of my journey into pop culture, Chris & Debbie were among the first to take me and my ideas about hip hop culture seriously and were like mentors to me shining a light along the road and assisting my quest. I’m happy after all this time the world can now hear this fun holiday tune we did way back then!”

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Founding Romantics guitarist Mike Skill has just released his debut solo album, Skill…Mike Skill, which is available now via digital formats, with a vinyl version due out later in 2021.

The 12-track collection features Mike’s recently issued version of The Romantics’ 1980 power-pop classic “What I Like About You,” as well as several other songs he released as digital singles over the last few years and some new tunes recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Skill, who has co-written all of his band’s best-known songs, tells ABC Audio that one of the reasons he decided to put together the solo album was that The Romantics weren’t enthusiastic about working on new music during the pandemic.

“So I’m just kind of living in Mike Skill world, and…showing [what] my sound…is, and my voice and my name,” he explains.

One of the album’s tracks, “’67 Riot,” which was first released as a single, features contributions by one of Mike’s guitar heroes, The MC5‘s Wayne Kramer.

Skill says he was initially hesitant to ask Kramer to play on the song, but after Wayne heard it, “he loved it, loved the lyrics, he loved the whole attitude,” noting that the tune “had that throwback sound to late-’60s, ’70s kind of Detroit sound, that…high-energy rock.”

Skill worked on a number of the tracks with longtime Romantics drummer Brad Elvis, while Brad’s wife, singer/musician Chloe F. Orwell, also contributed her talents to some tunes.

Mike says Chloe wrote the lyrics for “Carrie Got Married,” a power-pop anthem that was penned as a sequel to the 1980 Romantics song “Tell It to Carrie.”  Chloe also sang and played sax on the soul-flavored track “So Soul Alone.”

For more about the album, visit MikeSkill.com.

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On the eve of what would’ve been the late John Lennon‘s 81st birthday comes word that “Imagine,” the classic peace anthem Lennon co-wrote with wife Yoko Ono, has been certified triple Platinum by the RIAA for sales of three million units in the U.S.

“We are thrilled to present this award to Yoko for John & Yoko Ono Lennon’s ‘Imagine,'” says Universal Music Enterprises president Bruce Resnikoff. “‘Imagine’ remains a timeless global anthem, and John & Yoko’s message of peace is just as relevant today as when it was first written.”

Ono recently said of the inspiration for “Imagine,” “John and I were both artists and we were living together, so we inspired each other. The song ‘Imagine’ embodied what we believed together at the time. John and I met — he comes from the West and I come from the East — and still we are together. We have this oneness and ‘the whole world would eventually become one’ is the sense that we will all be very happy together.”

“Imagine” and the album of the same name on which it appears were released 50 years ago this past September 9.

As has become an annual tradition to mark Lennon’s birthday on Saturday, the Imagine Peace Tower, the memorial art piece Ono conceived as a tribute to her late husband in Reykjavík, Iceland, will be illuminated at 4 p.m. ET, and will remain lit until December 8, the anniversary of John’s death. You can check out a livestream of the tower at ImaginePeaceTower.com.

Coinciding with the lighting of the tower, a special edition of Tim’s Twitter Listening Party, hosted by U.K. radio host and musician Tim Burgess, will be held at 4 p.m. ET. The show will present the recent “Ultimate Mixes” version of the Imagine album.

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Sammy Hagar‘s 2021 edition of his annual Birthday Bash is taking place this week, featuring three special performances by the Red Rocker and his band The Circle at the Catalina Casino on California’s Catalina Island.

The festivities began Thursday with a sold-out a VIP event that featured a hybrid acoustic/electric performance, as well as a segment where Sammy and the band — bassist Michael Anthony, drummer Jason Bonham and guitarist Vic Johnson — shared stories and took questions from the audience.

The show featured a 10-song set that included covers of Led Zeppelin‘s “When the Levee Breaks” and Depeche Mode‘s “Personal Jesus,” as well as versions of Montrose‘s “Bad Motor Scooter,” Chickenfoot‘s “Sexy Little Thing” and Van Halen‘s “Right Now,” “Humans Being,” “Mine All Mine” and “Finish What Ya Started.”

The bash continues tonight and Saturday with full-length rock shows. For those who can’t make it out to the concerts, Saturday’s event will be available for streaming via nugs.net. Visit nugs.net/SammyHagar for more details.

Fans attending the Catalina Island shows will be required to show proof that they’re fully vaccinated for COVID-19.

During the COVID-19 pandemic last year, Hagar was unable to hold his birthday bash at its usual location — his Cabo Wabo Cantina in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Instead, Sammy and The Circle played a socially distanced concert on October 8 on Catalina Island. With the pandemic still an issue in Cabo San Lucas, Hagar decided to bring the bash back to Catalina this year.

Hagar’s actual birthday is October 13. He’ll be 74.

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