As expected, Ringo Starr was among those awarded knighthoods by the British royal family when the Queen's New Year honors list was announced on Dec. 29. Starr's knighthood comes more than half a century after he received an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) at the height of the Beatles' fame. In a statement, Ringo said it was "an honor and a pleasure to be considered and acknowledged for my music and my charity work, both of which I love. Peace and love. Ringo." John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono also tweeted out her kind thoughts to Ringo on Jan. 2. "Dear Sir Ringo," Ono wrote. "I am very happy that you have received this honour from the Queen. It's about time! Huge congratulations! I am delighted for you and your family. It is an honour for everyone in the Beatles family and I love you very much." 
Also set to be knighted during the formal New Year's Honors ceremony in 2018 are Bee Gees founding member Barry Gibb, Soft Cell vocalist Marc Almond, rapper/producer Wiley, and British actor/writer/musician Hugh Laurie, are all set to be knighted during the formal New Year's Honors ceremony in 2018. Gibb, who is being honored not only for his services to music but to charity as well, told the AP that being awarded a knighthood was "a moment in life to be treasured and never forgotten" and that he is "deeply honored, humbled and very proud." Gibb went on to pay tribute to his brothers and Bee Gees co-founders, Maurice and Robin Gibb, who died in 2003 and 2012, respectively. "I want to acknowledge how responsible my brothers are for this honour," said the 71-year-old Gibb. "It is as much theirs as it is mine. The magic, the glow and the rush will last me the rest of my life." The Gibb brothers were named Commanders of the British Empire (CBE) in 2002. - Billboard, 12/29/17...... In an interview with a podcast called "Life In The Stocks," Def Leppard lead singer Joe Elliott said he was uncomfortable with the way AC/DC so quickly replaced frontman Brian Johnson with Axl Rose of Guns 'N Roses in 2017 and said his band wouldn't have dealt with AC/DC singer Brian Johnson, who was forced to go on hiatus from the band due to hearing problems, that way. "I wouldn't have done it like that," Elliott said. "I can't speak for [AC/DC guitarist] Angus [Young] and his team as to what their reasons were for doing what they did. But considering that we had a drummer lose and arm and we waited for him, the way that they dealt with it was not the way I would have done it, put it that way." Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen joined the band in 1979 when he was just 15, but lost his arm in car accident on New Year's Eve five years later. Def Leppard didn't replace him, but instead waited till he had re-learned how to play on an adapted kit, and he has continued to tour and record with the band to this day. While Elliott said that he thought Axl Rose "did a pretty good job, actually" filling in for Johnson, he added that the last touring lineup of AC/DC wasn't "really AC/DC anymore," calling it "basically just Angus and the other four now." Guitarist and founding AC/DC member Malcolm Young left the band in 2014 and passed away earlier this year, prompting an outpouring of tributes from across the world of music. - New Musical Express, 12/31/17...... 
David Bowie's son Duncan Jones has just launched an informal "David Bowie Book Club," after the late rock icon released a list of his 100 favorite books back in 2013. Jones took to Twitter to launch the book club, describing his late dad as "a beast of the reader." Jones selected Hawksmoor, an award-winning 1985 novel by Peter Aykroyd about a 1980s detective who investigates murders committed in London churches in the 18th century, as the first book. Fans wishing to join the book club (and presumably discuss each book with Jones on Twitter) have until Feb. 1 to complete Aykroyd's novel. "Hawksmoor is in DAVID BOWIE'S TOP 100 BOOKS list, indeed it's one of the books we illustrated in our montage back in 2013," Jones tweeted. "It's also a work we've loved for a long time here at DBHQ, since David first recommended it many years ago. Go here (https://t.co/wNp8N91EsD) for the synopsis of this gripping and terrible tale of two Londons separated by two and a half centuries. #BowieBookClub #ReadingIsBrainFood" In other Bowie-related news, a new BBC radio drama called The Final Take: Bowie In the Studio is to dramatise the making of Bowie's final studio album, Blackstar. It will feature dialogue constructed from Bowie's own words -- which have been taken from the hundreds of interviews he gave during his life -- and will air on the BBC World Service at 11:30 a.m. on Jan. 9. - NME, 12/29/17...... Actress Rose Marie, best known as wisecracking co-star Sally Rogers on the 1960s sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show, passed away on Dec. 28 at her home in Van Nuys, Calif. She was 94. The comedienne-vocalist, identifiable by the black bow in her hair and her raspy voice, also co-headlined on the opening night of Bugsy Siegel's Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas in 1946 and was a regular on the game show The Hollywood Squares. Along with Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Morey Amsterdam and, occasionally, Carl Reiner (the series' creator), she appeared in all five seasons of The Dick Van Dyke Show and received Emmy nominations in 1963, 1964 and 1966. 
