News

“Billy Joel: And So It Goes” is a bit like the Piano Man and his songs: not particularly flashy or stylish when you first see it, but brimming with insight, entertainment value, and deep feeling. And like Joel, it carries a little chip on its shoulder. “And So It Goes” spends a lot of its nearly five-hour running time pushing back against the critics who thought Joel was uncool or derivative. And, well, it should.

Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin’s documentary looks at that criticism head-on — there are so many close-ups of snarky Rolling Stone reviews — and builds a case that’s really quite self-evident if you look at Joel’s music as it is rather than what you wish it was: as thematically and melodically complex as that of any pop artist with a bunch of number one hits.

His “me against the world” demeanor is there in...

As a teenage musician, Jon Batiste used to call himself “a new-age blues artist.” Now, many genre-jumps later, he’s taking a deeply enjoyable left turn towards roots music on his seventh studio album, Aug. 22’s Big Money — and reminding the world he’s always been a bluesman at heart. “I’m just now making an explicit Americana blues statement,” Batiste says, “but for me, it’s at the beginning. It’s always the undercurrent. I think about everything that I have done, and it all is in some way...

Warning: This article contains descriptions of self-harm.

“Weird Al” Yankovic is currently traveling the continent with his “Bigger & Weirder” tour, playing hits like “Amish Paradise” to stadium-sized crowds full of Hawaiian shirt-clad fans.

Since the show requires the legendary song parodist to undergo a number of costume changes, each concert fills the excess time with clips from Yankovic’s long career, including scenes from movies like Uhf and The Naked Gun, sketches from his short-lived children’s show and even archival “interviews” with music icons like Paul McCartney.

The highlight reels also feature memorable pop-culture references to Al from shows like Jeopardy! and Family Guy — the latter memorably used “Eat It” in the least family-friendly context imaginable.

Having been to a recent show, I can personally attest that one of the biggest applause breaks of the night wasn’t for Yankovic himself, but rather, for the appearance of Hank and Bobby Hill.

Warning! This article contains Spoilers for The Umbrella Academy season 4.

The Umbrella Academy season 4 wraps up the series with major plot twists and a unique soundtrack capturing key moments. Mixed audience reviews marked the final season, with a bittersweet finale wrapping up neatly in just six episodes. Music plays a crucial role throughout the series, enhancing key scenes and contributing to the show's memorable moments.

The Umbrella Academy season 4 marked the final season, with some major plot twists and a unique soundtrack that captured all the major moments. The Umbrella Academy season 4 has received mixed reviews, particularly from audiences. The Umbrella Academy season 4 marked the shows final season, and some viewers felt let down by the series finale in particular. The season only had six episodes compared to the shows usual 10, but The Umbrella Academy season 4s ending managed to wrap everything up neatly in a bittersweet series finale.

The Umbrella Academy...

It wouldn’t be “The Umbrella Academy” without a soundtrack full of excellent needle drops, and Season 4 is no exception. The final season of Netflix’s superhero comic adaptation has just six episodes to wrap up the wild world of the Hargreeves siblings and their many apocalypses, but the short episode count doesn’t hold it back from dropping catchy song after the next — including one of the world’s most earworm-y songs of all time, “Baby Shark.”

This season’s soundtrack is also a little different because the episodes take place during the holiday season, meaning there are a handful of Christmas classics in the mix as well, from “Santa Baby” to “Carol of the Bells.” They even got the always-coveted rights to a Cher song.

If you’re looking for a handy rundown of the complete “Umbrella Academy” Season 4 song list, here’s a guide to all the...

In 2004, Rolling Stone launched its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. Tabulated from a massive vote that had artists, industry figures, and critics weighing in, the list has been a source of conversation, inspiration, and controversy for two decades. It’s one of the most popular, influential — and argued-over— features the magazine has ever done.

So we set out to make it even bigger, better, and fresher. In 2021, we completely overhauled our 500 Songs list, with a whole new batch of voters from all over the music map. Our new podcast,...

When the Apple TV+ series The New Look premiered in February, it brought with it the true stories of Paris-based fashion designers — from Christian Dior to Coco Chanel — navigating the hardships of World War II. But the show also offered a new sound by way of its Jack Antonoff-produced soundtrack. The latest release from the record finds Bartees Strange reimagining the 1940s classic “You Always Hurt the One You Love.”

“Jack pulled a crazy group of musicians together to do original versions of some classic songs,” Strange wrote on...

