Rock
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It looks like Kate Bush will stick to running up hills instead of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame stages. The “Wuthering Heights” singer is set to be honored at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Friday night (Nov. 3), but a new statement confirms that she will not attend the Barclays Center-hosted celebration.
Bush opened the statement — which was posted to her official artist website — with heartfelt appreciation. “I am completely blown away by this huge honour – an award that sits in the big beating heart of the American music industry,” she wrote. “Thank you so much to everyone who voted for me. I never imagined I would be given this wonderful accolade.”
Alongside Bush, Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, George Michael, Willie Nelson, Rage Against the Machine and The Spinners will all be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year.
“The RRHOF [Rock & Roll Hall of Fame] has welcomed me into the most extraordinary rostrum of overwhelming talent,” she mused. “When I was growing up my hero was Elton John. I pored over his music, longed to be able to play piano like him and longed to write songs that could move people in the way his work moved me.”
Last year, Bush earned a surprise runaway hit in 1985’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God).” The song climbed all the way to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 — becoming the most successful song of her career on the Billboard charts in the process — after it was used in a pivotal scene in season 4 of the Emmy-winning Netflix sci-fi drama Stranger Things. She referenced the phenomenon, writing, “Last year was such a surprisingly successful time for my track [‘Running Up That Hill’] and I’m sure that a lot of you who’ve voted me [into] the RRHOF also drove that track up the charts. Thank you!”
She continued, “I’m afraid I won’t be able to attend the ceremony tonight, but for me the real honour is knowing that you felt I deserved it.”
Bush did not give any explanation for her absence. For all intents and purposes, Bush’s statement acts as a de facto acceptance speech. She made sure to thank her biggest inspirations and closest collaborators, as well as wax poetic about what music means to her.
“Music is at the core of who I am and, like all musicians, being on the journey of trying to create something musically interesting is rife with feelings of doubt and insecurity,” she wrote in closing. “I’m only five foot three, but today I feel a little taller.”
Click here to read Kate Bush’s full statement.
Pop Evil notches its eighth No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart with “Skeletons,” which rises to the top of the Nov. 11-dated list. The song is the band’s first leader since “Survivor,” which ruled for two weeks in October 2021. In between, Pop Evil notched a pair of top five hits: “Eye of […]
Blink-182 earns its second consecutive and total No. 1 on Billboard’s Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, as “One More Time” tops the Nov. 11-dated ranking.
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The song lifts from No. 2 to No. 1 with 9 million audience impressions, up 11%, in the Oct. 27-Nov. 2 tracking week, according to Luminate.
The song follows the group’s “Edging,” a 17-week leader on the list beginning nearly a year ago.
Concurrently, “One More Time” rules the Alternative Airplay survey for a fourth week. It also rises 5-4 on Mainstream Rock Airplay, marking Blink-182’s second-highest-charting entry, after “Edging” reached at No. 2 in January.
“One More Time” is also bubbling under Adult Alternative Airplay; should it chart, it would become the band’s first appearance there.
The song has crossed over to non-rock radio formats, too. It rises 32-29 on Adult Pop Airplay, having become the band’s first title to make the tally since “I Miss You,” which peaked at No. 24 in 2004.
On the most recently published multi-metric Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart (dated Nov. 4), reflecting activity Oct. 20-26, “One More Time” ranked at No. 10. In addition to its radio airplay, the song earned 3.8 million official U.S. streams and sold 2,000 downloads in that span.
The song is the second single from Blink-182’s LP One More Time…, the trio’s ninth studio album and first since the return of guitarist and vocalist Tom DeLonge. The set debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 dated Nov. 4 with 125,000 equivalent album units earned.
All Billboard charts dated Nov. 11 will update on Billboard.com on Tuesday, Nov. 7.
