Author: LRussell

Fast Times at Ridgemont High arrived in theaters in 1982 and struck a chord with movie fans, in part because of the characters. Stoner surfer Jeff Spicoli, played by Sean Penn, is just one particular example which helped to make the film relatable to their own high school experiences. Because who didn’t know a “Spicoli” while going to school?

It was a part that Penn took very seriously — something which was to become a trademark element of his work — but at the time Fast Times was released, he only had a couple of prior film credits to his name. “He was in character the whole time,” Cameron Crowe shared in a new interview with the Naked Lunch podcast, which you can watch below. “He never said, ‘Hi, my name is Sean,’ until after the movie had wrapped. He came and visited us in a black leather jacket and introduced himself. I thought it was hilarious, but he played it so seriously that you couldn’t really tell and it was just so real, which of course, is the funniest stuff.”

The Moment They Finally Heard Spicoli’s Most Famous Line

Crowe recalls that he was on pins and needles, waiting to hear Penn deliver what he says was his favorite line in the script, the moment when Spicoli indignantly replies to his teacher, Mr. Hand, played by legendary actor Ray Walford, “You dick!” Though he tried, Penn refused to deliver the line prior to filming it. “I would always say to him, you’ve got to say the line, ‘you dick.’ I will die if [the line] doesn’t come out perfect, because it’s my favorite thing in the script. Just say ‘you dick,'” he told hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild. The actor, after many requests, simply said, “I’m not going to do it. You’ll know it when we do it.”

READ MORE: How ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High Revolutionized Teen Movies

The moment of truth finally arrived and a number of people were on hand to witness it. Future Pearl Jam manager Kelly Curtis was behind the camera with Crowe, while his then-girlfriend and eventual wife, Heart’s Nancy Wilson, was also in the room. All were anticipating the delivery. “Ray Walston, the only celebrity in the cast, is there and he set Sean up for the line,” he reflects. “Sean goes, ‘you dick!’ We looked at each other and we’re like, ‘Oh my God, Eureka! It’s better than we even [expected]….it was spectacular.”

But the Famous Line Caused Drama on the ‘Fast Times’ Set

Walston, as it turned out, wasn’t pleased. “[He] stomped off the set and said to [director] Amy Heckerling, ‘I won’t have a young actor talk to me like that!’ Sean was so confident. He was so on fire with [the line] that he would do a take where he’d say to Ray Walston, ‘You red-faced mother-effer!’ We would be dying behind the camera,” Crowe recalls “Ray Walston at a certain point was like, ‘I didn’t do all that I did in the business to be talked to by a 21-year old kid [like that]. I didn’t work with Bill Bixby and Billy Wilder to be told I’m a red-faced MF by this little guy who also calls me a dick!’ Meanwhile, we’re high-fiving behind the camera. Because this is our shot at Spicoli and that’s Sean. He knew he had it the whole time.”

Watch Cameron Crowe on the ‘Naked Lunch’ Podcast

Tom Petty Saw Himself in Jeff Spicoli

Once Fast Times at Ridgemont High was released, Crowe learned he had a very famous fan of the movie, Tom Petty. The moment came to light as the pair were working on Heartbreakers Beach Party, his accidental directorial debut, which recently surfaced for its first-ever theatrical showings.

“[The movie] had just come out and the studio didn’t like the movie or believe in it. They cut [the number of] theaters [screening it] at the last minute. Basically, Fast Times was only seen by people on VHS later,” he shares. “It was bombing in the theaters, but he knew about Spicoli. He was [telling me], ‘I felt like Spicoli when I was in Gainesville. People would see me with my long hair and immediately assume that I was stoned and incapable of thought.’ That was when he said, ‘Pick up the camera, I’m going to play this song for you that you’re going to love’ and that was the beginning of my directing career. ‘I’m Stupid’ [in Heartbreakers Beach Party] is his ode to his own Spicoli-ness, which is crazy. I was going nuts when he was doing it. I’ll never forget how that felt.”

READ MORE: The Gift That Tom Petty Gave Cameron Crowe

For kids growing up in the ’70s and ’80s, let’s be real — we saw some stuff.

Thanks to the lack of helicopter parents (latchkey kids unite!) and endless hours spent plopped in front of the TV eating sugary cereals, you could say the line between reality and fiction (and cavities and no cavities) was probably a bit blurred.

😈⬇️ Keep Scrolling for the Creepy Stuff 💀⬇️

For kids in the ’70s, the movies and TV they were exposed to were super raw. From Vietnam war films to scenes that left nothing to the imagination, there were little to no boundaries. We really did witness it all.

The “melting face” scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark and the haunting question of what might lurk beneath the surface were just two things that kept many of us awake at night.

In the ’80s, the rise of gruesome blockbusters took things to a new level. These films not only pushed the limits of visual effects but also brought an onslaught of blood, gore, and heart-pounding jump scares. Sharks, ghosts, melting faces … we had it all.

RELATED: 10 ’80s Movies That Could Never Be Made Today

There wasn’t such a thing as “parental controls.” I distinctly recall watching late-night movies by myself and thinking, “Oh god, this is going to give me nightmares…” You’d think that a kid growing up in an old, creaky house would know better than to start watching Amityville Horror at midnight … by himself.

Let’s break it down and take a look at the things that kept us ’70s and ’80s ragamuffins up at night. For the most part, we’re steering clear of the heavy, real-life stuff and focusing on the lighter, less serious things that gave us a good scare (or two) back in the day.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band were in rehearsals for a tour. Which is normal most of the time, but due to the pandemic, a planned break ended up being six years long.

“Like every good boxing story, it’s like the spirit of, will they survive?,” director Thom Zimny tells UCR. “Will they train and get back in the ring? Will they survive the fight?”

By the time they took the stage in Tampa, Fla. in February of 2023, they were ready. Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, the new film by Zimny, takes stock of the intense work that the Boss and his longtime musical comrades had to put in. As the filmmaker recalls, even as they struggled with slower tempos on legendary warhorse songs like “She’s the One,” they found their footing within days.

Road Diary, which is now available to watch on Hulu and Disney+, also goes beyond the tour preparations. It examines the interpersonal dynamics of the band and how unavoidable loss — the deaths of core members Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici, for example — were addressed and how those same losses are still felt here in the present day.

Longtime fans will find familiar topics like that addressed in a new light and for the newcomers out there, Road Diary is an engaging watch that demonstrates just why the world can’t let go of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. During a recent phone conversation, Zimny shared his experience of working on the film.

When it comes to working with Bruce, you’ve said you go in not knowing what to expect. You started without a story in a sense. When did you realize the arc of what this particular film was going to become?
The arc of the film came into focus the moment that I started to go back to the edit room and realized, “Wait a minute, he’s thumbing through the notebook in a certain way. There’s a certain intensity piecing together these songs. There’s something going on, and I have to look at it,” I realized that’s the storyteller, that master magician who’s able to take a group of songs, piece them together. So that was a key moment for me, which was examining the dailies of the film footage of the band in those early days of rehearsals. Watching Bruce put one song against another and discuss it with Stevie [Van Zandt], I knew I had something there. Because he was taking on the tour set list in a different way. He was trying to tell a bigger story and it was something I was witnessing. I didn’t discuss with him. I just continued to film. Then when I saw the live concert, I knew it was really impactful, that these choices that he made as a songwriter, he was putting together these songs to create a feeling. That’s what was happening in the concert. So it just proved to me, that this was a storyline that I needed to chase and explore.

Watch the ‘Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’ Trailer

How are things organized as far as the Thrill Hill archive with audio and video of Bruce and the band? You do an impressive job of weaving in very specific archival footage, both performance-wise and also Interview clips with folks like Danny and Clarence are no longer here. How do you go retrieve, or if it requires a search, find a quote or insight that you want?
Well, you have to know the material intimately. I have to treat the archive like a tool and a device to use in the film. You have to know the archive. You have to know the vault inside and out. So you have to watch full interviews. That interview that’s in the documentary with Clarence and with Danny, that was something that I shot myself. So I knew years ago that I had this material that I didn’t use and it just would work for the doc.

I liked Steven’s anecdote about being at the pre-show huddle and Bruce telling a story about how they were back in the same venue where he’d gotten booed off the stage opening for Chicago. What is one of your favorite anecdotes you heard from the old school E Street guys?
I love the early days of E Street, where they talk about Clarence Clemons cooking for the band, when they’re traveling in a tour bus and they wake up to the smell of breakfast, and there’s Clarence, like a short order cook delivering breakfast, you know, like this big brother. Those are my favorite moments, because it really, as a fan, it brings you into the world of E Street and the history. It literally places you in a time and a place. That’s part of the archive too — I found footage of Clarence in 1975 during the time of that story. Hearing him talk and seeing Bruce next to him, it’s really an amazing time machine, the archive, because it takes you back. Road Diary has a lot of those moments that I was able to dig out of the vault and show things that have never been seen.

READ MORE: How Bruce Springsteen Got His Nickname ‘The Boss’

I like that the film addresses the losses of Clarence and Danny, even though it’s been covered in the past, it feels like you go at it from a different and more specific angle.
Well, I wanted to talk about Danny and Clarence’s loss in a different way, where I wanted Bruce to reflect on how he’s coped with that loss.. One of the things that Jon Landau so beautifully explains is that when Bruce finds somebody, he stays with them. The people who took on the roles of filling in for the sounds of the sax, Jake [Clemons], Clarence’s nephew, and Charlie Giordano, who took the position playing the keyboards. You know, there are important elements in this narrative to explain how Bruce carried on that sound equality of E Street,, but also how they’re not just players filling in. They have their own connection to the E Street legacy and the E Street story. And there’s still that loss — the loss of Clarence and Danny is always going to be there — but their love and their power and their sonic connection returns nightly through the work of Jake and Charlie.

This is a very different band than when you started with in 2000 when you were working on footage for the Live in New York City concert film with Bruce’s team. They’ve added the choir, the horn section and so on. What’s been the most interesting thing for you as far as how this band has evolved?
What’s interesting [for me] is watching Bruce take on new tracks like “Nightshift” and how he incorporated the vocals and how he’s expanded on those songs. The other interesting thing too is the presence of horns. Having the additional horns in the band, it’s really remarkable because he’s taken it to a whole other place with songs from the past, like “Kitty’s Back.” The doc has a moment where they really explore how Bruce uses not only the horns, but how that song is a free for all jam and what it brings to the night. But it also [shows] Bruce the band leader, controlling the environment and the band, leading the band on through his body gestures and also spontaneity. Each night is a different version [of the show]. It might be the same set list, but the spirit is different.

READ MORE: Listen to Bruce Springsteen’s Cover of Commodores’ ‘Nightshift’

I like how you demonstrated the juxtaposition of the slow tempo that they were working on with “She’s the One,” using both footage from back in the day and the current rehearsals. That was fascinating to see how it all lined up visually and musically with what they were struggling with.
Thank you. Yeah, one of the things I wanted was for the film to be truthful. When you get to the space of the band first coming back together, they are brushing off a bit of rust and dust from not playing together for six years. So I wanted “She’s the One,” that sequence where they’re playing it a little too slow, I wanted that to be explored. Because it sets up the challenge of acknowledging their age, acknowledging the time they haven’t played. Like every good boxing story, it’s like the spirit of, will they survive? Will they train and get back in the ring? Will they survive the fight? So it’s a metaphor for the story, in many ways, that whole sequence of playing the song too slow, but at the same time, it’s great just to see E Street, within days kick in and really find the tempo.

Joe Walsh, leading light of the annual VetsAid concerts, announced the eighth installment will not take place as planned.

The event was set for Nov. 11 at the UBS Arena, Belmont Park, NY, with Toto, Kool and the Gang, Post Malone and Eric Church on the bill alongside Walsh.

But VetsAid confirmed it wasn’t going to take place due to reasons beyond its control – although the 12 charities it normally supports would still benefit.

READ MORE: Top 10 Joe Walsh Songs

“The wellbeing of our veterans and their families remains my foremost concern and the primary mission of VetsAid,” military son Walsh said in a statement.

“While I am disappointed in the cancellation of this year’s event and apologize for any inconvenience to our fans, I am thrilled to share that VetsAid will provide $400,000 in grants to these fine organizations who will focus these funds on the ground in New York and New Jersey to veterans who have sacrificed so much and asked for so little in return.”

Ahead of the call-off, Eagles icon Walsh had explained the addition of Malone to the lineup, saying: “VetsAid is for everyone: fans of all ages, backgrounds and musical genres. So who better to join the party than Posty – the man who can do it all and do it so well?

VetsAid Millions Shared Among Charities

“Mix in the best of country with Eric, rock with Toto and funk with Kool and the Gang and you have a VetsAid for the ages. What better way to honor our veterans and their families this Veterans Day than with a night you will never forget?”

The first concert took place in 2017, with guests over the years having included ZZ Top, Ringo Starr, James Hetfield, Dave Grohl, and Eddie Vedder, among others. The organization has distributed around $3.5 million among veterans’ charities since then.

Nikki Sixx said his life would probably have gone differently if he’d started out playing a good-quality guitar.

Instead, his musical endeavors started with a cheap, incomplete instrument his stepfather had owned – and the Motley Crue icon asserted it defined his career.

“When I first learned to write music I had a three-string nylon,” Sixx told Guitar World in a recent interview. “I started writing notes – I’m still the weird kid with the notepad, except now it’s on my iPhone – and I would always be documenting everything, like fights in the schoolyard.’”