In the age of concert videos so high-definition you can see individual beads of sweat, nothing seems especially unique about The Girl Can't Help It. Billed as "blonde bombshell" Jayne Mansfield's first starring role, the 1956 musical-comedy features a string of rock and roll icons performing their hearts out in vivid, widescreen technicolor. It's a delight for modern audiences to see Little Richard, Fats Domino, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, The Platters, and Abbey Lincoln in one place, but nothing revolutionary when we have YouTube at our fingertips.

The visceral melodic pulse heard in the bass playing of Aston “Family Man” Barrett, who died on February 3, is most closely associated with anchoring the messages and providing the sonic heartbeat within Bob Marley’s music. In 1970, Family Man and his brother, drummer Carlton “Carly” Barrett, began playing with Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, who had formed the Wailers in 1963.

Following the departure of Tosh and Wailer from the group in 1973 and throughout Marley’s rise to global stardom as the decade progressed, the Wailers served as his backing band,...

“This little song [is] from Bruce Springsteen,” Suicide frontman Alan Vega tells a Paris audience in 1988. The audience, which has gathered to hear the duo’s minimalist electro-rock songs like “Ghost Rider,” promptly boos him. “Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,” he retorts with his trademark New York snarl, “It’s our version of it. We’ll fuck it up. Don’t worry about it. ‘Born in the U.S.A.'” Then Vega’s partner, keyboardist Martin Rev, kicks into a melody that sounds nothing like the Boss’ epic riff, and...

Just a couple of months before the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame unveils its Class of 2023, Courtney Love has accused the foundation of misogyny in an op-ed for The Guardian published Friday titled Why are women so marginalised by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?.

In the essay, Love cited writer Jessica Hopper, who recently calculated that only 8.48% of Rock Hall inductees are women: “When the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame started in 1983, you would have thought they might want to begin with Sister Rosetta, with those first chords that chimed the songbook we were now all singing from,” the Hole bandleader wrote. “The initial inductees were Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley; not a woman in sight.”

Love went on: “It took the Rock Hall 30-plus years to induct Nina Simone and Carole King.

Rock’n’roll trailblazer Jerry Lee Lewis has died aged 87.

Associated Press reports that the influential musician’s representatives have confirmed his death at home in Memphis, Tennessee.

Considered one of the earliest pioneers of rock’n’roll, Lewis was born on 29 September 1935, in Ferriday, Louisiana. He began teaching himself to play piano at the age of 9.

In 1956, Lewis moved to Memphis where he auditioned to become a session musician at Sun Records. Within a year he was recording with the label’s stars Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Carl Perkins. Together they were known as the “Million Dollar Quartet”.

“Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin On” gave Lewis his first hit as a solo artist in April 1957. The follow-up, “Great Balls of Fire”, was an even bigger success and gave “The Killer” his signature tune.

Released in December 1957, it went on to be used prominently in films such as 1986’s Top Gun...

When director Brett Morgen began his acclaimed David Bowie documentary, “Moonage Daydream” (Neon), he had no idea where the journey would take him. His goals were rather narrow: “I was hoping to create a theme park ride [in IMAX] around my favorite musical artist, something that would be intimate and sublime and experiential,” he told IndieWire.

“But the film became something much deeper and richer, which I didn’t expect to encounter,” he added, “because prior to starting the film, I only listened to David’s music — I hadn’t really listened to his interviews. So the film became more life affirming than I anticipated.”

It became a kaleidoscopic, mind-blowing journey about the chameleon of rock, built around Bowie as narrator (culled from pre-existing material), performer, and philosopher about the transience of life and the promise of the new millennium. The ambitious doc is interspersed with concert footage, interviews, music, Stan Brakhage-inspired animation,...

Priscilla Presley has addressed some of the alleged history of ex-husband Elvis Presley that was arguably left out of summer blockbuster “Elvis.”

The Baz Luhrmann-directed film presents Elvis (Austin Butler) as the embodiment of mid-20th century America, showing him as being deeply moved by the Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King Jr.’s death. That goes against a popular narrative that he was racist, something immortalized in Public Enemy’s song “Fight the Power.” In a new interview with “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” Priscilla discussed Elvis’ relationships with musicians of color.

“Per the movie, [for] a long time it was stated that Elvis was a racist,” Priscilla explained. “He was not a racist. He had never been a racist. He had friends, Black friends, friends from all over. He loved their music, he loved their style. He loved being around Black musicians.”

Priscilla cited Elvis’ friendships with Fats Domino...

In 1967, I was a very young reporter for a newspaper called The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio… and crazy in love with the music of Otis Redding. When I read that he was coming to a Black nightclub called Leo’s Casino on Cleveland’s East Side, I somehow convinced my white editors — Sinatra and Dean Martin and Tony Bennett fans — to let me interview him. I had never seen Otis in person before.