Ms. Marie had known Amsterdam in real life since she was 11, and her verbal jousts with him were among the show's highlights. She was hired or the sitcom -- the second person cast after Van Dyke himself -- for $1,000 an episode by executive producer Sheldon Leonard, who had played her brother on the radio on The Phil Harris Show. Ms. Marie had cultivated her persona as a husband-hunter in a number of comic guest appearances on the shows of such luminaries as Jimmy Durante, Jackie Gleason, Red Skelton, Garry Moore, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Dinah Shore, Dean Martin, Merv Griffin and, frequently with Johnny Carson, on The Tonight Show. She also played secretary Myrna Gibbons, who worked with Doris Day's character in a magazine office, on the CBS sitcom The Doris Day Show, and her other TV credits include S.W.A.T., Murphy Brown and Hardball. She also was a 14-year participant on The Hollywood Squares, where her comic cackle delighted audiences, and she appeared in such films as Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966), Don't Worry, We'll Think of a Title (1966) and Lunch Wagon (1981). Born Marie Mazetta in New York on Aug. 15, 1923, Ms. Marie's name was inspired by the popular Broadway musical "Rose-Marie." She entered show business as a 3-year-old toddler when she appeared at New York's Mecca Theater and belted out a torch ballad. Beginning in the '40s, she performed in nightclubs and theaters, and during the 1950s and '60s, she garnered guest-star roles on TV in such shows as The Adventures of Jim Bowie, Gunsmoke, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, The Monkees and My Three Sons. Ms. Marie was married to Bobby Guy, at one time the lead trumpeter for the NBC Orchestra, which performed nightly on The Tonight Show. He died in 1964 of a blood infection. The couple had one daughter, Georgiana, who survives her. She was also active in many charitable causes throughout her life, most notable animal welfare. - The Hollywood Reporter, 12/28/17.
The Beatles' new holiday collection The Christmas Records has debuted on Billboard's Hot 200 albums chart at No. 199. With 7,000 units (all from traditional album sales) sold, the archival box has reproductions of the seven flexi-disc vinyl singles the band sent to its fan club members each Christmas between 1963 and 1969. It has a total combined running time of about 44 minutes and features a smattering of music from the band (including the original tune "Christmas Time [Is Here Again]"), comedic skits, and messages from the group. The Christmas Records also debuted at No. 4 on Billboard's Vinyl Albums chart and, due to the nature of the box's contents, at No. 38 on the Holiday Albums roundup. - Billboard, 12/27/17...... 
Elsewhere on the Fab Four front, a source close to Ringo Starr has told Britain's The Sun paper that the former Beatles legend will be made a knight when Queen Elizabeth II announces her New Year's Honours list on New Year's Eve. Starr is expected to be honoured for his contributions to music and charity, and if the reports are true, it will be his first time back to London's Buckingham Palace 52 years ago when he became a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1965 during the Beatles' heyday. Ringo's sole surviving Beatles bandmate Sir Paul McCartney, who was knighted in 1997, reportedly once told the Queen: "Look, love it's about time." Ringo, 77, had reportedly given up all hope of being knighted before a letter arrived from the Palace a few weeks ago. "He'll feel 10 feet tall when he goes back," the source told The Sun. "Sadly, two of the Beatles, John Lennon and George Harrison, are no longer here to be honoured in a similar way. But giving Ringo a knighthood will go some way towards recognising the enormous contribution the Beatles made to popular music. He is a beacon of Beatlemania," the source added. "It came as a bolt from the blue," the family friend told the publication. "Ringo was totally knocked sideways but is chuffed to bits (very proud)." Although Starr is being bestowed with one of Britain's highest honours, he sold his 200-acre estate in Cranleigh, Surrey, for a reputed £20 million in 2014, and now divides his time between his homes in Switzerland and California. - PageSix.com/WENN.com, 12/26/17...... In other Beatles-related news, Paul McCartney's One on One Tour has hit the top slot in Billboard's Hot Tours roundup for the week ending Dec. 26. With $67 million in sold ticket revenue from 15 performances added to the concerts that were already reported earlier in the year, the tour's overall gross in 2017 rises to $132 million. Macca's One on One trek included a total of 37 concerts from April through December with the number of sold tickets totaling 907,610 during the eight-month span. The tour covered four continents in 2017 beginning with a string of four concerts at two venues in Japan from Apr. 25 through 30. This past summer the tour was booked at arenas in twelve North American markets including eight shows in the metropolitan New York City area that drew over 113,000 fans to four venues. In October, the tour played stadium dates in five Latin American cities, four of them in Brazil. The final leg of the tour was a sweep through Australia and New Zealand, in which all were stadium dates except Sydney's two arena shows. Queen + Adam Lambert made the second spot in the final 2017 Hot Tours roundup, with $3,572,980 in sold ticket revenue from two concerts at London's O2 Arena on Dec. 12 and 13. - Billboard, 12/27/17...... 