READ MORE: Motley Crue Albums Ranked Worst to Best

He continued: “I had three strings; I would read my lyrics, play a root note, and try to express my life as a teenager through music. When he gave me that guitar, he actually carved my future out. If I’d had a traditional guitar – which I love – I’d have had a whole different outlook on the bass.”

Sixx also reported that he has an “interesting approach and outlook on bass” for Motley Crue, adding that a particular ‘70s song had been instrumental to his playing.

The ‘70s Song That Encapsulates Nikki Sixx’s Bass Playing

“I was driving with my wife and ‘Smoke on the Water’ came on; and I go, ‘Just wait for it,’’ he recalled. “All of a sudden you hear it. She looked at me and goes, ‘That’s you!’ I go, ‘Always has been, always will be.’

“Then I put on an AC/DC song. She’s not a musician, right? But she goes, ‘I understand!’ So that’s where I want to be. … We were listening to some music last night and I go, ‘Listen to this bass.’ My wife goes, ‘That bass player is driving the song.’

“It was a song by Seal – and it was so different from my approach – but it’s the right approach [for] there. I’m like, ‘What if I had that approach in my band? What would that sound like?’”

Asked if he was still looking to develop his bass sound, Sixx replied: “I’m constantly searching for the more garage side of it, for me. Like, if I wasn’t 500 years old, I would probably start a garage band! But I’m not doing that at this point.”

Alex Van Halen stopped by the Robert Frost Auditorium in Culver City, California, on Thursday to promote his newly released memoir Brothers and discuss his tenure in Van Halen and growing up with his brother Eddie Van Halen.

You can see a few of UCR’s exclusive photos and watch snippets of the conversation below.

Talking to writer Ariel Levy, who collaborated on Brothers, Van Halen reflected on David Lee Roth‘s inauspicious first audition for the band, which took place circa 1972. “We started playing a song, and by the time we were done, Dave finally took a first word,” he joked. “Which is a slight exaggeration, but he had a real long drawl. When it was apparent that this was not gonna work, the first thing Ed did is he left the room: ‘All yours, Al!’

“Oddly enough, I must say, I had nothing but respect for Dave, because he was there, he gave it his best shot, and from my view, he did not take it lightly,” Van Halen continued. “So all I could say was, ‘Hey man, I’m sorry, but I don’t think this is gonna work.’ So we left on amicable terms, until the next two years go by. Everybody in town is either going to college, they go out, whatever they do, [and] there’s only a few people left who are actually serious about pursuing a life in music — and I mean a life. This is a full-time job.”

READ MORE: Hear the Full Version of Eddie and Alex Van Halen’s ‘Unfinished’

Alex Van Halen Says Van Halen’s Roth Years Were the Definitive Ones

That time, the pairing obviously stuck, and with Roth at the helm, Van Halen went on to become one of the biggest and most innovative rock bands in history. In Brothers, Van Halen refers to the band’s 1985 split with Roth as “the most disappointing thing I’d experienced in my life, the thing that seemed the most wasteful and unjust. Until I lost my brother.”

Although Van Halen enjoyed a decade-long, chart-topping hot streak with Sammy Hagar, Van Halen told Billboard that he still regards the Roth years as the definitive ones. “What happened after Dave left is not the same band,” he explained. “I’m not saying it was better or worse or any of that. The fact is Ed and I did our best work whenever we played. We always gave it our best shot. But the magic was in the first years, when we didn’t know what we were doing, when we were willing to try anything.”

Watch Alex Van Halen Discuss David Lee Roth Audition at ‘Brothers’ Book Event

Watch Alex Van Halen’s ‘Brothers’ Book Talk Event on 10/24/24

Phil Lesh, bassist and founding member of the Grateful Dead, died on Friday at the age of 84.

“He was surrounded by his family and full of love,” a statement posted to his social media said. “Phil brought immense joy to everyone around him and leaves behind a legacy of music and love.”

Following the news, condolences began to appear online from fellow musicians, venues and more.

Longtime bandmate Bob Weir posted an extensive tribute to Lesh on X, formerly Twitter. “Let’s just say Phil wasn’t particularly averse to ruffling a few feathers,” he said at one point. “We had our differences, of course, but it’s not platitudinous to say that that only made our work together more meaningful. Our conversation and interaction will last, at very least, ‘til the end of my days.”

Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart also posted a statement honoring his fallen bandmate. “Phil Lesh changed my life. There are only a few people you meet in your lifetime that are special, important, who help you grow spiritually as well as musically,” he wrote. “His sound is indelibly embedded in my mind as is Jerry [Garcia]‘s sound … and always will be.”

Other rockers were quick to pay their respects as well. “Sad day. I was hoping Phil would make it to the MusiCares performance,” Sammy Hagar wrote on Facebook. “My thoughts go out to his family and friends.”

Warren Haynes, jam band veteran who toured with Phil Lesh and Friends, also reflected on Lesh’s towering musical legacy. “There’s a whole type of music fan and a whole type of musician that exists due to something that Phil helped create,” he said. “Phil has been a bit of a ‘north star’ to so many fans and musicians alike and the impact of his loss will be a heavy one. I remember when my soulmate Allen Woody died — Phil was one of the first people to call me and I’ll never forget what he said: ‘I’m so sorry. I know what it’s like to lose someone with which you have a profound musical relationship.’ Yes he did. And now I’ve lost another one. Thank you Phil.”

Fellow jam band legends Phish also paid tribute to Lesh by covering the Grateful Dead’s “Box of Rain” in Albany, New York, on Friday. Bandleader Trey Anastasio and bassist Mike Gordon both also penned tributes to Lesh, with the former writing: “I was deeply saddened to hear that my friend Phil Lesh passed away this morning. Phil was more than a revolutionary, groundbreaking bass player—he transformed how I thought about music as a teenager. I have countless memories of standing in awe, listening to his winding, eloquent bass lines blending seamlessly with Jerry and Bobby’s guitars, Brent Mydland’s keys, and the thunderous drums of Billy and Mickey. I’m so grateful for those beautiful memories.”

Perhaps the most poignant tribute came from the Grateful Dead’s official social media: “There will be a lot of tributes, and they will all say important things. But for us, we’ve spent a lifetime making music with Phil Lesh and the music has a way of saying it all. So listen to the Grateful Dead and, in that way, we’ll all take a little bit of Phil with us, forever.”

You can see these and more tributes below.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year– for everything except your budget. How would you like a little help during the holidays?

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Founding Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh has died. He was 84.

No cause of death was immediately given, though Lesh had revealed a bout with bladder cancer in 2015. “He was surrounded by his family and full of love,” according to an official statement. “Phil brought immense joy to everyone around him and leaves behind a legacy of music and love. We request that you respect the Lesh family’s privacy at this time.”

A classically trained trumpeter, Lesh switched to bass at the late Jerry Garcia ‘s request after joining a fledgling Bay Area band called the Warlocks. He’d met Garcia in passing a couple of times, and they hit it off. The Warlocks were soon rechristened as the Grateful Dead, then took over as the house band during Ken Kesey’s legendary Acid Tests.

Soon, Lesh was co-writing some of their best-known songs, including “Truckin'” and “Box of Rain.” He also initially provided tenor backing vocals, as heard on their turn of the ’70s classics Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty.

The Grateful Dead toured and recorded from 1965 until Garcia’s death in 1995, a loss that deeply impacted Lesh. “Jerry was the hub,” he later told Rolling Stone. “We were the spokes. And the music was the tread on the wheel.”

Lesh wrote the only memoir from a band member to date, with 2005’s Searching for the Sound: My Life With the Grateful Dead. He and his wife Jill opened a restaurant and live music venue called Terrapin Crossroads in 2012 in San Rafael, California.

He continued to perform long after his time with the Dead was over. The Berkeley native fronted Phil Lesh and Friends, performed in Further and the Other Ones with former bandmates, and continued to appear with his family band into 2024. Lesh took part in the 2015’s Fare Thee Well shows in Chicago to celebrate the Grateful Dead’s 50th anniversary, appearing with Trey Anastasio of Phish. He would also occasionally sit in with the house band at Terrapin Crossroads, which featured his sons.

“I would have to say that music and performing are as essential as food and drink to me, but even more so as I get older,” he told Mercury News earlier this year. “While it can sometimes be more of a challenge physically than it was when I was a young whippersnapper, I’ve found that age brings wisdom, and with that comes musical experience and knowledge that I didn’t have when I was younger.”

The Grateful Dead were named 2025 MusiCares Persons of the Year earlier this week. Lesh and fellow surviving original members Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann and Bobby Weir were set to be honored at the organization’s benefit gala during Grammy Week. The band’s original lineup was included the late Ron “Pigpen” McKernan.

Lesh missed an August headlining set at Sunday Daydream Vol. 4 in San Rafael, California, after testing positive for COVID.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

If, as they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery, then the Beatles should be exceptionally honored. Over the course of years, their songs have been covered by hundreds upon hundreds of artists hailing from all kinds of musical genres.

In the below list, we’re taking a look at the 20 Most-Covered Beatles Songs, using data from secondhandsongs.com. Of course, these numbers are likely to shift with the passage of time, and it’s frankly impossible to account for every single Beatles cover in existence when they’re recorded so consistently, but as of Oct. 23, 2024, these are the top 20, with each entry accompanied by one cover example.

20. “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”
From: The White Album (1968)
Number of Covers: 323

Pretty much immediately after the Beatles released the White Album in November of 1968, its songs started to be covered by other artists, including Paul McCartney‘s “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.” Some acts had minor hits with their covers — for example the Bedrocks, a West Indian band from the U.K., had theirs go to No. 20 on the Record Retailer chart.

19. “Help!”
From: Help! (1965)
Number of Covers: 325

The British girl group Bananarama decided to take the title “Help!” quite literally when they recorded a cover of the song in 1989 with the comedians French & Saunders and Kathy Burke. The cover was used that year as a Red Nose Day single to raise money for Comic Relief and wound up a No. 3 hit in the U.K.

18. “Can’t Buy Me Love”
From: A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
Number of Covers: 360

There’s something a little show business-y about “Can’t Buy Me Love.” Ella Fitzgerald recognized this and brought that feeling to her cover of it, which was included on her 1964 album Hello, Dolly. It reached the No. 34 spot on the U.K. singles chart.

17. “A Hard Day’s Night”
From: A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
Number of Covers: 366

Peter Sellers’ 1965 version of “A Hard Day’s Night” is not your ordinary rock ‘n’ roll cover. It’s in spoken word form, but nevertheless, it was a Top 20 hit in England that year.

16. “The Long and Winding Road”
From: Let It Be (1970)
Number of Covers: 367

When McCartney wrote “The Long and Winding Road,” he had a particular person in mind. “I just sat down at my piano in Scotland, started playing and came up with that song, imagining it was going to be done by someone like Ray Charles,” he said to the Sunday Herald in 2003. Charles did indeed record the song for his 1971 album Volcanic Action of My Soul.

15. “With a Little Help From My Friends”
From: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Number of Covers: 419

You may already be familiar with Joe Cocker‘s blistering version of “With a Little Help From My Friends,” but might we direct your attention to Santana‘s rendition, which surfaced on the 2012 box set The Anthology ’68-’69 – The Early San Francisco Years.

14. “The Fool on the Hill”
From: Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
Number of Covers: 430

Sergio Mendes helped to bring bossa nova music to wider audiences in the late ’60s and into the early ’70s, partly by recording songs like “The Fool on the Hill.” With a lead vocal by Lani Hall, this 1968 version went to No. 6 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

13. “In My Life”
From: Rubber Soul (1965)
Number of Covers: 435

Judy Collins always had a knack for interpreting the work of others — sometimes even before the original writer committed the song to tape. And not only did she record the Beatles’ “In My Life,” she also titled the album it appeared on after the song. “[The Beatles’ songs] were spellbinding,” Collins told Salon in 2020. “Enchanting, singable, accessible, beautiful and harmonic.”

12. “Here Comes the Sun”
From: Abbey Road (1969)
Number of Covers: 462

George Harrison‘s “Here Comes the Sun” has the distinction of being not only one of the most-covered Beatles songs, but also the most-streamed Beatles song on Spotify. Below is Nina Simone’s 1971 version of the song, a tender recording with a delicate string arrangement.

11. “Come Together”
From: Abbey Road (1969)
Number of Covers: 497

When Tina Turner gets a hold of your song, watch out — it will never be heard the same again. She and then-husband Ike Turner first started performing the song live in the fall of 1969, not very long after the Beatles released it on Abbey Road. Their interpretation was so well-received that a studio version was rush-released in December of that year.

10. “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”
From: Rubber Soul (1965)
Number of Covers: 510

Ever wonder what “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” might sound like if a country singer put their spin on it? Look no further than Waylon Jennings’ 1966 version. “You would have thought that John Lennon and Paul McCartney had custom-written the song to be sung by a wanderlust character like Waylon,” Jennings’ wife, Jessi Colter, wrote in her 2017 autobiography, An Outlaw and a Lady.

9. “And I Love Her”
From: A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
Number of Covers: 574

For some reason, Beatles songs work awfully well for reggae bands. Take, for example, Bob Marley and the Wailers’ 1965 cover of “And I Love Her.” At that point, the Wailers were still very much in the early stages of their career, still a few years away from becoming international stars.

8. “Here, There and Everywhere”
From: Revolver (1966)
Number of Covers: 579

If you can look past the cheesy, classic ’80s vibe to Billy Preston‘s cover of “Here, There and Everywhere” — and we really encourage you to do so — you’ll find it’s actually quite an honest rendition. And who better to give a Beatles song a go than Preston, who was often considered a fifth member of the band?

