Classic Rock News

Queen‘s Greatest Hits may have been released 1981, but the 40-year-old compilation was still among the best-selling albums in the U.S. for the first half of 2021.

According to music-sales info provider MRC Data, Queen’s Greatest Hits landed at #7 on the Top Physical Albums tally, charting total combined vinyl and CD sales.

The compilation also landed at #9 on the Top Vinyl Albums list, one spot ahead of a record by another veteran rock artist, Fleetwood Mac‘s Rumours.

Queen’s Greatest Hits also was #2 on the Top Rock Albums list, which is compiled using combined traditional album sales, individual track downloads and on-demand streams. Further down on the tally were Rumours at #3, Elton John‘s Diamonds compilation at #4 and Creedence Clearwater Revival‘s Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits at #5.

In terms of just pure album sales, Foo Fighters‘ latest album, Medicine at Midnight, takes the cake for rock. Among all genres, Medicine is the ninth-best-selling album so far this year.

Looking at individual tunes, Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” was #3 on Top Rock Songs chart, which is ranked by combining digital song sales and on-demand streams.

As for the Top Radio Songs list, which is ranked by “audience impressions across all monitored formats of radio,” Journey‘s classic anthem “Don’t Stop Believin'” was #5.

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R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe and Iggy Pop have contributed a track to a compilation paying tribute to The Velvet Underground and Nico‘s legendary 1967 self-titled debut album.

The record, titled I’ll Be Your Mirror, will be released September 24, and features new versions of The Velvet Underground & Nico‘s 11 songs recorded by various artists. Stipe’s contribution is a rendition of the album’s lead track, “Sunday Morning,” while Pop teamed up with former Zwan and Chavez member Matt Sweeney on a cover of the record’s last song, “European Son.”

I’ll Be Your Mirror is available for pre-order now. In advance of the album’s arrival, you can listen to indie-rocker Kurt Vile‘s version of “Run Run Run” now via digital outlets.

The Velvet Underground & Nico was initially a flop, but later came to be considered one of the best records of all time, as well as a massive influence on the what would become punk rock and alternative rock. Even if you’ve never actually heard the album by the Lou Reed-fronted band, you’d surely know it by its iconic Andy Warhol-designed cover artwork, featuring a partially peeled banana on a white background.

Other artists featured on I’ll Be Your Mirror include Sonic Youth‘s Thurston Moore, Primal Scream‘s Bobby Gillespie, St. Vincent, Courtney Barnett and  The National‘s Matt Berninger.

Here’s the full track list:

“Sunday Morning” — Michael Stipe
“I’m Waiting for the Man” — Matt Berninger
“Femme Fatale” — Sharon Van Etten
“Venus in Furs” — Andrew Bird & Lucius
“Run Run Run” — Kurt Vile
“All Tomorrow’s Parties” — St. Vincent & Thomas Bartlett
“Heroin” — Thurston Moore feat. Bobby Gillespie
“There She Goes Again” — King Princess
“I’ll Be Your Mirror” — Courtney Barnett
“The Black Angel’s Death Song” — Fontaines D.C.
“European Son” — Iggy Pop & Matt Sweeney

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Like Jon Snow before them, Foo Fighters are headed up north.

Dave Grohl and company have announced their first-ever concerts in Alaska. The shows will take place August 17 and 19 in Anchorage, and August 21 in Fairbanks.

Tickets go on sale today at noon local time via FooFighters.com.

The Alaska dates will come at the end of the Foos’ upcoming 26th anniversary tour, which was rescheduled from their planned 25th anniversary tour for 2020. Last month, the band headlined New York City’s Madison Square Garden, marking the famed arena’s first full-capacity in-person concert since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

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Ex-Creedence Clearwater Revival drummer Doug “Cosmo” Clifford has debuted the title track from an upcoming album of previously unreleased archival recordings called For All the Money in the World that he made in 1986 with late Greg Kihn Band bassist Steve Wright.

The upbeat pop-rock song got its premiere Tuesday on The Aquarian Weekly‘s official website and is available now as a digital download and via streaming services.

The For All the Money in the World album is the first in a series of archival project Clifford is planning to release via his new CliffSongs Records label under the Cosmo’s Vaults moniker.  It features 11 tracks co-written by Clifford and Wright, and boasts contributions from a variety of guest musicians, including guitar wizard Joe Satriani, as well as keyboardist Pat Mosca and guitarists Jimmy Lyon and Greg Douglass, all of whom played with The Greg Kihn Band back in the day. Lead vocals were handled by a singer named Keith England.