On the Billboard Hot 100 dated Jan. 18, 1964, Steve & Eydie, the duo of Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé, and The Beach Boys made room for a new act in between them. The former rose from No. 52 to No. 44 with their track “I Can’t Stop Talking About You” and the latter fell 38-46 with “Be True to Your School.”
At No. 45? “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” its debut marking the first Hot 100 hit for The Beatles. The single by the quartet — George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr — would quickly become the group’s first No. 1, beginning a seven-week stay atop the chart dated Feb. 1, 1964.
Just over six years later, The Beatles had racked up a record total 20 Hot 100 No. 1s. With 71 entries, including 34 top 10s, the most among groups, through the chart dated Nov. 4, 2023, the Fab Four’s impact on the Hot 100 has been so huge that the band reigns as the top-performing act in the survey’s history.
Meanwhile, over 59 years since their debut, The Beatles have released what’s billed as their last single together, “Now and Then.” The song, which premiered in full Nov. 2, 2023, completes what Lennon began as a demo tape, Harrison, McCartney and Starr worked on in the mid-1990s, and McCartney and Starr, with the aid of new technology, turned into the latest intriguing chapter in Beatlemania.
Of all their songs, which stand as The Beatles’ biggest Hot 100 hits? Browse their 50 best-performing singles below.
The Beatles’ 50 Biggest Billboard Hits recap is based on actual performance on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 chart. Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at No. 100 earning the least. To ensure equitable representation of the biggest hits from each era, certain time frames are weighted to account for the difference between turnover rates from those years.
“Act Naturally”
After less than one day of airplay, The Beatles’ “Now and Then” debuts at No. 37 on Billboard’s Rock & Alternative Airplay chart dated Nov. 11. In the Oct. 27-Nov. 2 tracking week, “Now and Then” – with all of its airplay logged Nov. 2, after it premiered at 10 a.m. ET – earned 1.1 […]
Olivia Rodrigo officially has the Sheryl Crow stamp of approval. During a Thursday (Nov. 2) appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the nine-time Grammy winner sang the “Bad Idea Right” singer’s praises as she discussed the upcoming Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
“She’s the real deal. She’s precious,” Crow gushed. “She’s a great songwriter. She seems kinda unaffected by all of it, you know? When I was 19 — her age — I was like, ‘How do you fill out this application for college?!’”
Rodrigo — who took some time to attend class at USC’s Thornton School of Music after wrapping the promotional run for her Sour album — is now 20 years old, making her several years younger than Crow’s highest charting Billboard Hot 100 hit, 1994’s “All I Wanna Do” (No. 2).
The “Strong Enough” singer revealed that she first met Rodrigo “last year during a whole bunch of Grammy stuff.” “We wound up on some stuff together, and she’s super cool,” she added. “She asked me to do this thing when she came to Nashville, and so I was like, ‘OK!’”
The “thing” in question was an intimate, stripped-down September performance at The Bluebird Café in Nashville. The pair duetted on Crow’s 1996 hit “If It Makes You Happy” (No. 10).
In the caption for a Sept. 29 Instagram post — which consisted of an adorable photo of the two stars posing with magazines while sitting under hair dryers — Rodrigo wrote, “Pinch me! Sang one of my favorite songs of all time with the greatest of all time @sherylcrow !!!! what an honor!!!!” Crow also reposted the image to her main feed with the caption, “Funnest day ever with the amazingly brilliant @oliviarodrigo! What a talent!! And the loveliest young woman!”
As for Friday’s Rock Hall induction, Crow — who dropped a new song called “Alarm Clock” on Friday (Nov. 3) — explained that she simply “texted [Rodrigo] and said, ‘Hey, would you do the Rock Hall with me?’ And she was like, ‘I’d love to! I’d be so honored!’”
The “Good 4 U” singer — who is also a finalist for top female artist at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards — will again join Crow onstage for a performance at the 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, which kicks off at 8 p.m. ET.
“I was cool with my kids!” Crow quipped of getting Rodrigo to join her.
