Rock
Chad Stuart of ’60s Folk-Pop Duo Chad & Jeremy Dies at 79
The song became a No. 37 hit in their home country, but was more successful on U.S. shores, where it peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100, as part of a growing wave of popular post-Beatles U.K. acts collectively known as the British Invasion. The group would score two more Stateside hits off their eventual 1964, also titled Yesterday’s Gone: “A Summer Song” (No. 7) and “Willow Weep For Me” (No. 15). The former, a wistful, string-laden and impossibly lovely goodbye ballad, would endure as a signature hit for the duo. It received contemporaneous covers from successful ’60s acts The Lettermen and Skeeter Davis., and later appeared in movies as far-reaching as Wes Anderson indie favorite Rushmore, Anne Hathaway teen fantasy The Princess D...
U2’s Bono and The Edge Perform “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” On Irish TV: Watch
During a normal Christmas season, Glen Hansard and a gaggle of other Irish musicians would busk in the street to raise money for Ireland’s homeless population. This year, in order to abide by social distancing guidelines, the fundraiser was turned into an indoor livestream affair, and U2‘s Bono and The Edge showed up to keep the Christmas spirit intact. The duo performed a beautiful acoustic rendition of the Darlene Love staple “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” on Ireland’s Late Late Show. The U2 bandmates were joined on stage by Hansard, Philip Powell, violinist Vivienne Long and the Heyday Choir (via the IIrish Times). U2 released a recorded version of the cover way back in 1987, but seeing it performed in front of shimmering lights and ornate Christmas trees gives it a...
Paul McCartney Again Questions Whether The Beatles Would’ve Reunited If John Lennon Had Lived
This isn’t the first time McCartney has discussed whether The Beatles would’ve performed together again after splitting in 1969. In 2012, the legendary songwriter told Rolling Stone that “there was talk of re-forming The Beatles a couple of times but “it didn’t jell, there was not enough passion behind the idea.” Lennon was murdered by Mark David Chapman in 1980, followed by George Harrison‘s death from cancer in 2001. Ringo Starr and McCartney are the only surviving members of The Beatles. During his CBS Sunday Morning interview, McCartney also discussed self-recording his new solo album, McCartney III, in isolation at his Sussex studio earlier this year. “It’s not like working with the band, because I know what I want to hear, and I d...
Barack Obama Reveals His Favorite Songs of 2020: Megan Thee Stallion, Dua Lipa, Bad Bunny & More
Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage” remix featuring Beyoncé, Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” featuring DaBaby and Lil Baby’s “The Bigger Picture” were among the tracks to make the list, which was rounded out by selections like Bruce Springsteen’s “Ghosts,” Bob Dylan’s “Goodbye Jimmy Reed” and Bad Bunny’s “La Difícil.” Travis Scott’s “Franchise” featuring Young Thug and M.I.A., Mac Miller’s “Blue World,” H.E.R.’s “Damage,” Phoebe Bridgers’ “Kyoto,” Chris Stapleton’s “Starting Over” and Jeff Tweedy’s “Love Is the King” all made appearances on the 30-song collection. In addition...
Van Morrison & Eric Clapton Are Anti-Lockdown in New Song, ‘Stand & Deliver’
“Stand And Deliver” follows a few other anti-lockdown protest tracks from Morrison, including “Born to Be Free” and the more directly titled “No More Lockdown.” Proceeds from “Stand and Deliver” will benefit Morrison’s Lockdown Financial Hardship Fund, which aims to assist musicians who are struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic, Variety reports. Listen to “Stand And Deliver” below. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet revenue.
The Bird and the Bee Cover “Little Drummer Boy” with Medium Drummer Man Dave Grohl: Stream
Over eight crazy nights, Dave Grohl and his pal Greg Kurstin performed eight covers of Jewish musicians in celebration of Hanukkah. With the Festival of Lights concluding on Thursday, Grohl and Kurstin turned their attention to Christmas and linked up with Kurstin’s The Bird and the Bee bandmate Inara George for a cover of “Little Drummer Boy” on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “The Little Drummer Boy” was composed by the music teacher Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. Apart from the melody, the song is instantly recognizable for the rat-a-tat-tat rhythm played by the titular little drummer boy. But medium-sized drummer man Dave Grohl had other ideas. He kicked off the song with a flourish before settling into a driving rock and roll groove, riding the cymbals and keeping the bass drum thumping. Kurst...
