Certain trends emerge as you explore how rock’s 100 biggest bands got their names. They are often forced into taking the moniker that stuck, for instance, simply because somebody else had already claimed their earlier attempt at a fame-clinching title.
Read More @ Ultimate Classic Rock: How 100 of Rock's Biggest Bands Got Their Names
Following his early-Eighties breakthrough with Wham!, George Michael swiftly transitioned from teenage pretty boy to outspoken pop force. "I think it says something for the power of the music," he told Rolling Stone after the release of his smash 1987 solo debut, Faith, "that I've managed to change the perception of what I do to the degree that I have in this short a time.
Here are 20 of the Michael's best, from Wham!'s breakthrough up through his final U.S. hit.
Read more @ Rolling Stone
Andrew Ridgeley and Sir Elton John have led tributes to pop superstar George Michael, who has died at his home in Oxfordshire aged 53.
Michael’s former Wham! bandmate wrote on Twitter that he was “heartbroken by the loss of my friend” who would be “4ever loved”. John, another friend and collaborator, wrote on Instagram of his “deep shock” at the loss of “the kindest, most generous soul and a brilliant artist”.
Read more @ The Guardian
A Charlie Brown Christmas is a 1965 studio album by American composer/conductor Vince Guaraldi (later credited to the jazz group the Vince Guaraldi Trio). The album was released in December 1965 in the United States by Fantasy Records. It is the soundtrack to the CBS Christmas television special of the same name. Guaraldi was contacted by television producer Lee Mendelson several years prior to compose music for a documentary on the comic strip Peanuts and its creator, Charles M. Schulz. Although the special went unaired, these selections were released in 1964 as Jazz Impressions of "A Boy Named Charlie Brown". Coca-Cola commissioned a Christmas special based on Peanuts in 1965 and Guaraldi returned to score the special.
A Charlie Brown Christmas features several originals ("Christmas Time Is Here", "Linus and Lucy") as well as covers of well-known Christmas songs ("The Christmas Song", "O Tannenbaum"). The score for the special was largely cut at recording sessions at Glendale, California's Whitney Studio. Much of this material was re-recorded by Guaraldi at three sessions later in the year at Fantasy Recording Studios in San Francisco, alongside a choir of children culled from St. Paul's Episcopal Church in nearby San Rafael. The sessions ran late into the night, with the children rewarded with ice cream afterwards. Bassist Fred Marshall and drummer Jerry Granelli have been credited as performing on the album, although a host of musicians claim to have recorded the album.
Released a week prior to the broadcast premiere of the special, A Charlie Brown Christmas sold well, and became increasingly famous in the ensuing decades. It is among the most popular Christmas albums in the United States, where it has been certified Quadruple Platinum, having shipped at least four million copies. As of November 2014, A Charlie Brown Christmas is the tenth best-selling Christmas/holiday album in the United States during the SoundScan era of music sales tracking (March 1991 – present), having sold 3,410,000 copies according to SoundScan.
The Vince Guaraldi Trio's A Charlie Brown Christmas has been voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry list of "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important" sound recordings.
2017 could see the arrival of any number of albums by classic-rock legends, if the list of TBA projects comes to fruition. In the meantime, settle in for a string of confirmed album releases that span the musical spectrum.
Read More of Nick DeRiso's article @ Ultimate Classic Rock: 2017 New Music Releases
Looking for new gift ideas for the classic-rock lover on your shopping list? We’ve got 25 distinctive choices for you, which, depending on your tastes, could be categorized as anything from cool to weird to flat-out strange.
Read More @ Ultimate Classic Rock: $3.99 to $120,000: 25 Cool and Weird Classic Rock Gifts
Ram is a studio album by Paul and Linda McCartney, released in May 1971 on Apple Records. The album was recorded amid Paul McCartney's legal action in the United Kingdom's High Court to dissolve the Beatles' partnership, following their break-up the year before. This is the only album credited to the couple. He and Linda recorded it in New York with guitarists David Spinozza and Hugh McCracken, and future Wings drummer Denny Seiwell. Its release coincided with a period of bitter acrimony between McCartney and his former bandmate John Lennon, who perceived verbal slights in the lyrics to songs such as "Too Many People".
On release, the album was received negatively by most music critics, although opinion has become more favourable in subsequent decades. A commercial success nonetheless, Ram topped the national albums charts in the UK, the Netherlands and Canada. Three singles were issued from Ram: "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey", which became McCartney's first number 1 hit in America, "The Back Seat of My Car" and "Eat at Home". The album was reissued in May 2012.
Arcade Fire’s massive Reflektor will be chronicled in their new Blu-Ray/DVD concert film The Reflektor Tapes due out January 27.
Read more @ jambands.com
Medeski, Martin & Wood will team up with Wilco guitarist Nels Cline in New Orleans on May 4 at the Civic Theatre for a special collaborative night of music during Jazz Fest.