Watch the “Everyday Is a Winding Road” singer discuss her relationship with Olivia Rodrigo above, and her performance of “Alarm Clock” on The Tonight Show below.
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As Jimmy Buffett worked on his 32nd studio album, Equal Strain on All Parts, earlier this year, he never acknowledged that it could be his final set.
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“I wasn’t necessarily thinking in terms of this being the last thing he had to say, but I think, in retrospect, he probably was,” says guitarist/songwriter Mac McAnally, who has produced Buffett’s albums with his fellow Coral Reefer Band mate Michael Utley since 1997. “But he never let on. He never surrendered to what was actually happening.”
Buffett, 76, died on Sept. 1 after a four-year battle with skin cancer and lymphoma. “There were people in our organization that didn’t know he was ill,” McAnally says. “He didn’t want anybody feeling sorry for him. He just wanted to be this big ray of positivity that he always was. When I went and said goodbye to him the night before he died, he was still smiling just wider than his face.”
After they finished recording in the summer, Buffett kept tinkering with the sequencing, as McAnally realized the beloved singer-songwriter was rearranging the songs to tell his life’s journey. “When he heard the whole album in sequence, he was so proud of this one in a way that I’ve never seen him be,” McAnally says. “And that may be because he knew it was the last one and he got it right.”
The album, out today (Nov. 3) on Mailboat/Sun Records, opens with “University of Bourbon Street,” which takes listeners to New Orleans, the city where Buffett’s career began more than 50 years ago, and concludes with a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Mozambique,” a country he longed to visit. In between are autobiographical songs such as “Close Calls” — which recalls some of Buffett’s real-life escapades, including getting beaten up by Sheriff Buford Pusser of Walking Tall fame — and “Portugal Or PEI,” which serves as a travelogue of his wanderlust and also lyrically references past hits “Volcano” and his breakthrough song, “Come Monday.”
Moving “Bourbon Street,” which features the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, to the first slot “was the last modification to the sequencing that he did,” McAnally says. “And it ends with ‘Mozambique.’ That’s still him wanting to go the rest of the places that he never got to go. From where he started to where he intended to go. It’s a life story in between. He put so much thought into this group of songs.”
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Buffett began cutting basic tracks in January at Nashville’s Blackbird Studio, and then headed back to his studio in Key West, Florida, to record the vocals, working on the album between concerts until he stopped playing live in May. Though Buffett’s vocal ability sometimes wavered depending upon where he was in his medical treatments, ultimately, McAnally and Utley captured Buffett in very strong form. “I think he really sang well, from the heart, on this one,” McAnally says. “If something has to be your last thing to say, I believe this is one to be proud of.”
The 14-track album is classic Buffett, with songs representing so much of what has endeared him to generations of fans, including the humorous “Fish Porn,” written with noted author/columnist and longtime Buffett buddy Carl Hiaasen and McAnally; the easygoing, escapist “Nobody Works on Friday”; the steel-drum-lined “Ti Punch Café” (featuring Angelique Kidjo); and the reflective, yearning “Columbus.”
Buffett adds his familiar island lilt to “Mozambique.” The new rendition features Emmylou Harris, who also sang on Dylan’s 1976 version. “She thanked us for giving her a lyric sheet because she said when she sang on the original with Dylan, he wouldn’t tell her the lyrics. She was just having to watch his mouth,” says McAnally with a laugh.
Buffett, who often posted photos of his Cavalier King Charles Spaniels on his Instagram, also covered “Like My Dog,” a top 30 country hit for Billy Currington in 2011 written by Scotty Emerick and Harley Allen. “Jimmy loved his dogs more than maybe anything on earth except the show,” McAnally says.
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Even though there was no talk in the studio about it being the final album, first single, “Bubbles Up,” written by Buffett and Will Kimbrough, serves as a fitting farewell to fans, with its message of hope and resilience. The song was inspired by Buffett participating in Navy SEAL training, including jumping out of a helicopter into the ocean with a weighted pack on his back.
