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Alek Olsen’s “Someday I’ll Get It” ties Flo Milli’s “Never Lose Me” for the most consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart, reigning for a fourth straight frame on the April 20-dated survey.
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The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity April 8-14. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50. As previously noted, titles that are part of Universal Music Group’s catalog are currently unavailable on TikTok.
The reign of “Someday I’ll Get It” continues to mostly revolve around its previously discussed loss-based trend featuring deceased pets or family members, though more recent clips – still featuring animals – might also end on a decidedly happier note, too.
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The song concurrently accrued 3.2 million official chart-eligible U.S. streams toward the April 20 Billboard rankings (April 5-11); it falls to No. 25, after hitting a new peak of No. 18 the previous week, on the multimetric Hot Rock & Alternative Songs list.
Each of the weeks the song has ruled the TikTok Billboard Top 50, it’s had a different song at No. 2. That trend continues on the latest tally, with YG Marley’s “Praise Jah in the Moonlight” leaping 14-2. That’s a new peak for the reggae song, after a previous best of No. 7 on the April 6 chart.
The dog that’s the subject behind the TikTok account vikingo606 helps spur some renewed interest in “Praise Jah in the Moonlight” on the latest chart thanks to an April 11 upload asking, “y cuantos likes se gana mi carita? (and how many likes does my face earn?),” referencing other POV-style videos uploaded to the sound that have racked up big numbers on the platform (vikingo606’s boasts 9 million favorites so far).
G-Eazy’s “Lady Killers II,” No. 2 on the April 13-dated survey, falls to No. 3, followed by Artemas’ “I Like the Way You Kiss Me” at No. 4, a new peak after reaching No. 7 a week prior. That’s concurrent with a continued increase in chart-eligible U.S. streams, jumping 12% to 18.8 million listens (enough to boost it into the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, leaping 23-16).
The biggest debut of the week on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 belongs to Lay Bankz’s “Tell Ur Girlfriend,” which debuts at No. 11. The song was released in February but lands on the ranking via a dance trend incorporating its chorus. The viral dance helps the song balloon in chart-eligible U.S. streams, skyrocketing 94% to 5.7 million April 5-11. As a result, it debuts at No. 45 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs list, her first appearance there.
The April 8 solar eclipse seen across North America boosts Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” onto the chart, bowing at No. 13. A four-week No. 1 on the Hot 100 in 1983, Tyler’s classic was oft-used during the eclipse on social media, with TikTok videos using it to soundtrack footage of the phenomenon, memes and more.
See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 here. You can also tune in each Friday to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the premiere of the chart’s top 10 countdown at 3 p.m. ET, with reruns heard throughout the week.
Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” leads a constellation of sun- and moon-related songs on Billboard’s charts in the wake of the solar eclipse seen across parts of North America April 8, ranking at No. 1 on the Hot Hard Rock Songs tally dated April 20.
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The track drew 4.2 million official streams earned (up 34%) and 2.5 million in radio airplay audience (up 19%) and sold 1,000 downloads (up 166%) in the U.S. April 5-11, according to Luminate.
The song becomes Soundgarden’s first No. 1 on the ranking, which began in 2020. (Older songs are eligible to appear on multimetric Billboard charts if ranking in the top half and with meaningful reasons for their resurgences; “Black Hole Sun” was released in 1994 on the band’s album Superunknown.)
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The track also appears at Nos. 13, 15 and 19 on the Hot Rock Songs, Hot Alternative Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs surveys, respectively.
It flares 20-4 on Hard Rock Digital Song Sales, marking its best rank since 2017 (following the death of frontman Chris Cornell), and 14-5 on Hard Rock Streaming Songs, its first time in the top five since the list began in 2020.
“Black Hole Sun” was Soundgarden’s first No. 1 song on any Billboard chart, ruling Mainstream Rock Airplay for seven weeks in 1994.
It’s not the only eclipse-adjacent title on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs. Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising” reaches the chart at No. 24 via 3.3 million streams, 164,000 in radio reach and 1,000 sold, with boosts of 7, 88 and 118%, respectively. The song hit No. 2 for the John Fogerty-led act on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969.
Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” also rotates back onto the all-format Digital Song Sales chart at No. 5, its second week on the tally (which began in 2004); it ranked at No. 13 for a week in September 2017 – also following a solar eclipse that Aug. 21. It sold 6,000, a vault of 634%. The single, a No. 1 for four weeks on the Hot 100 in 1983, also bounded by 133% to 4.1 million streams and 47% to 3.2 million in airplay audience.
Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine,” a No. 3 Hot 100 hit in 1971, boasts new chart activity, too. It debuts at Nos. 136 and 151 on the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S., respectively. It earned 13.3 million streams globally, up 33%, with 5.4 million from listeners in the U.S., up 25%. On the U.S. side, it returns to R&B Digital Song Sales at No. 4 with 1,000 sold, up 45%.
The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” gets in on the action via the Rock Digital Song Sales survey, returning at No. 11 with 1,000 sold, up 114%. King Harvest’s “Dancing in the Moonlight” holds at No. 10 (2,000, up 23%) and Pink Floyd’s “Eclipse” re-enters at No. 14 (1,000, up 512%).
The Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart features a different version of “Total Eclipse of the Heart”: Nicki French’s, from 1995, new at No. 8 (1,000, up 830%).
Interest in the lyrics of eclipse-themed music drives Pink Floyd’s “Eclipse” onto Billboard’s LyricFind U.S. chart, at No. 18. It joins Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” which appeared on the previous ranking at No. 22 and jumps to No. 16.
According to LyricFind, “Total Eclipse of the Heart” snagged a 3,712% increase in lyric usages and searches, while “Eclipse” earned a corresponding 3,153% bump.
The 2024 Tribeca Festival is just around the corner and this year’s selections feature a number of anticipated documentaries about musical luminaries from the rock, pop, country and EDM worlds.
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The festivities will kick-off on June 5 with the world premiere of Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge, a profile of the life of the fashion designer and cultural icon directed by Tribeca alum Trish Dalton and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.
Over the course of nearly two weeks (June 5-16) the fest will feature screenings of a number of important music docs, including They All Came Out to Montreux, a look at the half century-old annual jazz festival in Switzerland featuring Prince, Carlos Santana, Sting, Aretha Franklin and the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards.
Attendees will also be able to check out Linda Perry: Let It Die Here, a look at the mega-successful former 4 Non Blondes singer-turned-songwriter-producer featuring Dolly Parton, Brandi Carlile and Christina Aguilera, as well as a film about late EDM superstar Avicci, Avicii – I’m Tim, featuring Coldplay’s Chris Martin and David Guetta. In addition to screening the doc Satisfied about actress/singer Renée Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton, Girls5eva), Goldsberry (and Perry) will perform after the world premieres of their respective films.
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Other music films will look at the careers of techno producer Carl Craig (Desire: The Carl Craig Story), civil rights activist/singer Harry Belafonte (Following Harry), Bruce Springsteen guitarist and actor “Little” Steven Van Zandt (Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple), performance artist/singer Genesis P-Orridge (S/He Is Still Her/e – The Official Genesis P-Orridge Doc) and 1990s alternative goddess Ani DiFranco (1-800-ON-HER-OWN), as well as a doc about the the new crop of country insurgents, Rebel Country, featuring Blanco Brown, Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson and BRELAND.
“Each year, the Tribeca Festival reflects our culture, capturing the essence of the present moment. We’re thrilled to showcase our 23rd edition, delving into captivating explorations of artificial intelligence with Demis Hassabis, thought-provoking discussions on the future of democracy, and so much more,” said Tribeca CEO/co-founder Jane Rosenthal in a statement. “Storytelling possesses a remarkable ability to bring us together, offering hope in these challenging times. We eagerly anticipate engaging with audiences on difficult yet timely subjects.”
Among the features on tap this year are a film about a young woman growing up on the Oglala Lakota reservation in South Dakota, Jazzy (Lily Gladstone), Daddio (Dakota Johnson, Sean Penn), the Brat Pack doc Brats (directed by Andrew McCarthy and featuring Demi Moore, Ally Sheedy, Rob Lowe, Molly Ringwald and Lea Thompson), Sacramento (Michael Cera, Kristen Stewart, Maya Erskine) and Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story featuring archival footage of Liza Minnelli.