Paul McCartney Talks New Album, Spotify and Kanye West
Good things, they say. So, when McCartney and his team announced some months ago that the LP would was delayed by a week due to “unforeseeable production delays,” well, no biggie. McCartney zoomed in to The Tonight Show on Thursday night (Dec. 17) for a chat with Jimmy Fallon about life during lockdown, making music and much more. The new album was self-produced in isolation, a process that was as organic as the neighboring farms in east Sussex. “I just was in lockdown, I had some time on my hands and so I started finishing up bits of songs and stuff, thinking this is just for my own fun,” he recounted. “Suddenly I had about 11 of them. It was ‘oh, this should probably be an album.’” Despite having no formal training, McCartney played every instrument on the LP, which he demoed...
What Does ‘Alternative’ Mean in 2020?
Laura Ohls, senior editor, folk and AAA, Spotify: I’ve always thought of “alternative” as referring to any artist creating music that challenges what’s being popularized in the mainstream, across all genres. In the ’90s, rock music was still very much at the core of popular music culture, and as a result, “alternative” [was more] guitar-driven in sound. Fast forward to 2020, where hip-hop, pop and Latin are the titans of genre, and you’ll find that the class of artists defying what’s expected are doing so within these genre spaces. As a result, there is an amalgamation of genres that make up modern “alternative” sounds. We launched our Alternative Hub earlier this year in order to unite all of our alternative programming into one dedicated space. The idea was to have a destination that enc...
David Bowie’s Unreleased Covers of John Lennon and Bob Dylan Will Finally Be Unearthed for 74th Birthday
Even beyond the grave, David Bowie continues to gift us new music. On January 8th, what would have been his 74th birthday, two previously unreleased covers will be made available to the public for the very first time. The first is Bowie’s take on “Mother”, the 1970 track from John Lennon. This cover was originally recorded in 1998 with the Thin White Duke’s longtime producer Tony Visconti. It was supposed to appear on a Lennon tribute collection, but the release never came to fruition. Meanwhile, the second offering is a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Tryin’ to Get to Heaven”, taken from his 1997 Grammy-winning album Time Out of Mind. Bowie also recorded his reimagining in 1998 while working on his live album LiveAndWell.com that came out the following year. Editors’ Picks The new Bowie cover...
The White Stripes’ ‘Greatest Hits’ Goes Top 10 on Album Sales Chart
The White Stripes previously visited the top 10 on Top Album Sales with Icky Thump (No. 2, 2007), Get Behind Me Satan (No. 3, 2005) and Elephant (No. 6, 2003). The Greatest Hits sold particularly well at independent record stores, as the album debuts at No. 1 on the Tastemakers Albums chart, with 6,000 sold via indie retailers. (Tastemakers ranks the top-selling albums of the week at indie stores.) Additionally, the set bows at No. 2 on the Vinyl Albums chart, with 13,000 sold via vinyl LP (64% of the album’s overall first week sales). Meanwhile, Shawn Mendes’ Wonder bows at No. 1 on Top Album Sales with 54,000 copies sold — which aids its No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200. Carrie Underwood’s holiday album My Gift is steady at No. 2 on the Top Album Sales chart with 33,000 sold (up 18...
The 25 Best Rock Songs of 2020: Staff Picks
Few of the shoegaze revivalists of recent years carry the instrumental brawn of Philly-based Reprise Records quartet Nothing, whose crushing gauzefests owe as much to cloud-pop industrialists HEALTH and alt-metal deep divers the Deftones as to Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine. “Say Less” is maybe their most propulsive single to date, particularly as they take the track’s advice on the late song’s instrumental break, for what might qualify as the first true beat drop in dream-pop history. — A.U. 22. Porridge Radio, “7 Seconds” This banger sounds like CRISPR technology was used to splice together DNA from Gang of Four and The Go-Gos to create a song as dark as it is danceable. Frontwoman Dana Margolin has said “7 Seconds” is about “the end of so...
What’s Your Favorite Rock Album of 2020? Vote!
Billboard picked out our 25 best rock albums of 2020, but we want to know: Which rock album from this year was your favorite? Haim‘s Women in Music Pt. III tackles romance, depression and sexism in the music industry and was our top pick; their third studio set scored a major Grammy nod for album of the year. Machine Gun Kelly tackles a new pop-punk sound (with the help of Travis Barker) for our No. 2 pick and his first Billboard 200 No. 1 album Tickets to My Downfall. And even though fans couldn’t see rock legends performing in arenas this year, it didn’t stop Ozzy Osbourne, The Strokes, The Killers and more from releasing new albums that made fans even more grateful for them. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you...