McAnally recalls the advice the admiral overseeing Buffett gave: “’When you’re down in the water and you don’t know where you are, follow the bubbles. That’s how you get to where you’re supposed to be.’”
McAnally knew they were on to something special with the song, so much so that he prodded Buffett to replace a vocal recorded earlier in the process. “He generally doesn’t like to be pushed in the studio, and I made him go back and work on his vocal,” he says. “I was like, ‘This is too good, Jimmy. Let’s record it again and really tell the story…’ He didn’t want it to be slick and polished, he wanted it to sound like a bunch of people around a campfire figuring out what’s important about life.”
When McAnally played Buffett the revised version, “He smiled as big as he’s ever smiled on the happiest day of his life, but tears just rolling,” he says. “He was like, ‘This is so good. Thank you.’”
“Bubbles Up” debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Rock Digital Song Sales chart for the week ending Sep. 14, according to Luminate. It also started at No. 2 on the Country Digital Song Sales chart. Earlier this week, CMT debuted the emotional video, which includes footage spanning Buffett’s adult life and his love for spending time on the water and on the stage.
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On a lighter note, the album also includes “My Gummie Just Kicked In,” a song inspired by a line Paul McCartney’s wife, Nancy, jokingly said after she tripped while she and McCartney were out to dinner with Buffett and his wife. McCartney plays bass on the track. Buffett flew to Los Angeles in June to be with McCartney in the studio, while McAnally advised remotely.
“Paul wrote himself out a very detailed Paul McCartney chart to play the song. He put a lot of work into it,” McAnally says. “It’s very rare that someone can go in by themselves and overdub on a track that’s already been recorded and add energy to it, but Paul McCartney played bass on that track like a 20-year-old Beatle. It’s unbelievable.”
The title track, written by Buffett and McAnally and inspired by a saying from Buffett’s grandfather, reveals the secret to a good nap is making sure one’s body weight is equally distributed. “It takes a second to realize he’s talking about something good,” McAnally says.
Cameras captured the recording process and a few behind-the-scenes videos have already rolled out. McAnally says it’s possible that a documentary on the making of Equal Strain could be forthcoming. “It will be the final complete project,” he says of the album. “Since we have quite a bit of content that arose from it, I think they’ll probably make use of that because there’s never a bad time to see that smile on his face.”
Buffett didn’t leave a lot of music in the vault, but McAnally says there are some existing tracks he’d also love to see released. There were only two songs recorded for Equal Strain that didn’t make the album, but, “We have a few things over the years of Jimmy that are really good,” he says. “There can be a posthumous release, but it will be just literally a collection of things that we did and we never put out for whatever reason. He’s got a gorgeous version of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Amelia.’ I can’t believe we didn’t put it out when we recorded it.”
McAnally says Buffett’s wish was for the Coral Reefer Band, who backed Buffett in various iterations since the ‘70s, to continue. “The Coral Reefer Band is second family to all of us. We are a family. And Jimmy wants us to continue and we want to continue,” he says. “There’s ongoing discussions about the best way to do that, the most practical way to do that and how to do it in a way that is worthy of the legacy that we’re part of.”
In the immediate future, McAnally will take part in a tribute to Buffett on Nov. 8’s CMA Awards. The salute will also include Zac Brown Band, Kenny Chesney and Alan Jackson, three acts that he’d recorded with and were deeply influenced by him.
Before her death in January at age 54, Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of Elvis Presley and wife Priscilla, reportedly lashed out at the way her dad was depicted in the script for Sofia Coppola’s new biopic about her mom, Priscilla. Variety reported on Thursday (Nov. 2) that it had obtained two emails Lisa Marie sent to Coppola in which she asked the director to reconsider her take on the couple’s love story to spare her family from public embarrassment.