Other films on tap include Group Therapy (Neil Patrick Harris, Mike Birbiglia, Tig Notaro), All That We Love (Margaret Cho, Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and a deep dive into the world of queer stand-up, Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution (Lily Tomlin, Wanda Sykes, Rosie O’Donnell, Hannah Gadsby and Joel Kim Booster).
According to a release, this year’s films “speak to today’s political moment and inform voters ahead of the upcoming election,” including the screening of Hacking Hate, a Simon Klose film that “questions the role of social media in amplifying hate speech and extremism.” Among the other politically charged films are McVeigh, an exploration of chilling modern implications of right-wing extremism directed by Mike Ott and America’s Burning, in which Michael Douglas narrates director David Smick’s look at the roots of hate and division.
The Cranes Call is a profile of war crimes investigators for the Clooney Foundation For Justice in which director Laura Warner gives a look at the brave staffers for the organization founded by George and Amal Clooney as they risk their lives traversing war-torn Ukraine to gather evidence for cases against Russian soldiers and commanders. There will also be a look into Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s deadly, repressive regime (Antidote) and a doc about the daring rescue of animals trapped behind enemy lines in Ukraine, Checkpoint Zoo.
This year’s sprawling program will include 103 features from 114 filmmakers from 48 countries — out of a record 13,016 submissions — including 86 world premieres, two international premieres, six North American premieres and eight New York premieres; in addition, half of the films in competition were directed by women and 35% (36) were directed by BIPOC filmmakers.
Check out a 2024 Tribeca sizzle reel below.
You may not think of Buddhist philosophy and Huey Lewis as the same time very often, but it works for him when considering The Heart of Rock and Roll, the jukebox musical inspired by the song catalog of his band, the News.
“Y’know, Zen Buddhists say you need something to love, something to hope for and something to do — so for me, thank God for this show,” Lewis tells Billboard from New York City. The musician has been residing in the Big Apple to help prepare the musical comedy — which was first staged during 2018 in San Diego — for its April 22 opening at Broadway‘s James Earl Jones Theatre.
“This is, like, bonus time for me,” he continues. “It wasn’t something I’ve ever aspired to. I never thought about having a Broadway show. But it’s been a real kind of gift for me and a blessing for me because I don’t have anything else. It’s given me a creative outlet since I lost my hearing.”
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Lewis revealed his hearing struggles back in 2018, after he was diagnosed with Meniere’s disease, an inner-ear disorder that’s rendered him unable to sing with the band, scuttling any hopes of live performances for a group that was a dependable annual fixture on the touring circuit. And, Lewis reports, things have not been getting any better. “My hearing’s collapsing,” he laments, although he’s still fighting via a variety of therapies and a recent ocular implant.
The News dug into its vaults for a new album, Weather, in 2020, but his creative focus has been The Heart of Rock and Roll, which has been in previews since March 29. A love story and comedy in which the lead character, Bobby (portrayed by Corey Cott), grapples with his continuing rock n’ roll dreams within a comfortable corporate life, was written by Jonathan A. Abrams from a story he crafted with Tyler Mitchell of Imagine Entertainment. Brian Usifer arranged the songs for the stage.
“He sort of reimagined all the songs in kind of a wonderful way,” Lewis explains. “Rearranging them is more what he did, although more than that because he sort of zigs where the song zags and stays away from our version of things. It’s very interesting, and it’s gratifying to see the songs live this other life. You’re kind of happy for the songs, really.”
Some of the lyrics have been changed — with permission and buy-ins, Lewis says — “to push the story forward.” But he was conscious of maintaining a balance between the songs’ stage life and their original versions.
“It’s a balancing act; you don’t want to lose the credibility of the songs,” Lewis says. “That’s one of the problems these jukebox musicals have. In the old days, you write for a musical, and then those songs became popular when Sinatra or Dean Martin or somebody covered them. Nowadays, they’re wrapping whole shows around popular songs. But one of the reasons that’s happening is you need recognizability to open these shows, ’cause it’s so competitive.”
