Radio Hits August 1965: How Does it Feel?
The Beach Boys, the Beatles and Bob Dylan were all climbing the charts. No less than 5 of the songs in the Top 10 were performed by the same musicians
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‘Who’s Next’: Plan B Yields a Career Blockbuster
Born from the ashes of an abandoned project Pete Townshend called ‘Life House,’ the band’s 1971 masterwork triumphed through songcraft and performance.
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A Live Set from Allman Brothers Co-founder Dickey Betts: Review
The 1988 concert from NYC’s Lone Star Roadhouse features Allman Brothers Band classics and guests such as Rick Derringer, Mick Taylor and Jack Bruce.
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Woodstock 50 Debacle: No Peace. No Love. No Music
A 50th anniversary doesn’t just sneak up on you. So how did the plans for a worthy celebration of the 1969 festival fall apart?
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Elvis Presley ‘Memphis’ Box: Definitive Collection of Hometown Recordings
The release features 111 tracks on 5-CDs, spanning his earliest sessions at Sun Studio, his creative rebirth at American Sound in 1969, at Stax in 1973, a spellbinding live show in ’74, and more
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Linda Ronstadt ‘Hasten Down The Wind’: Right Songs, Right Singer
The 1976 release became Ronstadt’s third platinum album in a row, and earned her the second of her eventual 13 Grammy awards.
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A Tribute to a Loyal Reader Who We Nicknamed ‘The Grim Reaper’
For years, Best Classic Bands reader Ric Allen Niedzinski would message us with news of a musician’s death
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Big Brother’s ‘Cheap Thrills’: Behind R. Crumb’s LP Cover
It would be the only rock album for which the cartoonist would do the art. It continues to serve as a psychedelic timestamp of one crazy summer.
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Gordon Lightfoot’s Tale of a Ship’s Crew and Its Captain
The singer-songwriter had a string of big hits including 1976’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” based on a true story of a doomed freighter
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Melanie Interview: Playing Woodstock at 22
She was a relative unknown when she walked onto the stage at Yasgur’s Farm and sang for half a million people. By the end of her set, she was a star
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