7. “Blackbird”
From: The White Album (1968)
Number of Covers: 588

Crosby, Stills & Nash first tried their collective hand at “Blackbird” in February of 1969 during sessions for their debut album, but it was not officially released until the 1991 box set CSN. The Beatles, naturally, were an enormous influence on each of the members of CSN. Or as Graham Nash put it in the 2012 book 101 Essential Rock Records: The Golden Age of Vinyl, From the Beatles to the Sex Pistols: “The Beatles opened up the door and we all ran through it.”

6. “Michelle”
From: Rubber Soul (1965)
Number of Covers: 592

Often times, covers of Beatles songs would pop up within the same year the original recording was released – call it the Beatles effect, an effort to capitalize on the world’s most famous band’s success. And many of these covers, including the below version of “Michelle” by the British duo David and Jonathan, were also hits. Theirs went to No. 1 in Canada, and the Top 20 in both the U.S. and U.K.

5. “Hey Jude”
From: 1968 Single
Number of Covers: 595

How fitting that after inspiring the Beatles in the first place, Elvis Presley would cover one of their most famous songs, “Hey Jude.” This version was included on his 1972 album Elvis Now. (An honorable mention should really go to Wilson Pickett’s 1968 version of the song, which featured a young Duane Allman on guitar.)

4. “Something”
From: Abbey Road (1969)
Number of Covers: 597

You know you’ve written a mighty fine song when the likes of Tony Bennett, Perry Como, Andy Williams, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson and many hundreds more cover it. Harrison’s “Something” has that honor, a composition Sinatra himself called “one of the best love songs I believe to be written in 50 or 100 years.”

3. “Let It Be”
From: Let It Be (1970)
Number of Covers: 611

If you’re interested in more, we have a whole list of “Let It Be” covers, but for now, here’s Bill Withers‘ surprisingly upbeat version. This appeared on Withers’ 1971 debut album, Just As I Am. McCartney later returned the favor when he covered “Ain’t No Sunshine” for his 1991 live album Unplugged (The Official Bootleg).

2. “Eleanor Rigby”
From: Revolver (1966)
Number of Covers: 752

The cool thing about covers of “Eleanor Rigby” is that they truly run the gamut of musical styles. You’ve got artists like Joan Baez and John Denver on the one hand, but then Joe Jackson and the Jerry Garcia Band on the other.

1. “Yesterday”
From: Help! (1965)
Number of Covers: 1,170

Where does one even begin when there are over 1,000 cover versions of a song? Such is the case with “Yesterday.” Among the list of those who have taken a stab at the iconic number: The Supremes, Willie Nelson, Tom Jones, Marvin Gaye, Dionne Warwick, Dr. John, Michael Bolton, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan and so many more.

John Farnham, the vocalist on the Little River Band‘s most recent Top 40 hits, may never sing again.

He was diagnosed with mouth cancer in late 2022 then underwent a surgical procedure where his jawbone was scraped after all of his bottom teeth were removed. Thankfully, radiation treatment didn’t damage his vocal cords, but there’s still a problem.

“My facial disfigurement from the surgery means I can’t open my mouth wide enough for a strip of spaghetti, let alone to sing a top C,” Farnham writes in a new memoir, The Voice Inside. “At this stage, I can’t get the movement to make the sounds I want to make, and that’s where the vibrations and my voice come from. It’s still a very disconcerting thing – and trying hurts.”

READ MORE: How Graeham Goble Hopes to Cement Little River Band’s Legacy

Farnham first appeared on a pair of bonus tracks for 1982’s Greatest Hits replaced the departing Glenn Shorrock in the Little River Band. “The Other Guy” went to No. 11 in the U.S. “We Two” reached No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 before “You’re Driving Me Out of My Mind,” also from 1983’s The Net, hit No. 35.

Watch John Farnham With Little River Band

John Farnham Looks Back on Little River Band Era

Farnham, a former child star in his adopted home of Australia, appeared on 1985’s Playing to Win and 1986’s No Reins before returning to solo work.

The Voice Inside was written with Poppy Stockell, the filmmaker behind John Farnham: Finding the Voice and reveals some lingering ill will from his time in the Little River Band. Farnham describes an era in which he had to overcome “undercurrents of animosity, jealousy and petty peeves.”

Unfortunately, Farnham’s recent health problems haven’t been limited to the cancer diagnosis. While recovering from surgery, he also fell and broke his back. But Farnham says he hasn’t yet given up on his dream to sing again: “I can barely open my mouth but I still wail in the shower.”

Brian May and Roger Taylor revealed a huge change last night in London while debuting an expanded and remixed edition of Queen‘s self-titled debut: They’ve digitally retouched every single drum hit from the original sessions.

The group was initially tracked at London’s legendary Trident Studios under the guidance of eccentric producer Roy Thomas Baker. Queen was still so unproven, however, that they were relegated to recording during studio downtime.

“We were signed to the owners of the studio so that is why we got that [time],” Taylor said. “I remember there was Lou Reed and David [Bowie] producing Transformer. He’d just finished Hunky Dory and Ziggy. This was the place to be. The Beatles did ‘All You Need Is Love‘ there. It really was the place to be – Harry Nilsson, etc. So we thought it was great – we’re in Trident!”

READ MORE: Queen’s 10 Most Underrated Songs

As a result, no one felt empowered to complain about the in-house drums. “I remember Roger getting angry because he was in such an unfamiliar situation,” May said. “Instead of playing in a room with his kit, which he knows inside out, suddenly he is in a tiny little room with a foreign drum kit – which was tiny and transparent, as I remember.”

May described the drums as “plastic, all covered in tape – literally covered in all this tape. They’d taken most of the skin off the bass drum and it’s got a cushion inside. He’s trying to play this thing and he hates it!”

Watch Queen’s New ‘Keep Yourself Alive’ Video

How the Track Listing Changed on ‘Queen I’

They moved forward anyway, releasing Queen in July 1973. “I think you would have seen us very much immersed in it and we felt privileged to be there at all,” May said, “and we were enjoying each other’s company, and we were enjoying working with each other and developing new ideas.”

The LP rose to the U.K. Top 25 and eventually went gold in America – but May and Taylor were never completely satisfied with the result. They’ve now meticulously polished up Taylor’s drum sound and restored the original track listing, inserting “Mad the Swine” between “Great King Rat” and “My Fairy King” as they’d once hoped to do.

“It’s exactly how we wanted it,” May enthused. “We waited 52 years to get to this point, to make it the way it should have been in the first place. We always hated the fact that Roger wasn’t playing his own kit. It didn’t sound like Rodge.”

You Think You Know Queen?

Thin Lizzy were on the verge of being dropped at the time they made the Jailbreak album, which was released in 1976. Though the record itself is now legendary, it could have been completely different if the band’s manager hadn’t stepped in with some timely advice.

Manager Chris O’Donnell came out to the farm where they’d been working up material and asked to hear what they’d come up with. They played him more than two dozen songs. At the end of the playback, he had notes and zeroed in on one particular track.

“It doesn’t sound finished, but there’s something I really like about this. I like the groove and where it’s going,” he told the band, as guitarist Scott Gorham recalls now. “How about you put that song in and take one of the songs on your original list out? We thought, ‘Well, let’s do that, because there’s at least one vote for the song.'”

It was a crucial vote for the song that became “The Boys are Back in Town,” a standout moment on the album and a classic in the Thin Lizzy catalog to this day. 1976 was a turbulent year for the Dublin rock group. While they released Jailbreak and the record began to build acclaim, their momentum would be derailed as Phil Lynott wound up in the hospital with hepatitis. The vocalist spent a stretch recuperating, but Thin Lizzy weren’t finished with the year yet. Thanks to an abundance of recordings and ideas, they eventually regrouped and released Johnny the Fox that same year.

Now, a new box set, appropriately titled 1976, collects both albums along with a wealth of additional material from the sessions, some fresh remixes to go alongside the original album mixes and a key live show recorded during the Jailbreak tour. Gorham recently joined Ultimate Classic Rock Nights host Matt Wardlaw to discuss the release and share his memories of the time period.

I enjoyed this new box set quite a lot. One of my favorite parts is the live show from the Cleveland Agora in 1976. It was a fun surprise to see that here.
That’s what I thought, too. You know, it was a pretty good show. It was a good representation of what we were back then. It was [leading up to] the Live and Dangerous era. I think that Cleveland show kind of let us know that we can put out a live album. And let’s seriously do the live album right instead of these one-off [performances], radio shows or what have you. The Agora show was kind of the preliminary [moment which led to] Live and Dangerous.

Listen to Thin Lizzy Perform ‘Jailbreak’ Live in Cleveland

Bands do a lot of things during a promotional cycle for an album. Did the experience of doing this show stick with you, or was it kind of a new thing, going back to it as you were working on this box set?
It was a bit of a new one and it was a nice surprise. Along with being able to put a new gloss on the older albums. We went in and did a different mix on each of the tracks for Jailbreak and Johnny the Fox, which I really enjoyed. I really had no intention of doing that, but Universal called me up and said, “Hey, we’ve got this producer, Richard Whitaker and he’s remixing,” blah blah blah — and I went, “Wait a minute, you’re doing what?” [Gorham takes on a surprised tone] So they said, “Yeah, why don’t you go over and have a listen, just to see what you think. I went over and met Richard and we got along great right off the bat.

The first thing he played me was the song “Jailbreak.” He’d found a lot of different tracks that we didn’t use on the actual original recording. He said, “Check out that cowbell here. You guys never used the cowbell on that.” I go, “You’re kidding, right?” I thought, “You know, that’s actually really cool.” I don’t know if it’s just because it’s a new thing that I hadn’t heard before. But I actually really liked it. There were other tracks we uncovered, different things that Phil had done vocally and different guitar riffs that weren’t added to the original album. Some of them got included because, yeah, you know, that actually fits and why didn’t we use that originally? I mean, did we take a vote? “Who wants this on here!” Okay, that riff didn’t get enough votes or something. I don’t know! We didn’t throw everything in just because it was new — but if it actually fit and sounded really cool, why not? Put it in there and let’s see what everybody thinks.

READ MORE: The Story of Thin Lizzy’s Biggest Hit, ‘Jailbreak’

What came back to you through the experience of revisiting these two albums for the box?
Well, one of the things is some of the tempos are really slow. Because you’ve got to remember, the first thing we’d do is we’d record the album and then, bang, you’re right out on the road. You immediately say, “Right, we’ve got to up the tempo on this. It’s a little bit draggy on the record.” So you’d up it a couple of beats. The other thing we did, I remember talking to Brian Downey, Thin Lizzy’s drummer. He was always disappointed with the drum sounds that he was getting. They really were completely different from what I was hearing and from what he was hearing on stage live. A lot of that, I’ve since found out, was the close miking that these engineers used to use back then. They didn’t really use the room, you know, the overheads and all of that. So there was no real breathing space in the drums. We didn’t touch anything that Brian played [with the updated remixes], but we put on a different sound for him and it really livened up the tracks. Instantly, it was like, “Damn, that’s more of the Brian that I remember,” you know, playing live with. It’s things like that which put a smile on my face when I go back and hear this new version.

The way the story goes, the band was kind of on the chopping block going into the Jailbreak album.
You’re absolutely right. You know, we were told by management, record company and even some fans, “Guys, you’ve got to come up with some magic here, or there’s the door. Don’t bother knocking trying to get back in, because it’s going to be over.” So that kind of put the fear of God in all of us a bit. This is going to sound really antiquated, but we bought ourselves a four track reel-to-reel recording machine and rented a big room at this farm outside of London. We spent three weeks out there, just demoing our asses off. We probably spent between eight and 12 hours a day just coming up with riffs — and Phil with his lyrics — different melody lines, guitar harmonies and all of that. At the end of the three weeks, we ended up with 25 songs and [then] you’ve got to come up with a list of 10 that you’re going to be able to put on the album. Interestingly, “The Boys are Back in Town” was not on that original list.

I’ll tell you why: Phil’s lyrics were great and there was a great bed of music to play on, but there were no harmony guitars on it at that point. So it was just this track, with none of the jangly bits. One of our managers, Chris O’Donnell, came down and said, “Well, let’s hear what you guys have recorded for the last three weeks. He sat through all 25 songs making notes and at the end of it, he said, “You know, this song here, ‘The Boy is Back,’ it doesn’t sound finished, but there’s something I really like about this. I like the groove and where it’s going. How about you put that song in and take one of the songs on your original list out?” We thought, “Well, let’s do that, because there’s at least one vote for the song.”

That’s where we actually started to work on [what became] “The Boys are Back in Town.” I finally came up with the riff. [Thin Lizzy guitarist] Brian Robertson immediately latched onto it and said, “Let me put a harmony to that.” As soon as he did that, those sections really lit up and it literally became the second hook of that song. So thank God the manager came down.

Listen to Thin Lizzy’s New Stereo Version of ‘The Boys are Back in Town’

How normal was it for the band to spend that amount of time demoing songs like that? Was there any one way that Thin Lizzy approached the album process, or did it change from record to record?
I think with Jailbreak and Johnny the Fox, being able to have our own tape machine and being able to get out of London and away from the chaos [was important]. It’s just you four guys in the room taping everything and every idea that came down. At the end of the day, you go, “Well, that song there, it sounds pretty good up until this point.” That other song idea and riff, let’s try putting that in the song there and gluing that at the end and see how it works. There was a lot of that which went down, like, gluing all of these different parts together, because we were never short on riffs, melody lines or anything like that. It’s just having the concentration to be able to sit down [with a certain number of band members], trying to glue all of the different parts together and having everybody satisfied with everything at the same time.