The idea for The Heart of Rock and Roll came up during a conversation with Mitchell’s in-laws, who are Lewis’ neighbors in both Montana and Ross, Calif. “They had me over for dinner for my birthday, and Tyler was there as well, and we started talking about Mamma Mia, ’cause I love Mamma Mia,” Lewis recalls. “And [Mitchell’s father-in-law] said to him, ‘You should do a musical on Huey’s music.’ I didn’t know about this at the time, but Tyler was a huge fan. He knows our music really well. He knows the lyrics better than I do! So he and Jonathan Abrams printed out all of our lyrics and put ’em on the wall and they immersed themselves, and this story emerged. They came to me with their very first draft, and it was very good.
“Of course, that was seven years and nine drafts ago,” he adds. “It’s only gotten better.”
Lewis says the show has changed “significantly” since its 2018 stagings at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. “There are probably four new songs, some different scenes,” he notes. The story is set in the ’80s, which Lewis says allows it to “poke fun at Sony Walkmans and cassettes, a bunch of material there.” And while it’s not biographical in any way, there are elements of the book that related to Lewis’ own life.
“It’s actually got a lot of parallels, even though the story is not about me at all, or my band,” Lewis says. “Bobby’s 28, the same age I was when I formed Huey Lewis and the News. We’d been playing in bars for 12 years, and I had [the band] Clover that didn’t work out. So [the News] was my last shot, probably, at the ripe old age of 28, 29.”
Lewis drew on that to write the musical’s sole original song, “Be Somebody,” with Usifer and News bandmate Johnny Colla.
“Barry [Edelstein], the director in San Diego, said it’s customary in a musical to have the lead character sing a song early in the show, which articulates all of his or her aspirations, hopes, goals, etc.,” Lewis says. “Bobby’s got a day job, so I understood the anxiety he felt. So we wrote a song in which I kind of channeled that stuff a bit. I sang the melody, verse chords and words into my iPhone. Johnny tweaked the chorus, demoed it up, and Brian wrote the bridge chords.
“It’s fun to write for characters,” Lewis adds. “It’s liberating. You don’t have to write something that’s true to yourself. You can write for the character, and that fosters creativity.”
A Broadway cast album has already been recorded, according to Lewis, and is currently being shopped for a label deal. He’d love to record a News version of “Be Somebody,” too, but is uncertain about his ability to sing it. Regardless, the other News members will be on hand for a celebration April 19 in New York, and during his red carpet moments, Lewis will be sporting a new suit courtesy of good pal Jimmy Kimmel and his wardrobe director for Jimmy Kimmel Live!
“We’re texting, and he said, ‘I’m buying you a suit for the premiere,’” says Lewis, who hosts Huey’s ’80s Radio for Apple Music. “I said, ‘That’s strange … Where did you get the notion to buy me a suit? Is it the fact that you’ve seen me in those same two suits I wear all the time, over and over?’ And he nods his head, ‘Yep.’ [laughs] That’s a friend, right?”
Three years after he blew Fab Four fans’ minds with his The Beatles: Get Back series, director Peter Jackson is dipping back into his Beatle bag on May 8 with the re-release of Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s legendary 1970 documentary Let It Be.
The film chronicling the final days of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr will be available for the first time in more than 50 years when it airs exclusively on Disney+ on May 8.
According to a release, the film recorded during the midst of the group’s breakup “now takes its rightful place in the band’s history. Once viewed through a darker lens, the film is now brought to light through its restoration and in the context of revelations brought forth” in Jackson’s Emmy-winning 2021 docuseries.
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“Let It Be was ready to go in October/November 1969, but it didn’t come out until April 1970. One month before its release, The Beatles officially broke up. And so the people went to see Let It Be with sadness in their hearts, thinking, ‘I’ll never see The Beatles together again. I will never have that joy again,’” director Lindsay-Hogg said in a statement. “And it very much darkened the perception of the film. But, in fact, how often do you get to see artists of this stature working together to make what they hear in their heads into songs. And then you get to the roof and you see their excitement, camaraderie and sheer joy in playing together again as a group and know, as we do now, that it was the final time, and we view it with full understanding of who they were and still are and a little poignancy. I was knocked out by what Peter was able to do with Get Back, using all the footage I’d shot 50 years previously.”
