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The last time Billy Joel released new music was in 1993. That was “River of Dreams.”
But the river ran dry after that. The only new tidbit was a croonery ballad called “All My Life” in 2007. The song was part of a collection and not promoted. It was pretty nice, too (see below).
Now Billy’s Facebook page features a post that shows the words “Did I Wait Too Long?” as if written on a blackboard.
Did he wait too long? Nope. A new Billy Joel album or even single would be most welcome. It would also line up with his final, 150th show at Madison Square Garden this July.
This may be a new Billy chapter. He’s been roaming from the Garden and playing dates with Stevie Nicks around the country. He’s starting to do a few with Sting, too. Right now Billy’s in Japan!
The great musicians never stop. The Rolling Stones released their best album in 40 years recently. The Pretenders had a tremendous new set this past fall. Elton John is working on a new album with Brandi Carlile. The hit just keep on coming! Even Justin Timberlake — considerably junior — has a new album on the calendar.
I’m hearing chatter that a possible Bon Jovi reunion may be possible very shortly.
A little update: I’ve confirmed that Sambora will be present at Musicaresto honor his bandmate.
Jon Bon Jovi is being honored by the Grammys charity Musicares next Friday in Los Angeles. Bon Jovi is getting the Person of the Year award for all of his charitable works.
As soon as tomorrow a list should come out of potential performers for the dinner show at the LA Convention Center. What usually happens is that a bunch of stars play the honoree’s songs. Sometimes the honoree himself or herself takes the stage, too.
It’s unlikely that the whole Bon Jovi group isn’t coming– Tico Torres and David Bryan are from the original lineup. Richie Sambora left the group in 2013, but he is constantly missed. Since he lives in Los Angeles, the theory is he’ll show up and strap on a guitar.
Sambora did join the group in 2018 for their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. In recent months he’s indicated a possibility of returning in some way. After all, he’s 64, JBJ is 61, and no one is getting any younger.
We may do know a little more tomorrow. In the meantime, I’m told that the dinner was an easy sell out. “Jon has been working the phones, getting friends to buy tables,” a source says. Musicares could use the help. The official organization that supports musicians in need — health problems, life changes, etc — I’m told the pandemic hit them hard with slowing donations.
We’ll keep an ear to the ground on this one, and all aspects of Musicares. We are all living on a prayer!
The first Sundance 2024 movie has reportedly sold for big bucks.
“A Real Pain,” directed by Jesse Eisenberg and starring him and Kieran Culkin, has gone to Disney’s Searchlight.
Variety reports that the sale was $10 million, which is not a record by any means but much more prudent in this tricky time.
My sources say a number of companies participated in an auction. You can only imagine how badly A24 and others wanted it.
The reviews have been raves for this warm hearted comedy. Eisenberg has a loyal fan following. and Culkin is hot from winning the Critics Choice and Emmy Awards for “Succession.”
Searchlight will probably hold this for the fall, and some awards consideration. So they’ve already got one in the bag for next year, and “Poor Things” for this one. Not bad!
Tina Fey’s musical version of her 2004 movie hits $50 million today after 10 days in theaters.
The original comedy came out in 2004. On its 10th day, the first film was at $42 million. So the new one is ahead by 17%.
On the other hand, that $42 million would be worth $68 million today. So let’s say the new movie is slightly ahead. At least, there’s a lot of enthusiasm for it.
The new movie also based on Fey’s Broadway musical, which was a solid hit for almost two years, from 2018-2020.
That’s a lot better than a new release called “I.S.S.” from Bleecker Street. I had no idea until last night this title existed. It made just $3 million over the weekend. Even if it only cost $13 million, the future is very cloudy for whatever this movie is. Bleecker Street has had a lot of trouble recently. This is the third movie in a row they’ve released into the abyss including Meg Ryan’s comedy, “What Happens Later.”
But cheers to Tina Fey, who does seem to be on the fast track to be Lorne Michaels’ successor as producer of “Saturday Night Live.” That would be so meta, since she produced and wrote “30 Rock,” which was a parody of “SNL.” If she does get the job, she should put Amy Poehler on every week, and Kate McKinnon on once a month.
PS The star of “Mean Girls” — Renee Rapp — was featured on “SNL” last night as musical guest.
Barry Manilow’s musical, “Harmony,” opened on November 13th at the Barrymore Theater on Broadway. Previews began October 18th.
Now the show is closing on February 4th. So on Tuesday, talk show host Drew Barrymore will finally air a piece promoting the show. It features Drew looking around the theater named for her great grand uncle and aunt, John and Ethel Barrymore.
Couldn’t this have happened back in November, when the show needed help? Now it’s pretty much “thanks for nothing.” At this point, why even bother?
Speaking of Drew’s family, her mother Jaid’s old friends are wondering what’s happened to her. In the four seasons of the Drew Barrymore Show, Jaid has vanished from the scene. Jaid and Drew famously feuded for years after Drew self emancipated at age 14.
Last Sunday’s premiere of “True Detective: Night Country” was a ratings disappointment.
Linear numbers for the show, starring Jodie Foster, were down 83% from the previous iteration of the series in 2019. The total was 565,000. HBO said “Night Country” scored 2 million views when you include HBO Max and delayed viewing.
But the hardcore number on HBO, Sunday at 9pm, was down 77% in the total demo number as well.