READ MORE: Weekend Songs: Thin Lizzy’s ‘Emerald’

That’s the eternal quest.
It’s a tough one. You know, the worst thing you want to have said — we always liked to think of ourselves as this ultra original band, we didn’t want to sound like anybody else, ever. Forget about it. So the worst thing anybody could say when you brought in a new part or a new song was, “That reminds me of this other song.” Now, you’re in a corner and you have to defend yourself. “I’ve never heard of that song before,” so you really had to go into defense mode.

One thing that’s always been a bit murky about Johnny the Fox, is the participation of Phil Collins. How did you guys know him?
I think Phil [Lynott] knew him. He was just one of those really cool guys and a good, good drummer and percussionist. He was in town, so we just asked him, “Hey, Phil, can you come down and put some percussion on this song or that track?” He said, “Yeah, absolutely. No problem!” He came straight down and did it.

Those kinds of things never seemed to be a problem. If someone called me up, I’d go, “Yeah, sure. come down!” There was a lot of interplay going on with a lot of different bands at the time. It was because we were all friends. Everybody knew that we were up against it. There’s a war going on out there and we’re all in this together. That kind of thing, you know? So it was all pretty friendly stuff.

Yeah, and Phil Collins was always one of those guys that whether it was Brand X or whatever, he just loved to play. That came through when you see the various guest appearances he made on people’s albums and songs. Ian McLagan was the same way.
You hit the nail right on the head there. These are guys who just love to play. They’re people who love to be put in a different situation. I’m great with this bunch of guys here that I’m used to. What happens if I get thrown in with this bunch of guys over here? I did a session with David Cassidy one day, for God’s sake. I don’t really consider myself a session guy, but that was so odd, because he was such a pop guy. He had his own TV show and all of that. I thought, “This is kind of a weird one, I’m going to go down there and do that.” He turned out to be an okay guy and the track was pretty cool. I did it and that was it, right? But those are the kinds of things you like to do, to test yourself every once in a while to see what your chops are really like as a person and a musician.

When it comes to this new box set, was there someone in the band who was an archivist type? Some bands saved all of the tapes and others didn’t.
That’s a really good question. You know, a lot of the multi-tracks [tapes] wherever we recorded, kind of stayed in that studio, right? We felt pretty good about leaving them there, because they’re nice and safe. They all had their own little lockup. But there was a a studio here in London that their lockup just got so full of multi-tracks. they started to throw them out into the trash cans in the back of the studio. I don’t know how this guy did it, but maybe he was there at the studio at the time. He saw these boxes in the trash can and he was going, “Oh, my God, they’re just throwing this stuff out.” He grabbed [the tapes] and threw them in his car. There must have been eight or nine boxes of multi-tracks tapes. He kept them for a long time. Then, he finally admitted that he had him, but he wanted to get paid for it. We paid him for it. Because, you know, I thank God he did it. Thank God he had moxie enough to go to that trash and pick them out and save these multi-tracks, right? So, you know, we would have to actually have these later on in life. I didn’t mind paying them at all.

The Black Keys have released a spooky new rocker titled “Stay in Your Grave” featuring the godfather of shock rock, Alice Cooper.

The song features the Black Keys’ signature blues-rock strut and campy, macabre vocals from Cooper. You can watch the music video, which includes a live performance from Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney intercut with classic horror film footage, below.

“Stay in Your Grave” marks the second single from the upcoming, expanded Trophy Edition of the Black Keys’ latest album, Ohio Players. It follows “Mi Tormenta,” which features the regional Mexican singer-songwriter DannyLux and arrived earlier this month.

READ MORE: Rock’s 30 Creepiest Songs

You can see the full Ohio Players (Trophy Edition) track listing below and preorder the set ahead of its Nov. 15 release now.

The Black Keys will continue to promote Ohio Players with a trio of spring 2025 shows in Peru, Colombia and Mexico. Cooper, meanwhile, just completed the latest leg of his Too Close for Comfort headlining tour. Before that, he embarked on the second leg of the Freaks on Parade co-headlining trek alongside fellow shock rocker Rob Zombie.

The Black Keys, ‘Ohio Players (Trophy Edition)’ Track Listing
1. “This Is Nowhere”
2. “Don’t Let Me Go”
3. “Beautiful People (Stay High)”
4. “On the Game”
5. “Sin City” *
6. “Candy and Her Friends” (feat. Lil Noid)
7. “Read Em and Weep”
8. “I Forgot to Be Your Lover”
9. “Only Love Matters”
10. “Every Time You Leave”
11. “Mi Tormenta” (feat. DannyLux) *
12. “You’ll Pay”
13. “Paper Crown” (feat. Beck and Juicy J)
14. “Live Till I Die”
15. “Stay in Your Grave” (feat. Alice Cooper) *
16. “Please Me (Till I’m Satisfied)”
17. “Fever Tree”
18. “I’m With the Band” (feat. Beck) *

* Previously unreleased

Bruce Springsteen isn’t holding back as election day approaches, calling Presidential candidate Donald Trump an “American tyrant” in waiting as he supports rival Kamala Harris.

Springsteen introduced himself and then listed his reasons while speaking before 20,000 people at the James R. Hallford Stadium in Clarkston, Georgia, during the largest Harris event to date: “I’m Bruce Springsteen and I’m here today to support Kamala Harris and Tim Walz for president and vice president of the United States and to oppose – to oppose – Donald Trump and J.D. Vance,” he said as he took the stage, as seen in the video below.

READ MORE: Watch Courteney Cox Recreate Her ‘Dancing in the Dark’ Moves

“Now here’s why: I want a president who reveres the Constitution, who does not threaten but wants to protect and guard our great democracy, who believes in the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power, who will fight for womens’ right to choose – and who wants to create a middle-class economy that will serve all our citizens,” he said.

For Springsteen, “there is only one candidate in this election who holds those principles dear – Kamala Harris. She’s running to be the 47th President of the United States. Donald Trump is running to be an American tyrant. He does not understand this country, its history or what it means to be deeply American.”

Kamala Harris’ Favorite Curse Word Also Draws Support

Springsteen urged “all of you who believe in the American way to join me.” He then performed “Land of Hope and Dreams,” a live staple long before a studio version arrived on 2012’s Wrecking Ball.

The rally also featured actor Samuel L. Jackson and movie directors Spike Lee and Tyler Perry. Jackson directly referenced Harris’ recent revelation that she regularly uses the word “mother–––er.”

“Do not wait until election day to show your support – you can vote early,” Jackson said. “We’ve heard her favorite curse word is a favorite of mine too. That’s the kind of president I can stand behind.”

Watch Bruce Springsteen’s Georgia Rally Comments

Why Bruce Springsteen Called Killers Collaboration ‘Cathartic’

Kate Bush‘s last release of original material was 2011’s 50 Words for Snow – but she says she’s finally working her way back to new music.

A long-awaited return to the stage followed with the Before the Dawn show in 2014, which led to her second live record two years later. Bush revealed her plans while announcing the launch of a new anti-war video based on the 2011 track “Snowflake,” seen below.

“I started working on it a couple of years ago … not long after the Ukrainian war broke out,” Bush told the BBC in a rare interview. “I think it was such a shock. … It’s been such a long period of peace we’d all been living through.”

READ MORE: How Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ Joined ‘Stranger Things’

The four-minute clip supports the War Child charity. “I wanted to make a little animation that would feature, originally, a little girl. It was really the idea of children caught up in war – I wanted to draw attention to how horrific it is for children,” Bush added. She “felt that, actually, people would be more empathetic towards a creature rather than a human. So I came up with the idea of it being a little shrew.”

In a larger sense, “I think we’ve all been through very difficult times,” she said. “To a certain extent, everyone is just worn out. We went through the pandemic – that was a huge shock – and I think we felt that, once that was over, that we would be able to get on with some kind of normal life. But in fact it just seems to be going from one situation to another, and more wars seem to be breaking out all the time.”

When Is Kate Bush’s Next Concert?

Asked about her musical endeavors, Bush says she has “been caught up doing a lot of archive work over the last few years – redesigning our website, putting a lyric book together. And I’m very keen to start working on a new album when I’ve got this finished. I’ve got lots of ideas and I’m really looking forward to getting back into that creative space. It’s been a long time. … Particularly the last year, I’ve felt really ready to start doing something new.”

Old friend and collaborator David Gilmour is on board. Asked recently if he could get Bush “back on stage soon,” he said: “Kate Bush is the only person who can get Kate Bush back on stage. … I’ve tried persuading her recently, actually. Gently.”

His comment was mentioned to Bush, who light-heartedly replied: “I’m not there yet!”

Watch Kate Bush’s ‘Snowflake’ Charity Video

A new book claims Yoko Ono was warned that John Lennon was in danger before his murder on Dec. 8, 1980.

We All Shine On: John, Yoko and Me was written by Elliot Mintz, a friend and former spokesperson for the couple. In it, Mintz recalls various conversations with Ono following Lennon’s death.

In an excerpt recently shared with The Times, Mintz implored Ono to agree to a radio interview to combat disinformation regarding her late husband. Ono responded by saying she would check with her “advisors,” various tarot readers and numerologists she trusted.

READ MORE: The Day John Lennon Died

“Yoko, let me ask you something,” Mintz replied. “If these advisers are as good as you believe they are, why is it that none of them saw what was going to happen to John? Why was there no warning?”

Ono responded by asserting that she had been alerted to Lennon’s peril.

John Lennon ‘Didn’t Believe in Bodyguards’

“I was told he was in danger in New York and that he should be removed immediately,” she claimed. “That’s why I sent him to Bermuda over the summer. … But I couldn’t keep him away forever. He had to come back at some point.”

READ MORE: 30 Rockers Who Died Before 30

As Mintz was left “speechless” by the revelation, Ono further explained the situation.

“You know how John felt about his own safety,” she noted. “We talked about this at our kitchen table when your friend [the actor Sal Mineo] was killed. John said, ‘If they’re going to get you, they’re going to get you.’ It didn’t matter what my advisers told me. He didn’t believe in bodyguards, he wouldn’t put up with them. He wanted to be free.”

Lennon was killed by obsessed fan Mark David Chapman outside of his New York City apartment. He remains behind bars and has been denied parole since 2000.

Stevie Nicks once again reiterated that she has no regrets about cutting ties with Lindsey Buckingham, telling Rolling Stone that she gave her former bandmate and lover “more than 300 million chances.”

The Fleetwood Mac star said she last touched base with Buckingham in 2023 at late bandmate Christine McVie‘s celebration of life, and their brief exchange was enough to reinforce her feelings.

“Christine threw down a hurricane on top of Nobu, which is where we had it,” Nicks said of the celebration. “Almost blew the whole place away, honest to God. Tore down the entire deck that was all decorated and everything. So it was kind of crazy. We all felt like she was there, because it was really intense. The only time I’ve spoken to Lindsey was there, for about three minutes. I dealt with Lindsey for as long as I could. You could not say that I did not give him more than 300 million chances.”

READ MORE: Ranking Every Classic-Era Fleetwood Mac Song

Buckingham’s second tenure with Fleetwood Mac ended in 2018 after his relationship with Nicks deteriorated beyond repair, leading to a lawsuit that was later settled. The band replaced him with Mike Campbell of the Heartbreakers and Neil Finn of Crowded House. Despite their years of seemingly endless feuding, Nicks told Rolling Stone that she’s happy with how and when she and Buckingham ended their working relationship.

“I think that all just happened the way it should have,” she said. “It happened one night, not planned, at a MusiCares [benefit concert]. I didn’t even tell anybody it had happened in my head until the whole ceremony was over. I took with me that night a song that I had done with LeAnn Rimes called ‘Borrowed.’ I took it with me to play for him because I thought we could do this song beautifully.

“That’s when he wasn’t very nice to anybody; he wasn’t very nice to Harry Styles,” she continued. “I could hear my mom saying, ‘Are you really going to spend the next 15 years of your life with this man?’ I could hear my very pragmatic father — and by the way, my mom and dad liked Lindsey a lot — saying, ‘It’s time for you guys to get a divorce.’ Between those two, I said, ‘I’m done.'”

Stevie Nicks Rules Out Fleetwood Mac Reunion (Again), Wishes Lindsey Buckingham Well

Nicks once again ruled out a Fleetwood Mac reunion or farewell tour, answering the question with a simple “no.” (She said earlier this year that “without Christine, no can do.”) She also drew a distinction between the end of Fleetwood Mac and the famously contentious Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, whose Graham Nash said he wished the band had done more together prior to Crosby’s death in 2023.

“Well, and that’s true, but they never played near as much as we did,” Nicks said. “We had lots and lots of time, and lots and lots of tours that could have been the reconciliation tour and ‘now we’re going to quit’ tour. So, I just felt that Christine and I had done everything we could do to make it a happy place. And it wasn’t a happy place anymore.”

Despite their well-documented friction, Nicks said she wishes Buckingham the best in his solo ventures. “I hope he lives a long life and continues to go into a studio and work with other people,” she said. “He’s also an icon, and he can teach people. He’s not stopped in his tracks. He can still make music and have fun.”

Joe Walsh has detailed the challenges that come with playing at the Las Vegas Sphere, including one issue that was nearly a “deal-breaker” for the Eagles.

The beloved band began their residency at the state-of-the-art venue in September. The dazzling performances – which are part of the Eagles ongoing farewell tour – have added another chapter to the group’s incredible legacy. Still, the Eagles were forced to adjust in order to make the Sphere shows work.

“It’s very different onstage,” Walsh admitted during a recent conversation with Rolling Stone. “There are some non-musical things that we have to put up with to make it all work, and we’re OK with that. We’ve had to learn how to do it. At first it was maybe a deal-breaker, but we’ve learned how to do it.”