In fact, the restored Let It Be features footage that appeared Get Back, taking viewers into the studio and onto the Apple Corps London rooftop in Jan. 1969 for what would be the quartet’s final live performance. It also features the band in the studio writing and recording their Let It Be album. In the wake of the rapturous appreciation for Jackson’s series, and with Lindsay-Hogg’s support, Apple Corps asked Jackson’s Park Road Post Production team to restore Let It Be from the original 16mm negative, a process that also included the remastering of the film’s sound using the same MAL de-mix technology that was employed on Get Back.
“I’m absolutely thrilled that Michael’s movie, Let It Be, has been restored and is finally being re-released after being unavailable for decades,” said Jackson in a statement. “I was so lucky to have access to Michael’s outtakes for Get Back, and I’ve always thought that Let It Be is needed to complete the Get Back story. Over three parts, we showed Michael and The Beatles filming a groundbreaking new documentary, and Let It Be is that documentary – the movie they released in 1970. I now think of it all as one epic story, finally completed after five decades. The two projects support and enhance each other: Let It Be is the climax of Get Back, while Get Back provides a vital missing context for Let It Be. Michael Lindsay-Hogg was unfailingly helpful and gracious while I made Get Back, and it’s only right that his original movie has the last word…looking and sounding far better than it did in 1970.”
On Monday, prior to the announcement — and six months after the Fabs dropped what was billed as their final song, the melancholy “Now and Then” — the Beatles site teased “There will be an answer,” a lyric from 1970’s “Let It Be.” The post was accompanied by four blank frames positioned to resemble the Let It Be album artwork, as well as what seemed like a cryptic clue, “At last…” and the Disney+ and Apple Corps logos.
Though Let It Be premiered in movie theaters in 1970 and was released on home video formats in the early 1980s, it has never been officially issued on DVD, blu-ray or streaming.
Mumford & Sons are back at No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Alternative Airplay chart – and Pharrell Williams leads the list for the first time – thanks to their collaboration “Good People,” which rises to the top of the survey dated April 20. The song becomes Mumford & Sons’ fifth Adult Alternative Airplay leader and […]
Linkin Park earns its 10th No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, as “Friendly Fire” lifts 3-1 on the April 20-dated survey. The song is the band’s second No. 1 in a row, following “Lost,” which reigned for eight weeks starting in March 2023. The group’s list of 10 No. 1s dates to 2003, […]
The reaper is clearly not feared as veteran rockers Blue Öyster Cult make the old new on the group’s latest album, Ghost Stories.
The set, out April 12 on Frontiers Music srl, comprises a dozen songs originally recorded between 1978-1983 (with one from 2016), mostly featuring the original lineup. Initially co-produced by golden age BOC audio engineer George Geranios, the versions on the album were spruced up, and in some cases added to, by band member Richie Castellano and BOC manager Steve Schenck, with remaining co-founders Eric Bloom and Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser participating and brothers Albert and Joe Bouchard returning for some overdubs.
“It sounds like a long-lost BOC record to my ears,” singer-guitarist Roeser tells Billboard. The impetus for the project, he says, came from Italian-based Frontiers, which released The Symbol Remain, BOC’s first new album in 19 years, during 2020 and was pushing for a follow-up.
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“We were casting around for what we might want to do,” Roeser says, “and we had all these archival recordings from back in the day with the original members. Rather than just put it out as a rarities record we went back to those tapes. There were some multi-track tapes and some stereo tapes, and we used modern tools to sort of deconstruct the elements and then process them as if they were contemporary recordings. So the sonics of the LP are pretty modern-sounding. Of course I remember the songs from the day, but they sound like new tracks to me. It’s almost eerie to me to hear the Bouchard brothers back in the band and Allen Lanier still alive.”
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The task of modernizing the tapes fell primarily to Castellano who’s been with BOC since 2004. Nobody needed to twist his arm. “Hearing them play songs that were recorded 20-plus years before I joined the band was like jumping into a time machine. It was the closest I could get to being a fly on the wall for these original sessions,” says the multi-instrumentalist, who’s also part of the Band Geek, which performs and is recording with former Yes frontman Jon Anderson.