Speaking to The Aquarian Weekly about the newly released single, Clifford notes, “‘For All the Money in the World’ has a very nice uptempo groove and it’s a love song, as well.”

Regarding the album in general, Doug says, “It’s a rock ‘n’ roll album, that’s for sure, but it covers many different [rock] genres.”

Wright, who died in 2017, co-wrote many Greg Kihn Band songs, including their two biggest hits — “The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ‘Em)” and “Jeopardy.” He and Clifford both grew up in the same California town, El Cerrito, and had known each other since they were young, before finally collaborating together during the ’80s.

For All the Money in the World will be released on August 27.  You can pre-order it now.

Here’s the album’s track list:

“For All the Money in the World”
“I Need Your Love”
“She Told Me So”
“Lost Pride Fever”
“I See Your Silhouette”
“Real Love”
“You Keep Runnin’ Away”
“Just in the Nick of Time”
“Weekends”
“Lonesome Boy”
“You’re Gonna Love Again”

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Metallica has announced a pair of concerts to celebrate the band’s 40th anniversary this year.

The shows will take place December 17 and 19 at the Chase Center in the metal legends’ hometown of San Francisco. The venue was also the site of ‘Tallica’s 2019 S&M2 concerts, which were accompanied by the San Francisco Symphony.

Tickets will be available exclusively for members of Metallica’s Fifth Member fan club. If you are a member, you’ll be able to enter a raffle to win a reservation code to purchase tickets, which will be sent out randomly.

If you happen to be in the S.F. area but couldn’t secure tickets to the big shows, Metallica will also hosting a series of live music and comedy events, as well as tastings for their Blackened Whiskey, throughout the city starting December 16.

For more info, visit Metallica.com.

Metallica was formed in 1981 when James Hetfield met Lars Ulrich after the drummer posted a newspaper ad looking to start a band.

Meanwhile, Metallica will also celebrate another big milestone when their 1991 self-titled record, aka The Black Album, turns 30 in August. That anniversary will be celebrated with a remastered deluxe reissue, as well as a 53-track tribute compilation dubbed The Metallica Blacklist.

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Andy Summers recently announced that he’ll be publishing his first book of short stories, Fretted and Moaning, in August.  The Police guitarist has now revealed that he’ll also be releasing a new solo album in the coming months.

Summers tells ABC Audio that the album is a collection of “beautiful” instrumentals called Harmonics of the Night that he’s planning to release in October.

“[A]ctually, I’ve had this around for a while,” the 78-year-old Rock & Hall of Famer notes. “I made this record actually about 18 months ago. Everything got so crazy [because of the pandemic], we couldn’t get it out. Anyway, I’ve got a lot of help now, so it is coming out.”

In addition, Summers says he will be doing “a big photography show,” also called “Harmonics of the Night,” at the Leica Gallery in London.

“[T]he idea is that [all] the pictures in the show…sort of reflect the album,” he explains. “So, everything is going along nicely together…So, you know, lots of energy there.”

Back in 2019, Summers did a multimedia show called “A Certain Strangeness” that featured him playing guitar to accompany a presentation of photos he took that appeared in his 2019 photography book of the same name.

Andy tells ABC Audio that he’d like to do more shows like that once he’s able to tour again.

“That show [was] just me on stage…with my sophisticated guitar equipment that makes all sorts of amazing sounds,” he points out. “And we project on a…full-sized cinema screen…various photographic sequences. It’s all very exotic and lovely.” 

As previously reported, Fretted and Moaning will be released on August 19. You can pre-order three different editions of the book now at Rocket88Books.com and AndySummersBook.com.

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Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who, a 2007 documentary that takes a career-spanning look at the legendary British band, is available to stream for the first time via Amazon Prime’s music-themed streaming service The Coda Collection.

The film features in-depth interviews with The Who‘s surviving original members — singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist/songwriter Pete Townshend — as well as rare footage, live performance clips and segments examining various facets of the band’s music and history.

Amazing Journey, which was directed by Murray Lerner and Paul Crowder, also includes interviews with some of The Who’s famous musical friends and fans, among them Sting, U2‘s The Edge, Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder, Oasis‘ Noel Gallagher, and Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols.