READ MORE: The Best Song From Every Eagles Album

Probed as to what the biggest technical issue was, Walsh was forthright.

“On the Sphere there’s 160,000 speakers behind the screen,” he explained. “No matter where you sit, you have speakers pointing at you, so they don’t have to be really loud. To do that, computers have to delay it a little bit from what we’re doing. Because it goes to everywhere in the Sphere and comes out of these speakers all at the same time, there’s a delay there to process that.”

“If we’re aware of that, we can’t play,” Walsh continued. “It’s like singing the national anthem at a baseball stadium. [The sound from] right field comes right back at you, and then left field comes back at you, and then center field. There’s three of you and you don’t know which one you are.”

How Did the Eagles Fix Their Sphere Sound Issue?

To combat the issue, the Eagles enlisted special in-ear monitors, ensuring that the band hears itself and nothing else.

READ MORE: 5 Stunning Moments From Eagles’ Sphere Opening Night

“It’s all there, and everybody hears everything at the same time,” Walsh noted. “And adjusting to what we do is different than 30 years of touring that we know about.”

Eagles will continue performing weekends at the Sphere through 2025. The final concert of the residency was originally scheduled for late January, but the band has extended their stay due to popular demand. Their closing gig is now set for March 15.

Eagles 10 Most Famous Concerts

A lip-syncing scandal hit the October 23, 2004 episode of Saturday Night Live when pop singer Ashlee Simpson was caught using backing vocal tracks instead of singing live.

The Saturday Night Live staff, including longtime producer Lorne Michaels, later said they were never told of Simpson’s plan to use backing tracks. She also became the first guest to walk off the show while it was live on the air.

Simpson later explained that she had lost her voice prior to the show due to a battle with severe acid reflux, and had been pressured by her record label to lip-sync while previously recorded tapes of her singing were played along with her band’s live instruments.

The plan worked fine during the first song Simpson performed, “Pieces of Me.” But as you can see in the video below, when she returned to perform a second song entitled “Autobiography,” her drummer reportedly pressed the wrong button, causing the vocals for “Pieces of Me” to play again.

Watch Ashlee Simpson’s ‘Saturday Night Live’ Lip-Sync Malfunction

Simpson was caught totally off guard, with the microphone nowhere near her face. As her band gamely tried to keep things rolling, she looked around in confusion, briefly danced a jig, then dejectedly walked off stage. Her now-abandoned musicians continued to play for another 30 seconds before the broadcast mercifully cut to commercial.

During the traditional end of show group farewell segment, host Jude Law addressed the malfunction. “Ladies and gentleman, what can I say… live TV!” “Exactly, I feel so bad,” a clearly embarrassed Simpson explained. “My band starting playing the wrong song. And I didn’t know what to do so I thought I’d do a hoedown. I’m sorry!”

Watch Ashlee Simpson’s ‘Saturday Night Live’ Apology

By sheer luck, the revered CBS news program 60 Minutes was documenting the filming of this particular SNL episode for a feature that ran later that month. Their cameras captured Simpson’s difficulties during rehearsals, the staff’s shock at the on-air malfunction, and a tearful Simpson rushing off the set.

Watch the ’60 Minutes’ Report on Ashlee Simpson’s ‘SNL’ Mishap

When interviewed for the segment, Michaels said he was “absolutely not” told of the lip-syncing plan, but did concede that some artists had previously employed backing tracks when appearing on the show: “I think the only time is during dance breaks, where if it was all about dance… and that’s a relatively recent development.”

He also declared that he wasn’t too worried about the negative feedback the incident garnered – which, granted was mostly aimed at Simpson, not the show. “I don’t have any big welts or bruises. Life goes on, the great part about Saturday Night Live is there’s always next week.”

During a 2015 appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, Simpson declared that she was “completely” responsible for what went wrong. “I should’ve said ‘No, I will not go on. I will not do this.'”

Looking back at the incident in 2024 on Broad Ideas With Rachel Bilson and Olivia Allen, the singer added that she knew right away that she should have resisted the pressure from a label executive to use the tapes: “My band’s never practiced this, this is not going to go well.”

Overall, Simpson said the experience taught her an important lesson. “It was a humbling moment for me. I had the No. 1 song. It was like, everything was about to go somewhere and then it was just, like, ‘Whoa!’ The humility of not even understanding what grown-ass people would say about you. Awful, awful things. I had to learn to tune that out.”

Simpson was invited back to Saturday Night Live as a musical guest the following year, appearing without incident on the Oct. 8, 2005 episode.

Geezer Butler has shared his memories of Black Sabbath‘s infamous Stonehenge incident.

It was 1983 when the group briefly welcomed former Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan into their ranks. Together, they recorded Born Again, an album which was roundly panned by fans and critics alike. Still, the bigger embarrassment came with its associated tour.

Inspired by other artists on his roster — including Electric Light Orchestra and Ozzy Osbourne — manager Don Arden sought to mix theatrical elements into Black Sabbath’s concerts.

READ MORE: Geezer Butler Recalls ‘Heartbreaking’ Decision to Fire Ozzy

“ELO had a flying saucer landing on stage at their gigs,” Butler recalled during a recent appearance on the Bob Lefsetz podcast. “[Arden] put on the most spectacular shows you could imagine and, he was doing [them] with Ozzy as well.”

“Don Arden came up with this idea of having Stonehenge as the backdrop,” Butler continued. “As we were playing, the sun would gradually rise behind the Stonehenge like normal Stonehenge.”

What Went Wrong With Black Sabbath’s Stonehenge?

Unfortunately, the stage production Arden dreamt up for Black Sabbath didn’t go to plan. The manager mistakenly wrote down the design in meters rather than feet, creating an oversized problem.

READ MORE: Black Sabbath Albums Ranked Worst to Best

“They got all the dimensions wrong,” Butler recalled, laughing. “So when we finally went on tour with it, it was too big to put it in any of the gigs, so we had to leave it on the docks in New York. So that was a total fiasco.”

Black Sabbath’s Stonehenge faux pas would inspire a famous scene in 1984’s This Is Spinal Tap. Meanwhile, Sabbath continued suffering through a tumultuous time period. The band went on hiatus after Gillan departed to rejoin Deep Purple. Sabbath eventually returned for 1986’s Seventh Star, however only Tony Iommi remained from the group’s original lineup.

Watch the ‘Spinal Tap’ Stonehenge Scene

Alex Van Halen said David Lee Roth used to tell Eddie Van Halen to play fewer guitar solos.

The drummer asserted that Roth’s increasing jealousy over Eddie’s popularity led to the singer quitting the band in 1985.

“He couldn’t handle the fact that Eddie was getting more attention than he was,” Alex wrote in his memoir, Brothers. “He kept asking Eddie to play fewer guitar solos. Dave was convinced he was going to be a movie star.”

READ MORE: Alex Van Halen Says David Lee Roth Tanked EVH Tribute Tour

As previously reported, Alex described Roth’s departure as a “wasteful” moment, saying it had been “the most disappointing thing I’d experienced in my life” up until Eddie’s death in 2020.

He explained that he’d ended his book with the end of the original Van Halen lineup because it marked the collapse of a specific form of energy. “I don’t know where things went wrong,” he reflected. “I have nothing but the utmost respect for Dave and his work ethic. I just think some of his choices were really strange to me, but that’s not my job to figure it out.”

Alex Van Halen Hopes for ‘Brothers’ Movie

Regardless of Roth’s movie-star hopes, Alex recently told Billboard that he’d like to see Brothers become a film. “I learned a long time ago not to put your hope in things that don’t exist yet,” he said. “I know people who would be willing to participate, but it’s a very complex fabric of things that need to happen.”

And he repeated that, as far as he was concerned, Eddie wasn’t gone and never would be. “His spirit’s here, and it’s not something you can grab or touch. There’s something between us that’s just connected on a level that is beyond explanation.

“Scientists will tell you that you cannot destroy energy – it just takes different shapes, and that’s kind of how it is for me with Ed.”

Brian May and Roger Taylor have continued forward with Queen in the wake of frontman Freddie Mercury‘s AIDS-related death, preparing a sparkling reissue of the group’s self-titled debut set for release on Friday. As usual, however, bassist John Deacon remains firmly in the background.

He hasn’t appeared with the band since a single-song performance with Elton John in the Ballet for Life on Jan. 17, 1997, at the Paris National Theatre de Chailioton. “It’s his choice. He doesn’t contact us. John was quite delicate all along,” May told the Daily Mail in 2018. “I haven’t heard a squeak from John,” Taylor added. “Not a single guttural grunt.”

Deacon remained silent a few years ago amid the hoopla surrounding the Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, and more recently when Queen enjoyed a massive financial windfall by selling their catalog. There’s also been no public comment on May and Taylor recent tours with singer Adam Lambert.

READ MORE: The Very Best John Deacon Queen Songs

But the reclusive Deacon remains a voting member in the band’s affairs, May reveals in a new interview with Mojo. “John still has a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ say,” May confirmed. “We get messages that he’s happy with what we’re doing, but he doesn’t want the stress of being involved creatively – and we respect that. Freddie, we can’t talk to, sadly.”

Watch John Deacon’s Last Performance With Queen

Why Did John Deacon Quit Queen?

Deacon’s final song, ironically, was “The Show Must Go On.” But he quit abruptly after the Paris show, telling May and Taylor that he could “never do this again.” He didn’t. “That was John’s last-ever performance – and I could tell he wasn’t happy because he was sort of chain-smoking and very, very nervous,” Taylor remembered in 2022. Deacon had “been severely traumatized by losing Freddie.”

The Ballet for Life with John was one of just three times Deacon performed in public following Mercury’s death in 1991, including the star-studded 1992 tribute concert for Mercury and a 1993 fundraiser for the King Edward VII Hospital.

Along the way, however, May says he and Taylor have gotten a feel for making the right decisions in their absence. “The four of us worked as a team for so long that Roger and I have a pretty good idea what our fellow Queen members would be saying,” he tells Mojo. “This thing is longer than anybody’s marriage.”

You Think You Know Queen?

The Motorhead organization announced a limited-edition book of late leader Lemmy’s doodles.

Titled Ye Book Of Inconsequential Scribbles of Lemmy Kilmister 1st Esq., only 500 copies are available to pre-order now. A short trailer video can be seen below.

“Lemmy was a proud doodler and writer, filling many journals over the years,” the publisher explained in a statement. “He always hoped to see a collection of his unique insights into life get published, and so it is that Motörhead is proud to announce the 500 hand-numbered, limited-edition release.”

READ MORE: An Incomplete Guide to Finding Lemmy Kilmister’s Ashes

Describing the volume as “a highly anticipated collector’s item” featuring “some of Lemmy’s finest doodles,” the statement continued: “Ye Book Of Inconsequential Scribbles offers an unfiltered peek into the mind of a man whose view of the world was wryly humorous and timelessly prescient.

“Each page is a tribute to Lemmy’s unique ability to capture life and those who live it with his trademark unapologetic attitude and wicked sense of humor… [It] both fulfills a wish he had to see these musings in print [and celebrates] the true essence of one of rock’s most influential figures.”

Why Lemmy Didn’t Think He Was an Artist

In a 1996 interview, Lemmy offered some of his thoughts on art within and beyond the music industry, saying: “People with no artistic talent will pass off their work as having talent.”

While he understood that people were simply “trying to make a living… trying to survive,” he added that if avoiding real effort was successful, “there’s no ambition to gain artistic talent; and it becomes an issue of sell, sell, sell.”

He continued: “I don’t think of myself as an artist. Rock ’n’ roll is joy and art isn’t always. It could be – but it could be boring as hell.”

Watch Lemmy’s Book Trailer

See Lemmy in 25 Interesting Rock Movie Facts

When Ozzy Osbourne was fired from Black Sabbath in 1979, it marked the end of the original lineup’s classic era.

During a recent appearance on the Bob Lefsetz podcast, bassist Geezer Butler detailed the difficult decision to dismiss the Prince of Darkness.

“It was heartbreaking because we’d all grown up together. We fought against the odds together,” the bassist explained. “We performed miracles, making the band successful. And it was heartbreaking. It’s like cutting your arm off.”

Despite agonizing over the decision, Butler still believes it was the right move for all involved.

READ MORE: The Day Black Sabbath Fired Ozzy Osbourne

“He definitely needed a change of lifestyle at the time,” the rocker noted, pointing to Osbourne’s increasingly dangerous substance abuse habits. “We were all doing drugs and boozing and stuff like that, but we could still function. Whereas Ozzy, he wasn’t functioning anymore. And we got this house in Bel Air to write an album. Ozzy just wasn’t interested in the music that we were doing.”

According to Butler, the initial suggestion to fire Ozzy came from Black Sabbath’s guitarist, Tony Iommi.

“Eventually Tony says, ‘Ozzy’s got to go. He’s just not interested. The band’s not going to go anywhere if we keep on like this.’ And he says, ‘Actually I was a party the other night and I got talking to this guy called Ronnie James Dio, and he’s got an absolutely brilliant voice, and I think we should give him a go.’”

“So Tony came to the decision to get rid of Ozzy,” Butler continued. “We we hated doing it, but it had to happen for our sake and his sake. And it all worked out great in the end. And Ronnie James Dio came along… He sang to some of the stuff that we’d written and he was brilliant, absolutely just exactly what it needed. And that was the end of the Ozzy era.”

Getting Fired From Black Sabbath Hit Ozzy Osbourne ‘Like a Ton of Bricks’

As you’d expect, Osbourne was stunned when the band told him he was fired.