Stevie Wonder was among the music icons paying tribute to former Commodores member and '80s solo superstar Lionel Richie during the 40th Annual Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 26. Wonder covered Richie's Commodores-era classic "Easy," while country singer Luke Bryan sang "Penny Lover" and "Sail On," and pop sensation Leona Lewis performed a medley of Richie's solo chart toppers "Say You Say Me" and "All Night Long (All Night)." The recently retired Kenny Rogers, who scored a No. 1 pop hit in 1980 with the Richie-penned "Lady," also honored the singer/songwriter with an emotional speech about his career. The event was broadcast live on the CBS Television Network. - Billboard, 12/27/17...... The latest Star Wars soundtrack, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, has risen to No. 5 on the same chart in its initial week of release. With 44,000 units (41,000 in traditional album sales) sold, the soundtrack has become the latest in the string of companion albums in the Star Wars saga to at least reach the top 20 in the tally. None of main eight Star Wars soundtracks have reached the top spot, with the closest being the original Star Wars LP which spent three consecutive weeks at No. 2 in 1977; it was stuck behind Fleetwood Mac's Rumours juggernaut which ruled the list for 31 nonconsecutive weeks. - Billboard, 12/27/17...... English musician Denny Laine, one of the co-founders of the Moody Blues in 1964 before becoming a member of Paul McCartney's Wings in the 1970s, says he's "very pleased" his former band will be added to the roster for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Laine, who wasn't initially added to the roster of Moody Blues members who will be honored during the Apr. 14 ceremony in Cleveland, Oh., was later added to the list thanks to lobbying by Rock Hall voting committee members, including E Street Band member Little Steven Van Zandt, producer Peter Asher and Cousin Brucie Morrow. Van Zandt tweeted Dec. 16 that Laine's "inadvertent ommission is being corrected on the Rock Hall website as we speak." Laine says Asher told him that "he wouldn't even vote for the Moody Blues unless I was in it." 
"That was kind of the most rewarding part of the thing, I think: I had friends from the top who pushed for me to get back in," Laine notes. Moodys member Mike Pinder, according to Laine, recruited him away from his own band in Birmingham, though the other Moodys were not as interested in Laine's push to move to London to be closer to the British music industry of the mid-'60s. "But if it hadn't been for Mike and Ray (Thomas) talking me into getting into their band, I could've been stuck in Birmingham and not done anything, so I'm grateful for that," Laine says. As for McCartney's Wings eventually being inducted into the Rock Hall, Laine says he doesn't anticipate that. "It was not a band, really. It was Paul McCartney and a backing band -- that's the truth of the matter," Laine says. "We weren't a band like the Beatles, the (Rolling) Stones, the Moody Blues. So I wouldn't see Wings as a band that would go into the Hall of Fame, to be honest." These days, Laine resides in New Jersey and tours as a solo act, playing songs from his entire past live as well as recording. He recently released the single "Meant to Be"/"Over the Horizon," and says he has a new album in the can as well. "I'm not just living in the past," he says. "Tribute bands have kind of taken over the market, and I don't want to come across as being that. - Billboard, 12/23/17...... Canadian actress Heather Menzies-Urich, who played one of the singing von Trapp children in the hit 1965 film The Sound of Music, died on Dec. 24 in Frankford, Ont., after a battle with brain cancer. She was 68. Menzies-Urich played Louisa von Trapp, the third-oldest of the seven von Trapp children, in the film adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical that starred Julie Andrews and Canadian actor Christopher Plummer. The movie musical went on to capture five Academy Awards, including best picture. Menzies-Urich was the wife of late actor Robert Urich, and their son, actor Ryan Urich, said his mother "was an actress, a ballerina and loved living her life to the fullest." A Toronto native, Menzies-Urich's other film credits include Hawaii and Piranha. On television, she appeared as a fugitive in Logan's Run and had guest spots on Dragnet, Bonanza and Marcus Welby, M.D., among other series. After Robert Urich died in 2002, Menzies-Urich established the Robert Urich Foundation to raise funds for cancer research. - WENN.com, 12/25/17...... Film and TV composer Dominic Frontiere, known for such classic TV themes as The Outer Limits, The Flying Nun, The Rat Patrol, That Girl, 12 O'Clock High, Branded and Vega$, died on Dec. 21 in Tesuque, N.M. He was 86. Mr. Frontiere was a fixture on the film- and TV-music scene throughout the 1960s, '70s and '80s, composing hundreds of hours of music, mostly for TV but also for films including Hang 'Em High, Cancel My Reservation, Hammersmith Is Out, Freebie and the Bean, The Aviator, and three John Wayne films, Chisum, The Train Robbers and Brannigan. He won a Golden Globe award for his score for The Stunt Man in 1980, and an Emmy as musical director of "Swing Out, Sweet Land," a patriotic TV special hosted by Wayne in 1970. Frontiere's career was temporarily derailed in 1986 when he was sentenced to a year in federal prison for filing a false income tax return and lying to IRS investigators to conceal his role in scalping tickets to the 1980 Super Bowl. At the time, his wife Georgia Frontiere was owner of the Los Angeles Rams. He moved to New Mexico in the 1990s and continued to work in the electronic-music medium. Survivors include his current wife Robin, and five children. - Variety, 12/23/17.