Digging into the recordings — which Castellano says were well-preserved by Geranios — he discovered that “each song had its own set of unique challenges and required something different. With the tapes being so old, we encountered frequent dropouts. Hearing parts disintegrate during a song isn’t ideal, so we made a decision to use some new elements to support what was on the tapes.” That included bolstering parts via AI, sampling the original playing to create consistent performances throughout the songs. “With the goal of presenting these songs as complete ideas, we used all of the tools available to us to fill in any missing pieces,” he explains.
“There were spots where the original performance was just too damaged to be salvaged or where we perceived to be a space that needed a part. On those occasions, the best course of action was to pick up an instrument and just play the part.” He also shouts out Joe Bouchard as “incredibly helpful in augmenting these songs. He had a bunch of great ideas for textures and layers that ended up making it to the finished product. For example, on ‘So Supernatural,’ there’s a subtle Vocoder part he added that totally lifts the chorus up for me.”
Roeser says the songs on Ghost Stories “were all contenders” for BOC’s albums during that time — including Mirrors, Cultösaurus Erectus, Fire of Unknown Origin and The Revolution By Night — but that “for one reason or another, they didn’t make the cut. There’s probably a different reason for each one, y’know?” The guitarist purports to have “no opinion” on the original songs, but Castellano lists a few “Holy Grail” finds — including Bloom’s vocal on “Don’t Come Running to Me,” the late Lanier’s piano that kicks off “Shot in the Dark” and Roeser’s solo on a cover of the MC5’s “Kick Out the Jams.”
The latter, in fact, is one of Ghost Stories’ grails for BOC fans at large. The group included a rendition of the song on its 1978 live album Some Enchanted Evening, but this is the only time the band laid it down with studio tapes running. For Roeser it’s also haunting that it’s coming out just two and a half months after the death of MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, who BOC had met over the years.
“I was struck by the time alignment of that,” Roeser says. “They were signed to Elektra when (BOC predecessor) Soft White Underbelly was signed to Elektra, and we went to a couple of their shows. We didn’t really know them personally that much, but when we decided to cover (‘Kick Out the Jams’) Eric talked to Rob (Tyner) about some lyrics that he couldn’t understand.
“The MC5 didn’t get quite the acclaim they should have. They were very important for the time period, the evolution of American rock. I think our version does the MC5 proud.” Another cover is one of Ghost Stories‘ other lost gems, a rendition of the Beatles’ “If I Fell” from 2016, when Kasim Sulton was part of the band. “We used to do it in the dressing room to warm up,” Roeser recalls. “That was recorded when we did the 40th anniversary video shoot in Los Angeles, and it’s been sitting around so we decided to include it on the record.”
Blue Öyster Cult — which also includes bassist Danny Miranda and drummer Jules Radino — continues to perform sporadically and has several shows set for summer, including a June 7 appearance at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame in Stony Brook, NY. Roeser, meanwhile, has been working on a new solo track called “The End of Every Song” that he plans to release this year, but he’s circumspect about the possibility of fresh music from BOC.
“I have the thought, to be honest,” he says. “At this point in our career I don’t think we have anything we have to do. We don’t have anything to prove. So there’s no reason to just put stuff out for its own sake. But if we have something that’s significant and if it’s good, it can come out. But it has to hold up with what we’ve already done…and that’s a pretty high bar.”
In 2019, Sheryl Crow said that her album Threads — a set of collaborations with artist friends such as Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Raitt and Neil Young, among others — would be her last. Five years later, Crow has proved her own pronouncement wrong, releasing Evolution at the end of March, and she came to Billboard News to discuss how it, well, evolved, as well as her career journey up until now.
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“I keep saying this is not an album — it’s more a playlist of new Sheryl Crow songs,” Crow says of Evolution, which was produced by her longtime friend Mike Elizondo. “It feels like an emotional download as opposed to a curated album.”
That download was spurred in large part, Crow reveals, by a decision she made in recent years to “really investigate what it meant to redirect my impulses,” which she endeavored to do through a curated psilocybin journey. “For me, nature is the only place I’ve actually been able to hear myself. And it felt like I was digging through dirt. Like those old science videos, where you see ants digging,” she says.