“He couldn’t believe it. I mean, it’s like a ton of bricks coming down on him,” Butler recalled, noting that Ozzy was suddenly alone. “I mean, we had each other, but Ozzy didn’t have anybody. And luckily that’s when Sharon came along and saved him.”

Following his dismissal, Osbourne rebounded with one of the greatest second acts in rock history. The singer branched out with a hugely successful solo career, which recently earned him a second induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

READ MORE: Ozzy Osbourne Celebrated With All-Star Performance at Rock Hall

“It surprised me how fast he turned himself around,” Butler admitted, looking back. “And we were totally, really glad that he was successful and he turned his whole life around. It was great because he was successful and we were successful. We were, had one of the biggest selling albums ever of the Sabbath era, and he probably became bigger than Sabbath.”

Bruce Kulick regrets that his final album with Kiss didn’t get its rightful time in the spotlight.

In a new interview with VRP Rocks, which can be seen below, the guitarist explains how 1997’s Carnival of Souls got lost amid the excitement generated by the band’s 1996 original lineup reunion tour.

“It’s a record that got so screwed,” Kulick declares. Prior to the recording of Carnival of Souls, the band’s then-current lineup of Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Kulick and Eric Singer had just completed filming an episode of MTV Unplugged, which concluded with a surprise appearance by founding members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss.

Unbeknown to Kulick and Singer, even as the Carnival recording sessions were taking place the original lineup began negotiating for a worldwide reunion tour that would see them once again don their famous face paint and outrageous stage costumes.

Read More: Kiss Solo Albums Ranked Worst to Best

To make matters worse, Simmons and Stanley were divided about the direction of the new album. Simmons was enthralled by the darker, more serious music being made by grunge and alt-rock bands at the time. Stanley wasn’t sure that sound was right for Kiss. As he explained in the band’s 2001 book Kiss: Behind the Mask, “I never believed the world needs a second-rate Soundgarden, Metallica or Alice in Chains.”

Ultimately, Simmons’ vision won out. Kulick explains that he worked hard to help warm Stanley up to the idea of an “edgier, darker Kiss,” locking himself in a room to come up with riffs and song ideas, and eventually ending up with nine co-writing credits on the album. “I know it’s a record that [Stanley’s] not proud of, yet for some fans, they love it. He’s entitled to that opinion of course,” Kulick tells VRP. “But I look back at Carnival Of Souls and I just wish it was mixed a little differently but I’m still proud of it.”

With a full title of Carnival of Souls: The Final Sessions, the album was unceremoniously dumped into record stores in October of 1997 after being shelved for over a year, and is to date one of only three Kiss albums to have not achieved gold sales status in the United States.

Bruce Kulick Commemorates 35th Anniversary of Kiss’ ‘Hot in the Shade’

Earlier this week Kulick commemorated the 35th anniversary of Kiss’ 1989 album Hot in the Shade by posting a photo of a rare pyramid tchotchke from the record’s promotional campaign, and by offering up a limited edition Pick Tin set with artwork inspired by the album. He will appear at Spooky Empire in Orlando on Nov. 1-3, and at the Las Vegas Guitar show on Nov. 8th and 9th.

Without David Crosby, Graham Nash doesn’t really see the point in a reunion of the three remaining members of CSNY.

“I don’t think that me and Stephen [Stills] and Neil [Young] will ever play together again,” he recently told Rolling Stone. “There’s no heart there. David was the center of it all, as crazy as he was. And my God, he was crazy. But he was the heart of this band. And that’s why I think that if Stephen and Neil and I ever played together, people would be missing Crosby. We would be missing Crosby. It just would be a much colder scene.”

Nash explained that he was in contact with Crosby up until close to the end of his life.

READ MORE: When Crosby, Stills and Nash Sang Together for the First Time

“I really miss him,” Nash said. “I miss him more every day because life is choices, and I only choose to remember the good times that David and I had, the good music that we made together. When I try and think about the bad things that happened, I don’t want to do that. I made the choice to only remember the good stuff.”

A Reunion of Stills and Young

Stills and Young have reunited themselves on a couple of occasions, most recently at the 2024 Harvest Moon charity concert in Lake Hughes, California.

In 2023, Stills and Young played together at the Light Up the Blues charity show alongside Crosby’s son, James Raymond. At that time, Stills described Raymond as having a “singing voice [that] sounds so much like David that it’s scary.”

“I’ve always had so much fun playing those songs, David’s songs,” Stills continued. “We’ve got James, and now we can get the chords, which was always a carefully kept mystery.”

In 2023, Cameron Crowe announced he would direct a Joni Mitchell biopic. Over a year later, he’s offered an update on the film:

“I’m super-excited. We’re going to start in by the end of this year and hopefully have it done for Christmas next year,” he recently told UCR. “You know, similarly to Heartbreakers Beach Party [the recently re-released Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers film, originally directed by Crowe in 1983], it’s Joni’s life, not through anybody else’s prism. It’s through her prism. It’s the characters who impacted her life that you know and a lot that you don’t know. And the music is so cinematic.”

Crowe explained that he and his production team have been working diligently to get the details right before filming.

READ MORE: Underrated Joni Mitchell: The Most Overlooked Track From Each LP

“I found a lot of the people from her early life, a lot of them are still alive,” he explained. “We’ve talked to them and what it was like to know Joni back then, as opposed to now. She’s the same girl from Saskatoon, you know? She’s got a lot of will and grit. It’s a life with a tale worth telling, filled with great music — and I get out of the way, just like Heartbreakers Beach Party. [Laughs].”

Who Will Play Joni Mitchell?

Details on casting remain to be seen. In July of 2023, it was rumored that Meryl Streep was being eyed to play the older version of Mitchell. Streep recently appeared on stage at one of Mitchell’s concerts in Los Angeles, singing alongside Elton John.

“I don’t know how you do what you do, I just know I need it like food,” Streep said in a 2022 video message, played at the MusiCares Person of the Year ceremony where Mitchell was the recipient. “Ever since we were both young girls. We didn’t know each other, but you sang me into being. You sang my life.”

The Rolling Stones grew up and became famous in an era in which finding new music to listen to involved a lot more than it does today.

“Streaming, you know, is…much maligned, but the interesting thing about it is that people of all generations can access music from all periods,” Mick Jagger said to the CBC in 2023. “Before, if I wanted to, you know, buy an old blues record from 1955, that was really difficult. I had to do a mail order; I had to go into a specialist’s shop, even though I had plenty of money. To go and buy it now, I can just – there it is. It’s right there. So what does that mean? Well, that means that kids of 16 can access anything they want.”

We’re not sure of the exact demographic breakdown, but clearly what many millions of listeners want to hear is the Rolling Stones. Below, we’re running down the 20 Most-Streamed Rolling Stones songs. These numbers are taken from Spotify, where the band has over 27 million monthly listeners, and are, of course, subject to change at any given time, but here’s where things stand as of the time of this writing, Oct 22, 2024.

20. “Waiting on a Friend”
From: Tattoo You (1981)
Number of Streams: 59,622,283

“Waiting on a Friend” was one of several songs that was conjured up in the early ’70s, only to be placed on the back burner and revisited for 1981’s Tattoo You. This one is made particularly special with the presence of Nicky Hopkins on piano and Sonny Rollins on tenor saxophone.

19. “Anybody Seen My Baby?”
From: Bridges to Babylon (1997)
Number of Streams: 67,134,652

We’ve got to be honest: we weren’t really expecting a Bridges to Babylon track to be this high up on the Stones’ streaming list. Nevertheless, “Anybody Seen My Baby?” comes in at slot 19 — perhaps it has something to do with an actress by the name of Angelina Jolie who starred in the song’s music video.

18. “Tumbling Dice”
From: Exile on Main St. (1972)
Number of Streams: 93,474,001

“Tumbling Dice” has a little bit of all of the Rolling Stones’ influences. It’s built, naturally, on a foundation of bluesy-rock, but with a dash of gospel in the background vocals and an air of country thanks to the lyrics about a lone crap shooter who just can’t seem to quit gambling and the women that come with it.

17. “Ruby Tuesday”
From: Between the Buttons (1967)
Number of Streams: 113,734,627

Keith Richards probably wouldn’t argue with the idea that he’s a guitar player first, songwriter second. But even from the Stones’ early days, he was penning tracks that would ultimately become staples of the band’s catalog, including “Ruby Tuesday,” which Richards wrote primarily himself with some contributions from Brian Jones.

16. “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”
From: Sticky Fingers (1971)
Number of Streams: 117,384,560

The primary part of “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” — meaning the section with lyrics and a chorus — lasts for less than three minutes. Then it opens up into a captivating jam which started as an accident in the studio and ended up being included on Sticky Fingers in full.

15. “She’s a Rainbow”
From: Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967)
Number of Streams: 140,490,107

If you attended the Rolling Stones’ most recent Hackney Diamonds tour, then you may have seen the band performing this number as one of their fan-voted songs. It features a string section arranged by John Paul Jones, future Led Zeppelin bassist.

14. “Under My Thumb”
From: Aftermath (1966)
Number of Streams: 150,484,888

“Under My Thumb” has not aged very well. As unique as it is with Jones’ marimba part, the lyrics about controlling one’s partner just do not hold up in 2024. This may be why the Stones have not played it live since 2021, but nevertheless, it’s still a popular Spotify track.

13. “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”
From: 1968 Single
Number of Streams: 166,586,925

Out of their entire catalog, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” is the song the Rolling Stones have played the most in concert. It’s also been used in a number of different films and has been covered by the likes of Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Peter Frampton, Johnny Winter and Leon Russell. What can we say? It’s a gas.

12. “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”
From: Let It Bleed (1969)
Number of Streams: 200,683,241

They say brevity is the soul of wit, but sometimes you just need some extra time to jam, like in “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” which comes in at number 12 on this list. It makes sense with such a catchy, sing-along chorus and explosive final two minutes.

11. “Honky Tonk Women”
From: 1969 Single
Number of Streams: 207,696,274

To be extra clear: coming in at number 11 is “Honky Tonk Women,” the 1969 non-album single. The Stones later recorded an even more country-inspired version, “Country Honk,” for the album Let It Bleed, the same yet different song that has a place much further down the Spotify streaming list.

10. “Miss You”
From: Some Girls (1978)
Number of Streams: 237,697,141

Who can resist that four-on-the-floor disco drum beat and smooth walking bass line in “Miss You” from 1978’s Some Girls? Hundreds of thousands of Spotify streamers cannot. Honorable mentions are due for Sugar Blue on harmonica, Ian McLagan on electric piano and Mel Collins on tenor saxophone, whose contributions no doubt helped make the song a No. 5 hit in both the U.S. and U.K.

9. “Brown Sugar”
From: Sticky Fingers (1971)
Number of Streams: 256,521,755

Like “Under My Thumb,” “Brown Sugar” has really not aged very well with its racial references, which would explain why the Stones no longer include it in their set lists. But that has hardly stopped the Sticky Fingers song from firmly planting itself in the top 10 most-streamed Stones songs.

8. “Wild Horses”
From: Sticky Fingers (1971)
Number of Streams: 290,678,545

The Stones may hail from Great Britain, but there is no denying their knack for interpolating elements of country and blues into their rock ‘n’ roll catalog. “Wild Horses” from Sticky Fingers is arguably one of the best examples of that, right down to the slightly southern twang in Jagger’s vocal.

7. “Angie”
From: Goats Head Soup (1973)
Number of Streams: 384,549,963

“Angie” is the only song on this list that comes from 1973’s Goats Head Soup, but to be fair, it was a No. 1 hit in the U.S. and No. 5 in the U.K. Sometimes you just need a tender ballad on a Spotify playlist to slow the room down.

6. “Beast of Burden”
From: Some Girls (1978)
Number of Streams: 476,160,715

Here’s another slower number. “I’ve always felt it’s one of my best soul songs,” Richards told Harper’s Bazaar in 2017. “Some of the theories surrounding it are very intriguing, but they’re about as divorced from reality as can be. I find it quite amusing that there are people in the world who spend a lot of their time trying to decode something that is, at the end of the day, completely undecodable. I mean, even I’ve forgotten the code!”

5. “Sympathy for the Devil”
From: Beggars Banquet (1968)
Number of Streams: 609,070,232

There were very nearly two Beggars Banquet songs on this list — “Street Fighting Man” just barely missed out by being the 21st most-streamed Stones song. So that left us with “Sympathy for the Devil,” the opening track from the 1968 album and an undeniable crowd favorite at live shows with its “woo woo” vocal chant.

4. “Gimme Shelter”
From: Let It Bleed (1969)
Number of Streams: 645,339,927

There’s a lot of words one could use to describe “Gimme Shelter” off 1969’s Let It Bleed: commanding, violent, graphic, apocalyptic, etc. “It was a very moody piece about the world closing in on you a bit,” Jagger said to NPR in 2012. “When it was recorded, early ’69 or something, it was a time of war and tension, so that’s reflected in this tune.”

3. “Start Me Up”
From: Tattoo You (1981)
Number of Streams: 710,503,318

There’s really no better way to get a party going than with a song literally titled “Start Me Up.” Richards’ guitar intro alone — which has become something of his signature riff — is enough to get peoples’ attention. For good reason, this was the Stones’ biggest hit of the ’80s in the U.S.

2. “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”
From: 1965 Single
Number of Streams: 771,158,120

Even people who don’t know much about the Rolling Stones recognize the central riff in “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” one of the most memorable guitar parts ever recorded in rock music. It famously came to Richards in his sleep and the rest, as they say, was history.