The doc covers The Who’s connection to the U.K.’s 1960s mod scene, the band’s penchant for destroying their instruments on stage, their landmark 1969 rock opera Tommy, the untimely deaths of drummer Keith Moon and bassist John Entwistle, Daltrey and Townshend’s complex relationship, and the band’s historic 2001 performance at The Concert for New York benefit.

Daltrey says of the documentary, “It’s not easy to capture in film the power and energy of any rock band, especially the four characters that made up The Who, the brilliance of Pete Townshend’s music, and the magic that happened between Pete, John, Keith and myself. But Who fans tell me Amazing Journey does just that.”

A companion film to the doc, Amazing Journey: Six Quick Ones, which features six mini-documentaries offering an extended look at The Who’s four band members, also has premiered as part of The Coda Collection.

The Coda Collection is available to Amazon Prime members for $4.99 a month. A seven-day free trial also is offered.

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Carlos Santana has lent his guitar talents to “She’s Fire,” a track from acclaimed songwriter Diane Warren‘s forthcoming debut studio album, Diane Warren: The Cave Sessions Vol. 1.

The song, which features vocals by hitmaking rapper G-Eazy, is available now as a digital download and via streaming services. In addition, a lyric video for the tune has been posted at Warren’s official YouTube channel.

“It is an honor to co-join with Diane Warren and G-Eazy on ‘She’s Fire,'” Santana says in a statement. “Diane has an incredible gift, vision-awareness-ability to paint a picture to transport the listener to a place of emotion and passion. Her lyrics and arrangements are a part of the world’s musical tapestry and should be forever cherished.”

Adds Warren, “I’m so excited for everyone to hear ‘She’s Fire!!’ To be able to work with Carlos Santana has always been a dream of mine…I expected [the song] to be great, and it turned out even better than I imagined, pure fire.”

As previously reported, The Cave Sessions Vol. 1 is due out this year, and also features guest appearances by Celine Dion, Mary J. Blige, Hootie & the Blowfish‘s Darius Rucker, John Legend and many others.

Warren released another advance track in November 2020 called “Times Like These” that features vocals by Rucker.

Diane’s long list of credits and achievements include nine number-one hits and 32 top-10 singles. Among the hits she’s composed are Aerosmith‘s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” Starship‘s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now,” Cher‘s “If I Could Turn Back Time,” Toni Braxton‘s “Unbreak My Heart,” and LeAnn Rimes‘ “How Do I Live.”

Santana recently told ABC Audio that Warren has written two songs that will appear on his band’s next album, Blessing and Miracles.

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David Byrne’s American Utopia, the Spike Lee-directed TV special presenting former Talking Heads singer David Byrne‘s critically acclaimed Broadway show of the same name, will vie for honors in six categories at the 2021 primetime Emmy Awards.

The program, which premiered on HBO and HBO Max in October 2020, has been nominated for trophies for Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded), Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special, Outstanding Musical Direction, and in three technical categories.

The American Utopia show features Byrne accompanied by 11 musicians, dancers and singers who move freely about an almost-empty stage. The production includes monologues by David connecting performances of songs from his 2018 American Utopia album, as well as Talking Heads songs and several other Byrne solo tunes.

The TV shows receiving the most Emmy nods this year are Netflix’s The Crown and the Disney+ Star Wars series The Mandalorian, which both scored 24 nominations.

You can find the full list of nominees at Emmys.com.

The 73rd Emmys will be held live and in person on Sunday, September 19, airing at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.

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Metallica is spotlighting “The Unforgiven” this week as the celebration of The Black Album‘s upcoming 30th anniversary continues.

The metal legends have unearthed a “Rough Mix” of the Western-themed power ballad, which was released as the second single from The Black Album. The recording is one of many bonus tracks included on the upcoming 30th anniversary Black Album reissue, due out September 10.

Additionally, Metallica has released three covers of “The Unforgiven,” recorded by the artists Ha*Ash, Diet Cig, and Vishal Dadlani, DIVINE and Shor Police. Those will all appear on The Metallica Blacklist, a 53-track tribute to The Black Album, which will also arrive September 10.

In previous weeks, Metallica has focused on the Black Album tracks “Sad but True” and “Holier than Thou.” They’ve also shared an all-star cover of “Nothing Else Matters” featuring Miley Cyrus, Metallica’s Robert Trujillo, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, Elton John, guitarist/producer Andrew Watt and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

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