As the 50th anniversary of Led Zeppelin arrives in 2018, Jimmy Page has hinted that some "surprises" could be coming for Zeppelin fans who want to celebrate the momentous occasion. "There'll be Led Zeppelin product coming out, for sure, that people haven't heard," Page said in a Dec. 20 interview with the Academy of Achievement. "Next year will be the 50th year, so there's all manner of surprises coming out," he added. Led Zeppelin has released sporadic new material since their 1980 break up, including a complete remastering of the band's nine studio albums, and have also reunited for a handful of performances, including at Live Aid in 1985 and the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert in 2007. It is unknown exactly what Page and the other two surviving members, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones, have in store to celebrate their half century anniversary. - Billboard, 12/20/17...... Pop songwriting legend Burt Bacharach and '70s New Wave icon Elvis Costello are teaming up for a musical benefit for victims of the San Luis Rey Downs horse training track fire earlier in December that killed nearly 50 horses and injured their caretakers. "Horses and horse racing have given me nothing but pleasure for the last half-century," longtime horse owner Bacharach said in a statement. "The horrible circumstances around the San Luis Rey Downs fire cry out for aid in so many ways. This is my way of giving back to the horse community," he added. The event is set for Jan. 17 at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, a mile from Del Mar racetrack, and will be hosted by actress Bo Derek, a former member of the California Horse Racing Board. She and Oscar-winning actress Anjelica Huston will preside over an auction before the show. All money raised will be equally split between the California Thoroughbred Horsemen's Foundation and the California Retirement Management Account. - AP, 12/21/17...... A group of more than 40 artists including Bette Midler, Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, Bonnie Raitt and Blondie's Debbie Harry and Chris Stein have signed a letter to Congress urging them to pass the CLASSICS Act, which would require digital radio services such as SiriusXM to pay royalties on pre-1972 sound recordings. "Digital radio makes billions of dollars a year from airplay of music made before 1972," the artists wrote. "Yet, because of an ambiguity in state and federal copyright laws, artists and copyright owners who created that music receive nothing for the use of their work. The 'CLASSICS Act' would correct this inequity and finally ensure that musicians and vocalists who made those timeless songs finally get their due. We urge Congress to pass the CLASSICS Act and other pro-artist reforms quickly." As it stands, SiriusXM cites state laws in allowing them to pay less (and in some cases no) royalties to play songs recorded before 1972, and the CLASSICS Act would close that loophole and require a uniform digital royalty rate for all music. - Billboard, 12/20/17...... 
Phil Collins has taken to Twitter to join the New Year's "start off your new right" campaign by uging people to play his 1981 hit "In the Air Tonight" exactly when 2018 arrives. Over the last few weeks, Twitter users have been sharing songs to played at certain times ahead of midnight, so that a certain climax of the track coincides with midnight on New Year's Eve. "If you play 'In The Air Tonight' by Phil Collins on December 31st at 11:56:40 the drum break will play right as the clock strikes midnight... Start off your new year right," Collins posted on Twitter. Earlier in 2017, Collins returned to live performing with his "The First Farewell Tour" with his son Nicholas in tow to help out on drum duties. - Nw Musical Express, 12/22/17...... In his first interview since the death of his Steely Dan bandmate Walter Becker since Becker passed away in September, Donald Fagen revealed that he had hoped to record another Steely Dan album, but Becker wasn't interested. Speaking with Rolling Stone on the magazine's Music Now podcast on Dec. 20, Fagen said that "Walter had some health problems, and especially after 2011-12, I think just being ill for so long, he had a little bit of a personality change and he was much more isolated, and he kinda wasn't that interested in working on Steely Dan records anymore." Since Becker's passing, Fagen has continued to tour with the rest of the live band under the name Steely Dan, but he noted he doesn't necessarily want to keep doing that. "I would actually prefer to call it Donald Fagen and the Steely Dan Band or something like that," Fagen said before explaining that promoters have insisted that he call it Steely Dan for commercial reasons. "That's an ongoing debate. To me, Steely Dan was just me and Walter, really -- it was like a concept we had together." - Stereogum.com, 12/20/17...... On Dec. 19 a judge dismissed the lawsuit brought by an Australian choreographer who alleged Michael Jackson molested him as a child, resolving one of the last major claims against the late singer's holdings. Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff's summary judgment ruling against the now-35-year-old Wade Robson found that the two Jackson-owned corporations, which were the remaining defendants in the case, were not liable for Robson's exposure to Jackson. He did not rule on the credibility of Robson's allegations themselves. Robson's attorney, Vince Finaldi, said he strongly disagrees, that the ruling sets a dangerous precedent, and he plans to appeal. Robson, who has also worked with Britney Spears and 'NSYNC, says he met Jackson when he was 5 years-old. Robson testified in Jackson's defense at the singer's 2005 criminal trial, saying he had spent the night at Jackson's Neverland Ranch more than 20 times and usually slept in Jackson's room, but Jackson never molested him. Jackson was acquitted in that trial. However in 2013 -- four years after the death of Jackson -- he sued the Jackson estate for what his attorneys described as molestation that spanned a seven-year period. A court ruled in 2015 that Robson had filed his lawsuit too late to get any of Jackson's estate. That left two remaining defendants, both corporate entities owned by Jackson in his lifetime: MJJ Productions, Inc., and MJJ Ventures, Inc. The judge ruled that those two corporate defendants could not be held responsible for Robson's exposure to Jackson, the way a school or the Boy Scouts can be found liable for bringing together an abusive adult and a child victim. - AP, 12/20/17...... 