That experience led her to keep thinking of a favorite Peter Gabriel song, “Digging in the Dirt,” which she told Elizondo about. They recorded a cover, sent it to Gabriel, and he loved it — so much that he sent it back to Crow with his own voice added. “It’s just crazy. I’m a huge believer in manifesting, but I don’t know that I could have manifested that in a thousand years,” Crow marvels.
Evolution is, astoundingly, Crow’s 12th studio album, but her catalog has not diminished in relevance, as evidenced by the still growing number of young women artists who cover hits such as “Strong Enough” and “If It Makes You Happy.” That group includes Olivia Rodrigo, who Crow reveals she first met at Billboard‘s 2022 Women in Music event, where Crow presented the Woman of the Year honor to Rodrigo.
“I listen to her stuff and go, ‘Oh my gosh, I can hear the Breeders, I hear Blondie’ — she’s got that punk rock thing I haven’t heard in so long, but then she has great lyrics and great hooks,” Crow says. “And then I met her, and she came up in the business … but I liked how grounded she was. The fame thing wasn’t her major attraction. She just keeps writing her truth, she’s got the experience that backs up everything in her songs. I just root for her.”
To hear what else Crow had to say, watch at the link above.
Slash found the perfect singer for his cover of the Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac song “Oh Well.” The Guns ‘N Roses guitarist roped in country rocker Chris Stapleton for a take on the song written by original Mac co-founder Green for the group’s third studio album, 1969’s Then Play On.
With Stapleton’s signature gruff vocal leading the track, the blues rock tune from Slash’s upcoming sixth solo album, Orgy of the Damned (May 17), dropped on on Friday morning (April 12). It finds the country singer growling out the iconic lines, “I can’t help about the shape I’m in/ I can’t sing, I ain’t pretty and my legs are thin/ But don’t ask me what I think of you/ I might not give the answer that you want me to/ Oh well” over the top-hatted guitarist’s signature paint-peeling riffs.
The song has a long history of covers, including takes by everyone from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, to Kenny Wayne Shepherd, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Haim, Aerosmith, Jason Isbell, Joe Jackson and the Eels, among many others.
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“So, this is the original Fleetwood Mac, which was founded by Peter Green, one of the greatest singer-songwriter-guitar players, he’s less known in the public, but very well known to us guitar players re the 60s British blues and he’s up there with Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Nick Taylor,” Slash said in a statement. “I remember hearing the song on the radio when I was probably 13, they used to play both the older version of Fleetwood Mac and the new version of the band with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham a lot. I always loved this song, and it’s a great guitar riff. I jammed it with the Blues Ball back in the ‘90s, and I’ve played it live here and there. I knew from the beginning I wanted to do the song on this record. It was also one of the songs that I was trying to figure out who would be the right vocalist for it, and one of the ideas I had was Chris Stapleton, who is one of the most brilliant singer songwriters today. He’s also got such a gritty and distinctive voice, so I called him up and he did an amazing job. I mean, his voice is so cool.”
It is the second single to date from Slash’s album, following on the heels of his previously released take on the blues standard “Killing Floor,” which features AC/DC singer Brian Johnson on vocals and Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler on harmonica.
Orgy is described as an homage to Slash’s love of classic blues, with vocals from Gary Clark Jr., ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Dorothy, Iggy Pop, Paul Rodgers, Demi Lovato, Chris Robinson and Beth Hart. The house band supporting the guitarist on the record included two of his 1990s bandmates from Blues Ball, bassist Johnny Griparic and keyboardist Teddy ‘ZigZag’ Andreadis, as well as drummer Michael Jerome and singer/guitarist Tash Neal.
The album’s track list includes covers of songs by Robert Johnson, T. Bone Walker, Steppenwolf, Albert King, Stevie Wonder and Willie Dixon, among others. Robinson is the musical guest on this weekend’s Saturday Night Live with host Ryan Gosling.
Slash will take the songs on the road this summer with his S.E.R.P.E.N.T festival featuring the Warren Haynes Band, Keb’ ‘Mo, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Robert Randolph, Samantha Fish, Eric Gales, ZZ Ward, Jackie Venson, and Larkin Poe. The North American outing is slated to kick off on July 5 at the KettleHouse Amphitheater in Bonner, Montana.
Check out Slash’s preview and listen to the whole song below.