1. “Paint It, Black”
From: Aftermath (1966)
Number of Streams: 1,313,396,224

Here we have it: the most-streamed Rolling Stones song. It’s been nearly 60 years since “Paint It, Black” was released on Aftermath, just as Jagger and Richards were really starting to settle into their songwriting partnership. Of course, it’s impossible to overlook the sitar contribution from Jones, an innovative move for ’60s pop rock music.

Iron Maiden paid tribute to the late Paul Di’Anno, who sang on the band’s first two albums, during their concert on Tuesday evening (Oct. 22) in Minneapolis. Di’Anno’s passing was announced earlier this week.

The vocalist’s work with the NWOBHM legends on 1980’s Iron Maiden and 1981’s Killers was an important part of their development as a group, as longtime frontman Bruce Dickinson shared with the audience, prior to a performance of “The Time Machine,” from the band’s latest album, Senjitsu. He described Di’Anno’s role on those early records as “instrumental” and “groundbreaking,” praising his “amazing voice, devoted to rock and roll right up to the last minute of his life.”

Dickinson then asked the Minneapolis fans to pause for a moment of silence, mentioning again, “those early albums when obviously, I wasn’t in the band,” going on to reference Di’Anno’s subsequent post-Maiden work, including his band Battlezone. “Take a few seconds to just close your eyes in silence,” he added. “Just internally, mentally, if you believe in God, if you don’t believe in God, it actually doesn’t matter. Just believe in what you believe in and just say, ‘thanks, boss,’ for doing what he did.”

He then addressed Di’Anno directly. “This is a little message from Minneapolis to wherever you are, upstairs or downstairs, you’re having fun.” His closing words came back to the fans, “Minneapolis, for Paul Di’Anno, scream for me!” You can watch the group’s tribute to their former frontman below.

The band had previously paid tribute to Di’Anno on social media as news of his passing spread, praising his “pioneering presence as a frontman and vocalist, both on stage and on our first two albums.”

Di’Anno’s time with Iron Maiden came to a close not long after Killers was released as they began touring in support of the album. Tension developed between the singer and his bandmates and as the situation became more erratic, he was eventually dismissed in September of 1981 following the band’s performance in Denmark. He went on to form a number of different bands and also enjoyed a successful solo career.

2024 brought the release of his latest album of new material under the name of Paul Di’Anno’s Warhorse. The band issued its self-titled debut in July and Di’Anno gave one of the first copies to Dickinson as the pair met for the first time. It was the latest chapter in a series of ongoing interactions between the two camps. The renewed friendships had been strengthened when he and Harris met up backstage in Zagreb, Croatia, their first face-to-face meeting in nearly 30 years. As the bassist noted on social media, he and Di’Anno had stayed in touch since then, texting about a variety of subjects, including their mutual love for West Ham soccer.

Watch Iron Maiden Pay Tribute to Paul Di’Anno

READ MORE: Watch Bruce Dickinson and Paul Di’Anno Finally Meet

A documentary about Di’Anno’s life and career is expected to make its debut sometime in 2025. It’s being helmed by director Wes Orshoski, who previously worked on well-regarded films about the Damned and Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead. He offered the following update: “The film will be out next year, and details will be forthcoming — the hope is for it to debut at film festivals in early 2025,” Orshoski wrote on social media. “I’m very excited for the Maiden faithful to see it. Once it is released you will see just how tough his life has been over the past decade and how hard he fought to change it. Maybe he’s finally found some peace.”

Sammy Hagar recalled the time his loudmouth ways landed him in trouble with Mick Jones.

The incident took place when Hagar’s solo band opened for Foreigner in 1978, and led to their friendship taking a temporary tumble. As Hagar told Classic Rock in a new interview, the pair had met a few years earlier when Montrose had toured with British rockers Spooky Tooth, which featured Jones at the time.

“We must have done a whole year – 150 shows with those guys,” Hagar said just after inducting Foreigner into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the weekend. “We just hit it off. I dug his guitar sound. I love Spooky Tooth; if you listen to Foreigner, you’ll hear Spooky Tooth in there.”

READ MORE: The Enduring Legacy of Foreigner’s ‘I Want to Know What Love Is’

Citing the example of Foreigner hit “Feels Like the First Time,” the Red Rocker continued: “They always did the half-time choruses, so you hear a lot of Spooky Tooth in there, and I was a Spooky Tooth fan. When Mick quit, I kept in touch.”

He went on to say that he used to joke with Jones about replacing Foreigner singer Lou Gramm. “I’m going, ‘I sing a lot like him – I’m broke off my ass, man!’” Jones’ reply was: “Me too. You were on the West Coast, I was on the East Coast. I couldn’t afford to fly you out for an audition!’”

But Hagar admitted he’d overdone his traditional big-mouth manner during a radio interview while he was opening act on Foreigner’s Double Vision tour. “We bumped heads one time,” the former Van Halen frontman recalled. “They were starting to get big, and I opened for them, and I killed it. I went on to do an encore and they turned the [house] lights on on me…

Sammy Hagar Talked Trash on Radio While Mick Jones Listened

“I said, ‘Hey, fuck it – I’m doing it anyway.’ And we stayed out and did an encore and really got the people [going] like, ‘Now we gotta get behind Sammy ‘cause he got robbed!’”

He continued: “The next day I’m at a radio station in Detroit because we were there the next night. I’m sitting there talking shit – Sammy ’78, beating my chest. ‘Yeah man, we blew ‘em off the stage. They turned the lights on and we did it anyway…’

“I come walking out of the room and Mick Jones is sitting right there, getting ready to go on next. And he looked at me and just put his head down, and I said, ‘Aw, man. Aw, Mick, y’know…’

“But we patched it up – he ended up producing Van Halen’s 5150 – that’s the only time we had a little rub, really.”

Sammy’s Island, Palms Las Vegas

Foreigner isn’t ready to say goodbye. They’ve extended their farewell tour into 2025, and legacy members will be joining the current lineup at select shows along the way. See a complete list of announced dates and venues below.

Original keyboardist Al Greenwood and longtime bassist Rick Wills are confirmed guests, while talks reportedly continue with recently retired founding frontman Lou Gramm. Stalwart songwriter, guitarist and producer Mick Jones no longer regularly tours with the band following a Parkinson’s diagnosis. He also wasn’t on hand as Foreigner was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame over the weekend.

“Performing the incredible catalog of music created by Mick Jones and the rest of the first incarnation of Foreigner is a dream come true for all of us,” Foreigner singer Kelly Hansen said in an official statement. “After 20 years of proudly flying the Foreigner flag, we are thrilled to be periodically sharing the stage with the guys who started it all as we celebrate their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recognition.”

READ MORE: Underrated Foreigner Songs

Foreigner’s inductees included Jones, Gramm, Greenwood, Wills, drummer Dennis Elliott, the late multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald and bassist Ed Gagliardi. An all-star cast welcomed them to the Rock Hall: Demi Lovato sang lead on “Feels Like the First Time,” Sammy Hagar was featured on “Hot Blooded,” and Gramm sang “I Want to Know What Love Is” with Kelly Clarkson.

Jones’ daughter, Annabelle Dexter-Jones, shared a special message from her father: “Thanks to my brothers in song and rock ‘n’ roll who helped build this legacy from the very first single. … I want to thank the fans, the listeners, the dreamers who made this journey possible. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this incredible odyssey. Rock ‘n’ roll is forever.”

Watch Foreigner With Kelly Clarkson at Rock Hall’s 2024 Induction Ceremony

Who is Currently in Foreigner?

Following their induction, Foreigner played the halftime show as the Browns took on cross-state rival Cincinnati in NFL action. Hansen is joined in the current line-up by guitarists Bruce Watson and Luis Maldonado, Jeff Pilson of Dokken fame, keyboardist Michael Bluestein and drummer Chris Frazier.

Foreigner spent the summer sharing stages with Styx on the Renegades & Juke Box Heroes Tour, kicking things off last July in Atlanta. They then played a string of headlining shows through early October with Loverboy as an occasional touring partner. Foreigner’s just-released Turning Back the Time compilation includes a previously unreleased bonus cut featuring Gramm.

Extended Foreigner Farewell Tour Dates
Oct 25-Nov 9: Las Vegas, NV – The Venetian
March 13: Hollywood, FL – Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock
March 15: Clearwater, FL – The BayCare Sound
March 16: St. Augustine, FL – Saint Augustine Amphitheatre
June 11: Highland, CA – Yaamava’ Theater
June 14: Scottsdale, AZ – Talking Stick Resort Pool
June 20: Reno, NV – Silver Legacy Resort and Casino
June 21: Wheatland, CA – Hard Rock Live – Sacramento
June 27: Arnolds Park, IA – Arnolds Park Amusement Park
June 29: Council Bluffs, IA – Harrah’s Stir Cove
July 4: Windsor, ON – Colosseum at Caesars Windsor
July 5: Battle Creek, MI – FireKeepers Casino
July 12: Chippewa Falls, WI – Northern Wisconsin State Fair
July 24: Columbus, OH – Ohio State Fair
July 25: West Bend, WI – Washington County Fair Park
July 26: Mount Pleasant, MI – Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort
Aug. 7: Hamburg, NY – Erie County Fair
Aug. 8: North Lawrence, OH – Neon Nights Country Music Festival
Aug. 28: Vancouver, BC – The Fair at the PNE
Aug. 30: Palmer, AK – Alaska State Fair
Sept. 11: Tulsa, OK – The Cove at River Spirit Casino Resort
Sept. 13: Wright City, MO – Cedar Lake Cellars Winery
Sept. 21: West Springfield, MA – The Big E – Arena
Oct. 3-4: Durant, OK – Choctaw Casino – Grand Theater
Oct. 10-11: Atlantic City, NJ – Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena

Real-Life ‘Spinal Tap’ Stories: Foreigner

Rick Springfield has shared “Lose Myself,” his latest single, which will be included on a new greatest hits compilation in early 2025. You can listen to the new song below.

Big Hits: Rick Springfield’s Greatest Hits, Volume 2, is due for release in the first quarter of the new year, according to a press release. While the track listing for the upcoming collection hasn’t been made public yet, it will help to bring things current for fans who have been out of the loop with the rocker’s output since his initial heyday of chart success in the ’80s. It picks up the story starting with his return to recording with 1999’s Karma. That album is significant, because it was Springfield’s first new record of studio material under his own name since 1988’s Rock of Life and a subsequent motorcycle accident that took him out of circulation for a period.

The release of Karma was an important milestone for Springfield, who had initially resumed touring in 1993. “I think the starting point of the beginning of the second part of my life was with Karma,” he told this writer in 2013. “I’d kind of given it all away before then and really hadn’t thought I’d ever record or tour again. Karma was kind of the rebirth of all of that for me and showed me that I still had something to say and that I was still writing good songs.”

Springfield has released numerous albums since then and Big Hits will compile some of his favorite work from the last two decades, including material from his most recent album, 2023’s Automatic. “[It’s] more of a fan favorite songs album,” he explained in a statement. “The albums I’ve made in the past 20 years I think are the best work I’ve done, musically.”

Big Hits: Rick Springfield’s Greatest Hits, Volume 2 will be available in a variety of configurations including a deluxe edition from TalkShopLive which adds a number of different bonus items, including a lavish coffee table book signed by Springfield. The book, Burning Film: Rick Springfield Through the Lens, features hundreds of photos taken by photographer Jay Gilbert over the past 20 years. Fans can pre-order the album starting on Nov. 20 when Springfield makes an appearance on the TalkShopLive channel.

The singer continues to tour and recently shared the stage with Sammy Hagar during the former Van Halen frontman’s annual Birthday Bash, which added a Las Vegas stop for the first time. The pair teamed up on “I’ve Done Everything For You,” a song by the Red Rocker that was a hit for Springfield and released on his 1981 album Working Class Dog.

Listen to Rick Springfield’s ‘Lose Myself’

The Rolling Stones have announced their next archival live release. Welcome to Shepherd’s Bush documents their surprise, rarities-packed 1999 concert at an 1,800 seat London venue.

The concert will be available on 4K UHD, a Blu-ray + two-CD set, a two-CD limited edition package and on both black and white two LP black vinyl on Dec. 6. You can pre-order it here.

You can see a trailer for Welcome to Shepherd’s Bush below.

Read More: 10 Highlights From the Stones’ ‘Hackney Diamonds’ Tour

The June 8, 1999 show found the band digging deep into their catalog while warming up for two upcoming shows at London’s massive Wembley Stadium. “If you want to see the hits, go to the big place down the road,” Mick Jagger reportedly told the Shepherd’s Bush crowd. Although classics such as “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “Tumbling Dice” were played, the set list also included gems such as “All Down the Line,” “Some Girls,” “I Got the Blues” and Black and Blue‘s “Melody” – the latter performed for the first time since 1977.

The Rolling Stones, ‘Welcome to Shepherd’s Bush’ Track List

1. “Shattered”
2. “It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll”
3. “Respectable”
4. “All Down the Line”
5. “Some Girls”
6. “Melody”
7. “I Got the Blues”
8. “Brand New Car”
9. “Moon is Up”
10. “Saint of Me”
11. “Honky Tonk Women” (with Sheryl Crow)
12. “You Got the Silver”
13. “Before They Make Me Run”
14. “Route 66”
15. “You Got Me Rocking”
16. “Tumbling Dice”
17. “Brown Sugar”
18. “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”

The years have both scarred and enlivened Tears for Fears. Their 2022 comeback album The Tipping Point was sparked by a reunion, for the first time since 2004, between Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith after Orzabal’s wife died in 2017. The album was informed by her death, as well as the newly forged bond between the longtime collaborators, who went Top 10 across the globe for the first time since 1989’s The Seeds of Love. (Smith was not on Tear for Fears’ 1993 album Elemental.)