The Bob Marley and The Wailers greatest hits collection Legend: The Best of has reached a landmark on Billboard's Hot 200 Albums Chart -- with 500 consecutive weeks on the chart it is now second only to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, which has racked up 934 weeks, for longevity on the chart. Originally released in 1984, the Marley LP originally reached No. 54 on the Hot 200 and has sold 12.3 million copies in the US since 1991, when Nielsen Music started tracking sales. It is certified as selling 15 million, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, a total that accounts for sales before 1991. Meanwhile, Barbra Streisand's latest live album The Music & The Mem'ries & The Magic! has debuted on the Hot 200 at No. 69. Streisand has charted a total of eight live sets on the Hot 200, stretching back to A Happening in Central Park in 1968, which peaked at No. 30. - Billboard, 12/21/17...... Officials for late Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner have announced that his estate will be selling off his stake in the publishing empire. A court petition from an estate trustee seeking to determine how much Hefner's 33.8% share is worth ahead of a planned sale has been granted, and the assets will be split between the late publisher's heirs. "Hef was an American original," attorney Adam Streisand says. "He left Playboy in great hands, but with Hef gone, it's time for us to close that chapter and focus the future on Hef's charitable vision." - WENN.com, 12/22/17...... A fifth woman has accused former 
A Donna Summer bio-musical tracing the life and career of the disco singing legend will hit Broadway in the spring, it was announced by producer Tommy Mottola on Dec. 19. "Summer: The Donna Summer Musical" will begin previews on at Broadway's Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Mar. 28, ahead of the Apr. 23 opening. Directed by Des McAnuff and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo, who teamed on one of Broadway's biggest recent jukebox hits, the Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons bio-musical "Jersey Boys," "Summer" drew mixed critical response in its world-premiere developmental production at La Jolla. Reviewing the show in The Hollywood Reporter, critic Deborah Wilker wrote: "While this version isn't quite Broadway-ready, it has all the potential. I feel love," citing the title of one of Summer's biggest hits. "I Feel Love," along with other massive Summer hits such as "Bad Girls," "MacArthur Park," "No More Tears," "Dim All the Lights," "Hot Stuff" and "I Love You," are featured in the show. "Summer" is part of a wave of recent bio-musicals which in addition to "Jersey Boys" include "Beautiful: The Carole King Musical"; others set to premiere in the months ahead include musicals devoted to Cher, Tina Turner, The Bee Gees and The Temptations. - The Hollywood Reporter, 12/19/17...... Acclaimed saxophone player and veteran session musician Ralph Carney, who worked with such artists as Tom Waits, The B-52's, Elvis Costello and the Black Keys, died on Dec. 17 as a result of head injuries sustained after falling a flight of stairs at his home in Portland, Ore. He was 61. A collector of unusual instruments and virtuoso saxophone and clarinet player, Carney recorded a wide variety of solo and band projects over his 40+ year career, garnering acclaim for his work. Most recently, he contributed the title track to the Netflix animated show BoJack Horseman recorded with nephew Patrick, who is the drummer with the Black Keys. Ralph, a native of Akron, Oh., was reportedly surrounded by friends and family at the time of his death. "I hope everybody is lucky enough to have someone as special as Ralph in their lives at some point. He taught me so much," Patrick Carney tweeted in remembrance of his uncle. - Billboard, 12/18/17...... Actress and voice-over artist Heather North, best known as the voice of Daphne in the Scooby Doo, Where Are You! hit Saturday morning series, died on Nov. 30 at her home in Studio City, Calif., after a long illness. She was 71. A native of Pasadena, North also starred as Kurt Russell's love interest in Disney's The Barefoot Executive (1971), about a chimpanzee who can predict which TV shows will be a success on the air. She was first heard as Daphne in Sept. 1970 on the second-season opener of Scooby Doo. She then returned for The New Scooby-Doo Movies in 1972-73 and in many other incarnations of the cartoon through 2003. North also appeared on such TV shows as Mr. Novak, Gidget, The Fugitive, The Monkees, My Three Sons and Adam-12; on the big screen in Git! (1965) and I Love My Wife (1970); and on Broadway in the short-lived 1967 comedy "The Girl in the Freudian Slip." - Billboard, 12/20/17.
The Recording Academy, the organization that sponsors the Grammy Awards, announced on Dec. 15 that an all-star tribute to five-time Grammy winner Elton John will be taped at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York, two days after the 60th annual Grammy Awards. "Sir Elton John is an international music legend who has captivated audiences across generations for more than five decades," said Neil Portnow, President/CEO of the Recording Academy, in a statement. "His creativity, dynamic presence, and melodic virtuosity have positioned him as a cultural icon, and the Recording Academy is pleased to honor his immeasurable contributions to the music community." Elton John: I'm Still Standing - A Grammy Salute will be broadcast later in 2018 on CBS, with scheduled performers to include such top contemporary acts as Miley Cyrus, Kesha, Miranda Lambert, John Legend, Little Big Town, Chris Martin, Maren Morris, Sam Smith and Keith Urban. Elton will also be performing during his tribute, however it is not confirmed if he will be playing at the Grammys two night earlier. Previous Grammy tributes have been bestowed on such music icons as Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, Frank Sinatra and Bee Gees. - Billboard, 12/15/17...... 