Read more @ jambands.com
Umphrey’s McGee announced that there will not be another UMBowl in 2017, with the four-quarter event taking a hiatus.
Read more @ jambands.com
Rubber Soul is the sixth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 3 December 1965. It was met with a highly favorable critical response and topped record charts in the United Kingdom for several weeks, as well as in the United States, where it was issued with a different selection of tracks.
Produced by George Martin, Rubber Soul incorporates a mix of 1960s pop, soul, and folk music styles. The album's name comes from the term plastic soul, which popular African American soul musicians coined to describe Mick Jagger, a white musician singing soul music. It was the second Beatles album – after the British version of A Hard Day's Night – to contain only original material, and was recorded in just over four weeks to make the Christmas market. Unlike the five albums that preceded it, Rubber Soul was recorded during a continuous period, whereas the group had previously made their albums during breaks between tour dates and other commitments. The project marked the first time that the Beatles focused on creating an album as an artistic work, an approach that they then developed with Revolver (1966) and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967).
Old Crow Medicine Show will release a Best Of compilation on February 10 comprised of twelve of the band’s most memorable songs from their first three albums released via Nettwerk.
Read more @ jambands.com
In a singles-focused period for the music industry, our list of Top 20 Classic Rock Songs of 2016 shows how stars who rose to fame in a different era can still hold their own. Artists like David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Paul Simon and Graham Nash helped define the days when albums were king, yet they still have the ability, all these decades later, to condense it all down into a individual moment of brilliance that leaps from our speakers.
Read More of Nick DeRiso's article @ Ultimate Classic Rock : Top 20 Classic Rock Songs of 2016
Wanee Music Festival will return to the Spirit of the Suwannee in Live Oak, FL with a lineup headlined by Bob Weir and his Campfire Band along with Widespread Panic, Trey Anastasio Band, Gov’t Mule and many others.
Read more @ jambands.com
Dead & Company have announced their tour dates for summer 2017 with a string of shows kicking off in Las Vegas on May 27 and stretching into early July.
Read more @ jambands.com
Dead & Company Tour Dates
May 27 Las Vegas, NV – MGM Grand Arena
May 28 Phoenix, AZ – Ak-Chin Pavilion
May 31 Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Bowl
June 3 Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre
June 4 Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre
June 7 West Valley City, UT – USANA Amphitheatre
June 9 Boulder, CO – Folsom Field
June 10 Boulder, CO – Folsom Field
June 13 Atlanta, GA – Lakewood Amphitheatre
June 15 Burgettstown, PA – KeyBank Pavilion
June 17 Boston, MA – Fenway Park
June 18 Boston, MA – Fenway Park
June 20 Saratoga Springs, NY – SPAC
June 22 Bristow, VA – Jiffy Lube Live
June 24 New York, NY – Citi Field
June 25 Camden, NJ – BB&T Pavilion
June 28 Cuyahoga Falls, OH – Blossom Music Center
June 30 Chicago, IL – Wrigley Field
July 1 Chicago, IL – Wrigley Field
On December 10, Bloodkin will welcome a host of guests at their seventh annual Bloodkin & Friends event in their hometown of Athens, GA, including former Widespread Panic drummer Todd Nance.
Read more @ jambands.com
Presence is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, released by Swan Song Records on 31 March 1976. The album was a commercial success, reaching the top of both the British and American album charts, and achieving a triple-platinum certification in the United States, despite receiving mixed reviews from critics and being the slowest-selling studio album by the band (other than the outtake album Coda).
It was written and recorded during a tumultuous time in the band's history, as singer Robert Plant was recuperating from serious injuries he had sustained the previous year in a car accident. Nevertheless, guitarist Jimmy Page describes Presence as the band's "most important" album, proving they would continue and succeed despite their turmoil.
Wilco will round out their early 2017 touring schedule with a fourth and final stop on their Winter Interlude at the Chicago Theatre, the finale of which will take place February 26.
Read more @ jambands.com
Certain trends emerge as you explore how rock’s 100 biggest bands got their names. They are often forced into taking the moniker that stuck, for instance, simply because somebody else had already claimed their earlier attempt at a fame-clinching title.
Andrew Ridgeley and Sir Elton John have led tributes to pop superstar George Michael, who has died at his home in Oxfordshire aged 53.
Blues Traveler have just released a new Christmas song for a good cause, sharing their version of “Go Tell It on the Mountain” to benefit The Salvation Army.
Stevie Nicks isn’t ending her 24 Karat Gold Tour anytime soon — and she’s keeping the Pretenders out on the road with her.
Classic rock fans can be hard to shop for, mainly because there are always so many old and new releases and repackages floating around. Need proof? Just check out the enormous amount of Record Store Day Black Friday 2016 deals.
Metallica‘s back — and back on top of the charts, too.