“My father only comes across as a predator and manipulative. As his daughter, I don’t read this and see any of my father in this character. I don’t read this and see my mother’s perspective of my father,” Lisa Marie reportedly wrote in two messages she sent to Coppola about four hours apart last September. “I read this and see your shockingly vengeful and contemptuous perspective and I don’t understand why?”
In the messages, Lisa Marie was said to have asked the Oscar-winning director to not further strain her already brittle relationship with mother Priscilla or shine a spotlight on Elvis’ living grandchildren while they were grieving the loss of Lisa Marie’s son, Benjamin Keough, who died in 2020.
Coppola’s biopic is based on Priscilla’s 1985 memoir, Elvis and Me, which depicts the couple’s controversial relationship that began in Germany in 1959 when the singer was 24 and Priscilla was 14. At the point that Lisa Marie sent the emails Coppola had not begun shooting the movie, but Lisa Marie reportedly made it clear that she would condemn the project and the participation of her estranged mother, who is an executive producer on the project and who has been part of A24’s publicity campaign for it; Priscilla had a limited Oct. 27 opening and expands to more screen today (Nov. 3).
“I will be forced to be in a position where I will have to openly say how I feel about the film and go against you, my mother and this film publicly,” Presley reportedly wrote to Coppola. The director commented to Variety through a rep, who shared how Coppola reportedly responded to Lisa Marie after receiving the emails.
“I hope that when you see the final film you will feel differently, and understand I’m taking great care in honoring your mother, while also presenting your father with sensitivity and complexity,” Coppola wrote.
In her emails, Lisa Marie worried that Priscilla did not understand how the shocking age gap between Elvis (played by Euphoria‘s Jacob Elordi) and Priscilla (Cailee Spaeny) would translate for modern audiences. “I am worried that my mother isn’t seeing the nuance here or realizing the way in which Elvis will be perceived when this movie comes out,” Lisa Marie wrote. “I feel protective over my mother who has spent her whole life elevating my father’s legacy. I am worried she doesn’t understand the intentions behind this film or the outcome it will have.”
Speaking to Rolling Stone this month, Coppola — also the scion of a world-renowned father, director Francis Ford Coppola — said she strives not to be “judgmental” about any of the characters in her films and tries to be as sympathetic as possible. “And I’m really focused on her perspective, but even with the parents, you’re like, ‘How can anybody let their kid go live with Elvis that young?’” she told the magazine. During interviews at the Venice Film Festival in August, Priscilla once again clarified that she and Elvis were not sexually intimate when she was 14.
In her emails, however, Lisa Marie said she couldn’t understand Coppola’s need to “take my father down on the heels of such an incredible film [Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 musical biopic Elvis] using the excuse that you are trying to tell my mother’s story, but from your very dark and jaded reality.”
Few musical acts can stand shoulder to shoulder with The Beatles. As the act with the most No. 1 singles in Billboard Hot 100 history (20), the iconic quartet’s sprawling catalog continues to serve as a soundtrack for each new generation. On Thursday (Nov. 2), 60 years after the release of their debut studio album, […]
Green Day announced the dates for their five-month The Saviors stadium tour on Thursday (Nov. 2), which is slated to kick off its North American leg at Nationals Park in Washington, DC on July 29. As previously announced, the U.S. and Canadian dates will feature support from Smashing Pumpkins, Rancid and the Linda Lindas, while European fans will get warmed up by Nothing But Thieves, The Hives, Donots, The Interrupters and Maid of Ace.
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“We’ve never been more excited to unleash new music than with Saviors, a record that’s meant to be rocked live, together. So let’s thrash. We’ve got some amazing friends who are coming along for the ride!,” the band said in a statement about hitting the road to promote their “raw and emotional” 14th studio album during the outing that will also celebrate the 30th anniversary of their breakthrough 1994 diamond-certified album Dookie and the 20th anniversary of 2004’s American Idiot.