After Judas Priest had been nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018 but did not make the final cut, frontman Rob Halford told a Phoenix, Ariz., radio station on Dec. 15 that he would have "loved" to have been picked and thought his band "deserve it." "We've put our 10,000 hours in and more," Halford said. "Beyond that, we just feel that heavy metal music deserves more space on shelves at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame." "We were thrilled and honored to be even nominated," Halford added, "so it's kind of bittersweet. We got the nomination, which is something of a recognition for the work that you've done, but we didn't quite get in this time, but I'm hopeful that eventually we'll get some more metal." The DJ team who conducted the interview with Halford, Mark & NeanderPaul, also shared the Rock Hall's rejection letter to Halford on Twitter. "Thank you for embracing your nomination for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame," the letter reads. "While you didn't garner enough votes for induction this year, you were part of a very select group of Hall of Fame nominees. Artists are frequently on the ballot multiple times before they are inducted. For example, Black Sabbath were nominated eight times before their induction, Patti Smith seven times, Solomon Burke nine times, and both the Beastie Boys and The Yardbirds were on the ballot three times before their respective inductions." The letter also invited Halford and his bandmates to "visit our museum in Cleveland, Ohio... if you are touring or simply traveling nearby." - NME, 12/15/17...... A Beatles box set signed and gifted by Paul McCartney was auctioned off on Dec. 13, with proceeds going to benefit the victims of the devastating terror attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, UK, in May. McCartney donated a special Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band six-disc 
Sony Music announced on Dec. 14 that it is extending its partnership with the Michael Jackson estate to "find new innovative ways to make Michael's music available to future generations of fans." Even in a time of declining sales, the songs of Jackson, who died June 25, 2009, still generates over a million track downloads a year for the last three years running, while his album catalog still moves over 500,000 units annually. In 2017, Jackson's music has been played 1.05 billion times, of which 443 million were audio streams and 608 million were video streams. The signing not only continues a nearly 40-year relationship since Jackson released his Epic debut, 
Former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne has announced a a small number of East Coast tour dates for early 2018 that he says will be his "most ambitious" since the Talking Heads shows filmed by director Jonathan Demme for the acclaimed 1984 Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense. Byrne's 6-city US tour will kick off on Mar. 3 in Red Bank, NJ, also visiting Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (3/4), Buffalo, NY (3/6), Hershey, Pa. (3/7), Waterbury, Conn. (3/9) and Kingston, NY (3/10). Later in March, he'll travel to South America for shows in Santiago, Chile (3/16) and Buenos Aires (3/18), then hit Europe for shows in Zagreb, Croatia (6/25) and Roskilde, Denmark (7/6). - Spin.com, 12/13/17...... The producers of the new The Temptations musical "Ain't Too Proud -- The Life and Times of The Temptations" announced on Dec. 13 that the show will play a five-week "pre-Broadway engagement" run in the summer of 2018 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. Set against the backdrop of the civil unrest dividing America, the musical charts the rise of the Motown male-vocal group from the streets of Detroit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, achieving crossover success in the 1960s and '70s with such hits as "My Girl," "Just My Imagination" and "Papa Was a Rolling Stone." The musical, which recently had its world premiere run at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, will play in Washington, D.C., from June 19 to July 22 in the Eisenhower Theater, with casting to be announced. It is directed by Des McAnuff and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo, who previously collaborated on the long-running Broadway smash "Jersey Boys." - The Hollywood Reporter, 12/13/17...... A new documentary of David Bowie's final years called David Bowie: The Last Five Years will make its television premiere on cable channel HBO on Jan. 8, what would have been the rock legend's 71st birthday. In a promotional trailer released ahead of the premiere, Bowie delves into his creative thought process. "Always go a little further into the water than you feel you're capable of being in and when you don't feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you're just about in the right place to do something exciting," he says. David Bowie: The Last Five Years premiered at DOC NYC in November and includes interviews with his longtime producer and friend, Tony Visconti, as well as band mates Earl Slick, Gail Ann Dorsey, Carlos Alomar and more. The project is directed by Francis Whately, who also helmed the 2013 Bowie doc David Bowie: Five Years which covered Bowie's career from 1970 to 1975. - Billboard, 12/12/17...... 