The resulting tour, completed in two stages after Smith broke four ribs in an accident that pulled them off the road for a year, was as celebratory as it was a validation. During the interim, their 1985 hit “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” reentered the charts, marking Tears for Fears’ comeback complete.

A victory lap is taken on Songs for a Nervous Planet, the group’s first official live album culled from a July 2023 show in Franklin, Tennessee, that includes fan favorites, songs from The Tipping Point and four new studio tracks. (A companion theatrical film is also being released simultaneously.) It’s the history of Tears for Fears, up to now, in 22 songs.

READ MORE: How Tears for Fears Hit the Big Time With ‘Songs From the Big Chair’

The concert tracks, expectedly, include their best cuts: “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” “Sowing the Seeds of Love,” “Mad World,” “Head Over Heels” and “Shout” are all here, glimmering in their new settings while retaining the vintage new wave sparkle that made them hits four decades ago. It’s a little bit nostalgic but more than that it’s confirmation that Tears for Fears’ art-minded synth-pop hasn’t aged much in that time. These are great songs played by guys relishing their latest chapter.

Songs for a Nervous Planet‘s four new songs continue the path they trailed on The Tipping Point. There’s purification and spectacle on display as Orzabal and Smith continue their healing process. From the deceivingly joyous “Say Goodbye to Mum and Dad” (“Go tell all your friends society’s gone mad“) to the sweetly melancholic “The Girl That I Call Home” to “Astronaut,” about finding peace in being alone, this is assured art-pop for modern times that never neglects the duo’s past.

Alex Van Halen has released the full version of “Unfinished,” the last song he wrote with Eddie Van Halen before the guitarist’s death.

The six-minute piece – subtitled “Between Us Two” – had been teased ahead of its inclusion in the audiobook version of Alex’s memoir Brothers, which is published today.

The track was made available for free download via the Van Halen website, and can be heard below.

READ MORE: All 75 David Lee Roth-Era Van Halen Songs Ranked Worst to Best

Brothers is a personal and emotional exploration of the siblings’ early years right up until David Lee Roth’s initial departure from Van Halen in 1985. Alex previously explained that he felt it became a different band after the “waste” of their split with the singer.

In a recent interview with the Guardian, Alex said he hadn’t fully dealt with Eddie’s passing in 2020 after a cancer battle. “In fact, I’ll probably be dealing with it until my dying day,” he reflected.

Alex Van Halen Says Eddie Could Have Been Alive Today

He added that his younger brother might still be alive had he paid attention to his family. “This is probably a spiritually, psychically wrong thing to say; but had Ed listened to our dad, he’d still be here. Instead, he did everything he could to fuck that up … We owe everything to [Dad]. He was the icon, the one who we respected.”

Citing the example of Eddie’s way of dealing with his initial tongue cancer diagnosis in 2000, saying: “[R]ather than going to an oncologist, he went to an oral surgeon, who used a blade that could fell a tree to cut part of his tongue out. Ed, what the fuck are you thinking?”

He also reported that their mom had pushed them to learn classical music as a way of fitting in as immigrants to America – and she’d always regarded Van Halen’s music as “a disgrace.”

Eddie and Alex Van Halen – ‘Unfinished / Between Us Two’

The Beatles changed the face of music within a decade of time. But even generations later, their influence and legacy continues to grow, and one way to prove that is through their streaming numbers.

At the time of this writing, the Beatles are ranked the 103rd most listened to artist in the world on Spotify and have over 36 million monthly listeners. Compared to contemporary artists — Taylor Swift for example, who was the single most listened to artist on Spotify in 2023 – these may not seem like very impressive numbers. But when one considers that the Beatles predated the streaming era by several decades and broke up over 50 ago, it’s impossible to dismiss this feat.

But what if we break it down even further? Which Beatles songs have been streamed the most? Below, we’re counting down the 20 most-streamed Fab Four songs. The below data concerns Spotify numbers specifically, the most popular music streaming service globally, and is of course, subject fo fluctuations. But at of the time of this writing (Oct. 18, 2024), here’s where things stand.

20. “All You Need Is Love”
From: 1967 Single
Number of Streams: 207,147,492

Even people who know very little about the Beatles and their catalog are familiar with the sing-along chorus of “All You Need Is Love,” an anthem of the flower power movement that frankly is just as relevant today as it was in 1967.

19. “Strawberry Fields Forever”
From: 1967 Single
Number of Streams: 217,356,703

When “Strawberry Fields” was first released in 1967, many were unsure exactly what to make of it —  “utterly bizarre, creative, strange and different,” as Pete Townshend put it. Yet, decades later, it’s become almost synonymous with John Lennon‘s whimsical style of songwriting and serves as the namesake of a memorial in New York City’s Central park, located steps from where the Beatle was murdered.

18. “And I Love Her”
From: A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
Number of Streams: 224,348,905

Interestingly, the Beatles only played “And I Love Her” once outside of the studio for a BBC radio program. Nevertheless, the song got a spotlight in the 1964 film A Hard Day’s Night, propelled by that lovely acoustic guitar riff from George Harrison.

17. “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”
From: Rubber Soul (1965)
Number of Streams: 225,819,072

Like a number of Beatles songs, 1965’s “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” helped introduce previously unfamiliar musical sounds — what is now often referred to as “world music” — to Western audiences. In this case, it was the sitar, which Harrison was only just then learning to play. Artists like Brian Jones, Donovan and the Byrds would take inspiration for songs like “Paint It Black,” “Sunshine Superman” and “Eight Miles High,” respectively.

16. “A Hard Day’s Night”
From: A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
Number of Streams: 229,947,140

It’s a puzzle music fans have been trying to understand for ages: the opening chord to “A Hard Day’s Night.” Even today, there are a multitude of interpretations of what, exactly, it is and how to play it, but there is no denying it’s an attention-grabber.

15. “Love Me Do”
From: 1962 Single
Number of Streams: 245,380,793

Isn’t it amazing that the Beatles’ debut single, 1962’s “Love Me Do,” is still one of their most popular songs in 2024? By today’s standards, the style of the song might seem…simplistic, but in the early ’60s, it planted the seed for what was to come.

14. “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”
From: The Beatles (aka the White Album) (1968)
Number of Streams: 276,521,161

John Lennon reportedly didn’t care for Paul McCartney‘s “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” but that may have had more to do with the fraught atmosphere in the studio at the time than with the song itself. Clearly, hundreds of thousands of other people on Spotify don’t agree with Lennon’s opinion.

13. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
From: White Album (1968)
Number of Streams: 282,692,365

Harrison was frankly ahead of his time with “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” in 1968. Just a few years later, early ’70s rock radio was chock full of grand rock ‘n’ roll opuses like Led Zeppelin‘s “Stairway to Heaven,” Derek and the Dominos‘ “Layla” and others. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” fit right in with them, featuring Eric Clapton on the lead solo.

12. “Eleanor Rigby”
From: Revolver (1966)
Number of Streams: 294,573,739

“Eleanor Rigby” took a two-pronged approach to innovation. For one thing, the orchestral-based arrangement was unlike much before it, or at the very least, was an early example of such a writing style being used by a “rock” artist. (Later there would be things like the Who‘s Tommy and Electric Light Orchestra‘s Eldorado.) But also, the subject matter of “Eleanor Rigby” centered on death and faith, or a lack thereof — not exactly the kind of thing you’d expect from a Top 20 pop hit.

11. “Help!”
From: Help! (1965)
Number of Streams: 339,359,449

“Help!” is arguably a quintessential Beatles song. You’ve got a great lead vocal from Lennon — one of the first instances of him really opening up emotionally as a songwriter — a catchy background part from McCartney and Harrison (the latter of whom also provides a memorable descending guitar riff) and a strong drumming performance from Ringo Starr. All of it is packed into a brief two minutes and 18 seconds.

10. “Something”
From: Abbey Road (1969)
Number of Streams: 351,510,111

“Something” is one of Harrison’s most compelling numbers, both in terms of arrangement and lyricism. In 1982, Frank Sinatra deemed it “one of the best love songs I believe to be written in 50 or 100 years.” It continues to hold a top position in terms of Beatle song streams, 55 years after it was a hit in both the U.S. and U.K.

9. “I Want to Hold Your Hand”
From: 1963 Single
Number of Streams: 445,657,303

As Lennon would later put it to Playboy in 1980, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was the kind of song he and McCartney wrote “eyeball to eyeball.” Hundreds of thousands of advance orders were placed for the 1963 single and in December of that year, it overtook “She Loves You” for the No. 1 spot in the U.K. — the first instance of a band knocking themselves from the top spot in British music history.

8. “In My Life”
From: Rubber Soul (1965)
Number of Streams: 447,264,291

Our guess as to why “In My Life” is in the top ten most-streamed Beatles songs? Listeners love nostalgia, even if it’s not their own. This was primarily written by Lennon, with lyrics that are just vague enough to make it a universal-feeling song.

7. “Blackbird”
From: White Album (1968)
Number of Streams: 506,823,583

McCartney is the only person present on the recording of 1968’s “Blackbird.” It’s just him, his acoustic guitar, tape loops and his foot tapping along to the beat. This might just be the most definitive proof that sometimes less is more, as this track is still influencing artists to this day. Beyonce, for example, covered it for her 2024 album Cowboy Carter, an album that earned over 76 million streams on the first day of its release. (At present, her cover of “Blackbird” has over 42 million streams.)

6. “Twist and Shout”
From: 1963 Single
Number of Streams: 540,840,655

The Beatles didn’t even write “Twist and Shout,” and yet it’s become one of their most-streamed songs. Lennon’s vocal performance alone — “a real larynx-tearer” as producer George Martin would later put it in Anthology — is the standout, an intensity supported by McCartney and Harrison’s girl group-esque backing harmonies. (We’re not sure about you all, but this writer has been to several a wedding where “Twist and Shout” has gotten most everyone on their feet.)

5. “Hey Jude”
From: 1968 Single
Number of Streams: 616,156,743

We’ve reached the final top 5, which means we’re getting into some awfully iconic songs. “Hey Jude” enters the picture here, the first track the Beatles recorded on an eight-track machine. At the 1969 Grammy Awards, it was nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, and won none of them. No matter though — when you think of rock ‘n’ roll epics today, “Hey Jude” clearly still comes to mind for Spotify listeners.

4. “Yesterday”
From: Help! (1965)
Number of Streams: 697,795,122

Not only is “Yesterday” the fourth most-streamed Beatles song, it also has the honor of being one of the most covered songs in the history of recorded music. “I just wish I could have written the song ‘Yesterday,'” Chuck Berry, one of the Beatles’ own heroes, once said.

3. “Let It Be”
From: Let It Be (1970)
Number of Streams: 733,219,575

By the time the Beatles gathered to record 1970’s Let It Be, it was pretty clear that the band would be over soon. Somehow, in the midst of all that tension and creative difference, some of the their best songs were born, like the title track.

2. “Come Together”
From: Abbey Road (1969)
Number of Streams: 778,436,224

“Come Together” manages to combine Lennon’s love of blues with his famous mischievous lyricism. A special shoutout should really be given to Starr, for the smooth drum work on this track.

1. “Here Comes the Sun”
From: Abbey Road (1969)
Number of Streams: 1,439,159,530

It’s ironic really, that Harrison, whose work was often overlooked during his tenure with the Beatles in favor of Lennon-McCartney compositions, would be responsible for the most-streamed Beatles song, “Here Comes the Sun.” It’s an infectiously happy and comforting tune, a fitting topper to this list.

Keith Richards made a surprise appearance last night at the Country Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony for former Elvis Presley guitarist James Burton. The honoree was reportedly unaware that Richards was to appear until he was actually introduced on stage by the hall of fame and museum CEO Kyle Young.

Richards was then joined by Rolling Stones drummer Steve Jordan and others for a ragged run-through of “I Can’t Dance.” Gram Parsons covered the old Tom T. Hall song with Burton on 1974’s Grievous Angel. The onstage lineup included current Eagles touring member Vince Gill and Emmylou Harris, with whom Burton has a long collaborative history, as well.

“What a surprise. They’re all my heroes, all these guys I work with,” Burton said. “And I want to thank God for giving me a small part of being with these people. I’m so honored; I love them all.”

READ MORE: The Best Elvis Presley Songs from the ’70s

Elvis Costello also led an update of “Believe What You Say,” a Ricky Nelson song from 1958 that Burton played on as a teen. Richards sat with Burton on the front row, before leading an all-star closing jam. “We made it, James,” he added before they got underway.

Watch Keith Richards at the Country Music Hall of Fame

When Did James Burton Play With Elvis Presley?

Burton, a Louisiana native, memorably recorded and toured with Presley from 1969 until his death in 1977. That followed a tenure with Nelson from 1957-68. He also was featured on a pair of Beach Boys albums, on 1967’s Buffalo Springfield Again and on a half dozen Monkees LPs. He appeared on the Byrds‘ 1968 album The Notorious Byrd Brothers, collaborated with Joni Mitchell‘s For the Roses in 1972 and did studio work with Costello for roughly a decade beginning with 1986’s King of America.

At the same time, Burton has played on dozens and dozens of country albums. “He made an impact on the world with his playing and he was quite the showman,” Gill said while honoring Burton.

John Anderson and Toby Keith were also inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame at the CMA Theater in Nashville. Keith died earlier this year.

Real-Life ‘Spinal Tap’ Stories: Rolling Stones

Paul Di’Anno, who sang on Iron Maiden‘s first two albums, passed away at the age of 66.