The dates will kick off on May 30 with a festival show at the O Son do Camino in Monte de Gozo, Spain, before going to to gigs in Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, the Netherlands, and the UK, winding down on June 29 with a show at London’s Wembley Stadium.
The North American run will include shows at New York’s Citi Field, Boston’s Fenway Park, Chicago’s Wrigley Field, Pittsburgh’s PNC Park, Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium and a final scheduled concert at Petco Park in San Diego on Sept. 28. The North American on-sale begins on Nov. 10 at 10 a.m. local time and the UK/EU general onsale begins on Nov. 10 at 9:30 a.m. GMT.
The band dropped the video for the pop-punk rager “Look Ma, No Brains!” on Thursday, a track they debuted live at a surprise Las Vegas club show last month along with the strident “The American Dream Is Killing Me.” Saviors is due out on Jan. 19 on Reprise/Warner Records.
Watch the “Look Ma” video and see the tour dates below.
Saviors Tour North American dates:
July 29 – Washington, DC @ Nationals Park
August 1 – Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre
August 3 – Montreal, QC @ Osheaga Music and Arts Festival*
August 5 – New York, NY @ Citi Field
August 7 – Boston, MA @ Fenway Park
August 9 – Philadelphia, PA @ Citizens Bank Park
August 10 – Hershey, PA @ Hersheypark Stadium
August 13 – Chicago, IL @ Wrigley Field
August 15 – St. Louis, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre !
August 17 – Minneapolis, MN @ Target Field
August 20 – Kansas City, KS @ Azura Amphitheatre !
August 22 – Cincinnati, OH @ Great American Ballpark
August 24 – Milwaukee, WI @ American Family Field
August 26 – Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion !
August 28 – Atlanta, GA @ Truist Park
August 30 – Nashville, TN @ Geodis Park
Sept. 1 – Pittsburgh, PA @ PNC Park
Sept. 4 – Detroit, MI @ Comerica Park
Sept. 7 – Denver, CO @ Coors Field
Sept. 10 – Austin, TX @ Germania Insurance Amphitheater !
Sept. 11 – Arlington, TX @ Globe Life Field
Sept. 14 – Los Angeles, CA @ SoFi Stadium
Sept. 18 – Phoenix, AZ @ Chase Field
Sept. 20 – San Francisco, CA @ Oracle Park
Sept. 23 – Seattle, WA @ T-Mobile Park
Sept. 25 – Portland, OR @ Providence Park
Sept. 28 – San Diego, CA @ Petco Park
*Festival Date
!With Support from Rancid and The Linda Lindas only
Saviors UK/EU dates:
May 30 – Monte do Gozo, Spain @ O Son do Camino*
June 1 – Madrid Spain @ Road to Rio Babel*
June 5 – Lyon Decines @ LDLC Arena – with The Interrupters
June 7 – Nurnberg Germany @ Rock im Park*
June 8 – Nurburgring Germany @ Rock am Ring*
June 10 – Berlin Germany @ Waldbühne – with Donots
June 11 – Hamburg Germany @ Trabrennbahn Bahrenfeld – with Donots
June 15 – Interlaken Switzerland @ Greenfield Festival*
June 16 – Milan Italy I Days @ Hippodrome La Maura*
June 18 – Paris France @ Accor Arena – with The Interrupters
June 19 – Arnhem Netherlands @ GelreDome – with The Hives & The Interrupters
June 21 – Manchester UK @ Emirates Old Trafford – with Nothing But Thieves & Maid of Ace
June 23 – Isle of Wight UK @ Isle of Wight Festival*
June 25 – Glasgow UK @ Bellahouston Park – with Nothing But Thieves & Maid of Ace
June 27 – Dublin Ireland @ Marlay Park – with Nothing But Thieves & Maid of Ace
June 29 London UK @ Wembley Stadium – with Nothing But Thieves & Maid of Ace
*Festival Date
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