A new Tina Turner autobiography entitled My Love Story that covers such subjects in the rock/soul icon's life from "finding love" to surviving a "life-threatening illness" is expected to be released in the fall of 2018 by Atria Books. It will be the sequel to Turner's 1986 best-selling memoir I, Tina, which morphed into the classic 1993 biopic What's Love Got to Do With It. My Love Story, co-written by Turner and her collaborators Deborah Davis and Dominik Wichmann, will coincide with Turner's 60th anniversary as a working musician. - Billboard, 12/12/17...... The Grateful Dead alumns Phil Lesh and Bob Weir announced on Dec. 11 they'll embark on a three-city, six show tour on Mar. 2 and 3 at Radio City Music Hall in New York. The pair's first-ever tour as a duo, the run will also visit Boston's Wang Theater on Mar. 7 and 8, and then Chicago Theatre on Mar. 10 and 11. "We're going to play everything we can think of," Lesh says. "We're going to do his stuff, we're going to do my stuff, we're going to play Jerry [Garcia]'s stuff, we'll do Grateful Dead stuff and we'll do covers. We're going to try and play everything we've ever played together and maybe some new stuff too." "I think Bobby and Phil performing together for the first time as a duo will elevate people's spirits," says tour producer and GD magazine Relix publisher Peter Shapiro. "And we can probably use some of that right now." - Billboard, 12/11/17...... Collectible model trains owned by singer/songwriter and model train enthusiast Neil Young recently sold for almost $300,000 at an auction conducted by Julien's in Los Angeles. Young himself was present at the auction to help sell off some of the rarest pieces in his collection, like a "custom-painted Commodore Vanderbilt 4-6-4 locomotive," which sold for $10,000. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Bridge School in California, which was co-founded by Young and his ex-wife Pegi Young as a school for children with disabilities. Young started collecting model trains in the '90s as a way of bonding with his son Ben, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy in 1978. - Spin.com, 12/11/17...... Paul McCartney played his first dates in Australia in 24 years beginning on Dec. 11 with a show in Sydney before 40,000 enthusiastic fans. The following evening, he played Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium -- his first solo date in the city -- and was in a chatty mood as he shared stories behind so many of his indelible solo and Beatles hits and his Beatles bandmates who are no longer with us. Opening with "A Hard Day's Night," the hits kept coming ("All My Loving," "Lady Madonna," "Eleanor Rigby," "A Day In The Life," "Band On The Run" (and much more), and tributes to John Lennon and George Harrison flowed. As the set proper came to its conclusion, McCartney held aloft the flag of Australia alongside crew members waving the Australian Aboriginal Flag, the Union Flag, and a rainbow flag, coming less than a week after Australia's Federal Parliament passed an historic law to legalize same-sex marriage. The 75-year-old rock legend encored with a mini-set of "Yesterday," "Get Back," "Mull of Kintyre," "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," "Helter Skelter," "Golden Slumbers" and "The End." - Billboard, 12/11/17...... 
Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler has teamed up with Youth Villages' Inner Harbour campus in Douglasville, Ga., for a new women's shelter named "Janie's House," after the hit 1989 Aerosmith single "Janie's Got a Gun." The song's theme centers around child abuse and incest, and it reportedly took Tyler nine months to finish writing the lyrics. Tyler was on hand at the facility on Dec. 6 for a "scarf-cutting" for the new shelter. "While I was in (rehab), I found out most of women in there were battered and beaten and abused verbally and sexually in huge numbers," Tyler told CNN. "It was like seven out of 10, eight out of 10." "I'm hoping that [the abused girls] get some tools, some advice, some ways to work stuff out, some words of wisdom that they can then live by," he added. - New Musical Express, 12/10/17...... British singer and ex-model Samantha Fox has accused late The Partridge Family singer David Cassidy of being a "first class creep" who groped her and tried to put his hand up her skirt when she was 19. In an interview with the British tabloid The Daily Star, Fox claims Cassidy, who died on Nov. 21 from liver failure, followed her into a public bathroom in May 1985 where he groped her. "When he grabbed me and pushed his tongue down my throat, I just kneed him in the b"s," the model-turned singer said. Fox, 51, claims she'd originally agreed previously to appear topless in a music video at Cassidy's bequest for his single "Romance," but became disgusted when she realized he had an erection. "David seemed to be deliberately drawing out the photoshoot, which took an eternity, and he had an erection the entire time -- something he did absolutely nothing to hide," said Fox. Uncomfortable, she still agreed to accompany him to dinner later that evening, but had her father come along. "Growing up, I had a big poster of David Cassidy on my wall, and I used to kiss him every night before going to bed," Fox lamented. - The New York Post, 12/11/17...... A video for a new single by Gregg Allman, "Song for Adam," was released on Dec. 8, what would have been the late Southern rocker's 70th birthday. The ballad, written and originally released in 1972 by Allman's friend Jackson Browne, is about a man discovering that his friend committed suicide, and the beautifully-shot video has an warm-toned nostalgic feel. It was inspired by Browne's friend Adam Saylor, who died the following year after jumping from a hotel in Mumbai. Allman's version of "Song for Adam" is included in his posthumous 2017 album, 
The storied house in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY, that served as the home of fictional working-class heartthrob Tony Manero, played by John Travolta, in the 1977 classic movie 
NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt announced on Dec. 8 that Alice Cooper will be portraying the flamboyant King Herod in the network's upcoming staged rock musical of "Jesus Christ Superstar Live!" "Alice Cooper, whose theatricality is the stuff of legend, is the perfect rock star to play Herod in our live production," Greenblatt said in a statement. "Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice wrote a showstopping musical number for Herod, and we all look forward to the 'King of Shock Rock' taking on the King of Judea," he added. "As the casting for Superstar ramps up, we can feel the excitement building for this brand new concert experience of what has long been considered the original rock musical." Cooper has previously been involved with the famous musical, having recorded "King Herod's Song" at the request of Webber and Rice for the 2000 release of a cast album from the 1996 production of "Jesus Christ Superstar" in the U.K. Directed by five-time Tony Award nominee British director David Leveaux, Jesus Christ Superstar Live!" is being produced by Universal Television and is set to air on NBC on Easter Sunday, Apr. 1. - The Hollywood Reporter, 12/8/17...... The Grateful Dead spinoff band Dead & Company has signed with the talent agency WME for exclusive representation in all areas, including music, film, television, books and endorsements. Dead & Company began touring in the fall of 2015 with two sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden in New York and have embarked on three record-breaking U.S. tours, with its 2017 summer tour drawing nearly 500,000 fans for 20 concerts. The band features Grateful Dead alums Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann and Bob Weir, along with artist and musician John Mayer, Allman Brothers' bassist Oteil Burbridge and Fare Thee Well and RatDog keyboardist Jeff Chimenti. - Billboard, 12/7/17...... Sir Elton John is mourning the loss of his beloved mother, Sheila Farebrother, who passed away on Dec. 4 at age 92. "So sad to say that my mother passed away this morning," the 70-year-old pop icon wrote on both Instagram and Twitter, captioning a photo in which he and his mother are beaming. "I only saw her last Monday and I am in shock. Travel safe Mum. Thank you for everything. I will miss you so much. Love, Elton." John paid tribute to his late mom during a concert at Barclaycard Arena in Hamburg, Germany, the following evening, dedicating "Your Song" to her at the gig while describing the tune's origin. "Yesterday was a sad and hard day for me because my mother passed away... I'm glad to say she passed away peacefully, with no pain," Elton told the audience. "But maybe sooner than she should have done, so I was quite shocked. And I was thinking how I could pay tribute to her tonight, and what song I should choose." John then explained that he wrote "Your Song" at his mother's house and added, "I can remember every single minute of writing this song with Bernie [Taupin]. So this is the song I want to dedicate to her. And it's taken me from nowhere to somewhere. So thank you, mum." - Billboard, 12/7/17...... 