This series has excellent reviews on Rotten Tomatoes — 93%. Foster plays a small town sheriff in Alaska hunting the disappearance of eight scientists. It’s interesting, but it’s not sexy, which may be why viewers aren’t pouring in.
The numbers are similar, however, to the just concluded and much ballyhooed season of another omnibus series, “Fargo,” which starred Jon Hamm, Juno Temple, and Joe Keery from “Stranger Things.” That was on FX and is running on Hulu and also got solid reviews. But maybe the audience for small town sheriffs uncovering mysteries has exhausted itself for the moment.
“True Detective: North Country” returns tomorrow, Sunday, at 9pm.
Justin Timberlake performed his new song, called “Selfish,” last night in Memphis at the Orpheum Theater.
It’s a little confusing because JT already had a song called “Selfish,” with NSync back in the day. This is a different song. I’m trying to imagine Paul McCartney releasing a new song called “Hey Jude.” Hmmm…
The song is from his new album, apparently called “Everything I Thought It Was,” which would be a reference to being home and having a family — which is very McCartneyesque when you think about it. The song will debut this week either on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon — where Timberlake is a guest on Thursday — or on “SNL,” where he’s musical guest this week.
The original “Selfish” was co-written by NSync’s JC Chasez, by the way.
I’m not in Sundance. Netflix kindly sent me a link to Bao Nguyen’s “The Greatest Night in Pop” which is — I am sure — getting a huge, loud standing ovation right now at its premiere. The documentary of how the song “We Are the World” was made 39 years this coming week is incredibly entertaining and will leave you in tears. For people my age approximately, who saw this come together, you realize we have already reached the pinnacle of popular music in our time.
Even if you think you know this story, Nguyen and the producers have unearthed a lot of rare, unseen archival footage including Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson writing the song together.
So this is the story of how Lionel Richie’s manager, the late Ken Kragen– inspired by Bob Geldof — came up with the idea of creating a superstar single to shed light on the massive famine in Ethopia and other parts of the world. The year was 1985, which some might argue was the high water mark for the soundtrack of our lives. As Richie recalls in the film, they immediately called Stevie Wonder to help write the song. He was unreachable, so Richie and Quincy Jones, who’d just made three titanic albums with Michael Jackson,. went to the King of Pop to co-write the song. Jackson was then still clear, cogent, unmarked by too much eccentricity despite having a menagerie at his parents’ home including Bubbles the chimp and a hissing snake. Jackson fans will absolutely revel in their star’s appearance and magnificent vocals in this film.
The idea was to corral as many huge stars for a one night only recording session in Hollywood after the American Music Awards — which Richie was hosting. So Lionel was co-writing the song, helping Quincy and Michael organize the recording, and working all that night on stage. This was a time when the AMAs were important enough that A listers all showed up. So bringing them over to A&M Studios seemed like the best idea. No assistants or publicists were allowed, just a film crew. And around 46 superstars.
In the film — produced by Harriet Sternberg (who provides necessary history on screen) and Larry Klein, among others — Ngyuen builds a dramatic story that many people will remember, but does it in such a way that that feels like a cliffhanger. Stevie shows up at last and becomes sort of an underboss in the process, guiding icons like Bob Dylan and Paul Simon through the process. At one point someone remembers that he walked Ray Charles to the bathroom. “It was literally the blind leading the blind.” We do get to see the famous moment when Cyndi Lauper’s’ jewelry was found to be clanging while she sang, which gave everyone a good laugh.
Stevie also wants to include some kind of indigenous language in the song. He suggests Swahili, which sends country star Waylon Jennings out the door, never to return. But the rest of the gang persists even they’re dog tired. Famously, Quincy posted a sign that read “Check Your Egos at the Door,” and that’s what everyone did — even gifted drummer Sheila E., who says in the film she was happy to be there but felt like they were using her to lure Prince to the studio. (He never showed up.)
Kragen formed a charity called USA for Africa, which went on to bring hundreds of millions of dollars to Ethiopia. Many similar groups and songs followed including Live Aid and Farm Aid. There were so many charity singles with singing stars that eventually “Saturday Night Live” did their own parodies. In 2010, I attended the 25th anniversary recording, that featured Barbra Streisand, Gladys Knight, Adam Levine, Rob Thomas and many others. It was a very moving experience. But nothing compares to this original historic moment.
Much will be made of the stars — Tina Turner, Huey Lewis, Dionne Warwick, Bruce Springsteen, Al Jarreau, Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, etc — each at the peak of their vocal powers. But it’s up to Lionel Richie — who has survived Kragen and Jackson — to tell the story. And Quincy Jones, who one player praises not only for orchestrating the whole thing but also “being a psychiatrist.” It’s Quincy who weaves this spellbinding night into a piece of lasting art.
“The Greatest Night in Pop” premieres on Netflix on January 29th. Younger audiences will learn a lot about what the music industry was in its glory. For a people of a certain age, who remember a lot of this, seeing everyone so young will make this experience ever so much more bittersweet.
Donald Trump is in severe cognitive decline. In a speech in New Hampshire tonight he confused Nikki Haley for Nancy Pelosi. He blamed Haley, his rival in the NH primary, for the events of January 6th. (PS Pelosi wasn’t to blame either.)
A deeply confused Trump confuses Nancy Pelosi and Nikki Haley multiple times: Nikki Haley was in charge on January 6. They don’t want to talk about that pic.twitter.com/f3lhWgAzUw