A 13-track Jimi Hendrix album featuring 10 unreleased songs by the rock guitar legend will be released on Mar. 9, Experience Hendrix and Legacy Recordings announced on Dec. 6. 
In other Beatles-related news, Paul McCartney's incredibly rare and long-lost Christmas album, titled Unforgettable, has resurfaced over 60 years since it was first made. Macca made the album as a Christmas present in 1965 for his three Beatles bandmates, and while it features no new or original material from McCartney or the Beatles, it does feature Sir Paul introducing a playlist of tracks by the likes of The Rolling Stones, Elvis and Nat King Cole. In Mark Unterberger's book The Unreleased Beatles, McCartney is quoted as saying he "once put together something crazy, something left-field, just for the other Beatles, a fun thing which they could play late in the evening" on the same Brenell tape recorders that he made "experimental recordings and tape loops, like the ones in 'Tomorrow Never Knows.'" "It was just something for the mates, basically," he added. The three copies, plus McCartney's original, were reportedly the only ones to be made. Now, Unforgettable, which takes its title from the famous Nat King Cole song, has resurfaced 
Bob Seger says his situation is "maddening" as he recovers from a surgery he had during October, which brought a premature end to his Runaway Train Tour after just 13 of its 33 announced dates. "It's my seventh week and I'm in a three-month recovery, which ends Jan. 22, so I'm about halfway through," Seger says. "The pain is down; I'd say it's one out of 10, but it's constant. It's nagging, and unfortunately I can't sing or play or lift anything more than five pounds, not over my head, until it's gone. So it's difficult to work out or anything. I can walk. That's about it. It's maddening." Seger added that his doctors told him it was "going to really hurt for about three months afterwards, but the payoff is (the surgery) didn't go anywhere near my larynx. They went in the back, so my voice is probably fine. So I think it's going to be OK, I really do. But, God, it's taking a long time..." Fortunately, Seger's health problems did not affect the release of his 18th studio album, 
Patti Smith had some strong words for Pres. Donald Trump during her appearance at the annual "Chairman's Evening" literature discussion at the Whitney Museum in Manhattan on Dec. 4. The punk poetess told the audience that she "doesn't know how people are even able to contain themselves and contain their rage" toward the current administration in Washington. "I always felt, even if I didn't agree with whomever was our president, I felt that I could still walk tall wherever I want. I still was myself. But there's something about this current administration where I feel tainted as a human being," said Smith, who won a National Book Award for her memoir Just Kids. Also participating in the even was author Salmon Rushdie. - AP, 12/5/17...... French rock star Johnny Hallyday, known as the "French Elvis," died on Dec. 6 after a battle with cancer for several months. He was 74. Hallyday began his singing career at the end of the 1950s specializing in French-language cover versions of famous songs by artists like Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochrane and Elvis Presley -- whose example inspired him to become a singer. Hallyday sold over 110 million records during a music career that spanned over half a century. Hallyday also gave the Jimi Hendrix Experience their very first gig as his opening act at the Paris Olympia in Oct. 1966. A highlight of his career was the 2001 concert he gave at the Eiffel Tower that attracted an audience of more than 600,000. During his career he recorded over 1,000 songs, about a hundred of which he wrote himself. He also topped the French charts more than 30 times. He also became an accomplished film actor, appearing in such French films as Les Diaboliques, Where Are You From Johnny?, Detective and Family Business. He also appeared in The Pink Panther 2, with Steve Martin, in 2009. - Variety.com, 12/6/17...... Bassist Robert "Pops" Popwell, who played with The Young Rascals and The Crusaders, has passed away at age 70. Born in Daytona Beach, Fla., in 1946, Popwell started his career in the '60s and quickly got work in the jazz and R&B worlds. His other recording credits include Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, Bob Dylan, Smokey Robinson, Al Jarreau and George Benson. He also toured with artists like Bette Midler and Olivia Newton-John, and appeared in the film Hard to Hold with Rick Springfield. - 11/30/17.