The club, Cleveland’s hottest Black nightclub, was filled. Otis bounded onstage — a big man who, after the first few bars of his first song, had the predominantly Black audience in his big Black palm. Many women were moved to tears. He knocked me out. He was magnetic, romantic, sexy and explosive. At the end of the show, he got a standing ovation that wouldn’t stop.

I went backstage. I looked like a preppy. Striped tie,...

Art Rupe, founder of the trailblazing R&b label Specialty Records that released early classics by artists like Little Richard, Sam Cooke and Lloyd Price, has died at the age of 104.

The Arthur N. Rupe Foundation announced his death Friday, adding that Rupe died at his home in Santa Barbara, California. No cause of death was provided.

As founder and producer at the Los Angeles-based Specialty Records, Rupe oversaw a label that was responsible for songs that laid the bedrock for rock n’ roll: Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti,” Price’s “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,...

Exclusive: Paramount+ revealed earlier this week that it had a series adaptation of John Travolta movie Urban Cowboy in the works. Now, the wild, true story that inspired the 1980 film is also being developed for television.

The rise and fall of country music icon Mickey Gilley’s football field-sized Texan honky tonk is being set up as a limited series with Philip Levens, creator of Syfy miniseries Ascension and Smallville writer, serving as showrunner for a series that comes from Michael Becker of Worth producer Imprint Entertainment and Joel Carpenter of Jc Productions.

The latter pair optioned Gilley’s life rights and will tell the story of what’s been described as the “the Studio54 of the West”, the center of the cowboy universe in 1978.

With a capacity of 6,000, the largest honky-tonk on the planet was frequented by an assortment of patrons that ranged from oilfield roughnecks to movie stars.

In one of the key scenes from Cameron Crowe’s 2000 film “Almost Famous,” an aspiring rock star played by Billy Crudup stands on a rooftop in Topeka, Kansas, throws out his arms and shouts, “I am a golden god!” As an expression of stoned rock-star hubris, it’s perfect – but it’s also based on a real rock star, Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, who apparently made that proclamation from the top of the Continental Hyatt House in Los Angeles sometime back in the late 1960s or early ’70s.

Plant’s exclamation pretty much sums up Led Zeppelin, the subjects of Bernard MacMahon’s “Becoming Led Zeppelin,” which premiered on Saturday at the Venice Film Festival. They were true rock gods from a time when the music of the ’60s was splintering, fragmenting and in need of a new breed of gods – and they knew it, gloried in it and made light of it,...

In 2013, I interviewed the Rolling Stones for this magazine as the band prepared for the next leg of their 50th anniversary tour. I’d talked to Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ron Wood before, but never Charlie Watts. I was excited by the prospect: For more years than I could count, I had wanted to be able to sit in a room and talk with him about jazz. I got to do that, but the section I wrote about him didn’t make the final story.

After I learned Watts...

Don Everly, who with his brother, Phil, was part of the Everly Brothers, a huge chart success in the late 1950s and early 1960s that grew into Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, died on Saturday at his home in Nashville. He was 84.

A family spokesman confirmed the death to The Los Angeles Times. No cause was given.

The duo were one of the first pop-rock acts to emerge from Nashville, and became instant hitmakers on the strength of the soaring harmonies in such songs as “Wake Up Little Susie” and “Cathy’s Clown.” They became a major influence on everything to follow, from the British Invasion through the Southern California county-rock scene.

Their harmonies on such hits as “Bye Bye Love” and “All I Have To Do Is Dream” are timeless and unforgettable. Don Everly usually sang lead, with his brother handling the higher harmony.

“It’s almost like...

Lloyd Price, who soared to the top of the charts with the 1950s hits Lawdy Miss Clawdy, Personality and Stagger Lee, died Monday in New Orleans. He was 88 and no cause was given by his manager, who confirmed the death.

Price was discovered at age 19 by legendary New Orleans producer and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Dave Bartholomew, who was working with Specialty Records producer Art Rupe. He took Price in and soon recorded Lawdy Miss Clawdy, with Fats Domino on piano and Earl Palmer on drums. The hit sold a million copies and spent seven weeks atop Billboard’s R&b charts.

That launched a recording career that saw Price score 15 top-ten R&b hits, including Personality and Stagger Lee.

Price told the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that he was shocked by the success of Lawdy Miss Clawdy. The title was taken from a local disc jockey at station Wbok Radio,...

Lloyd Price, the pioneering R&b singer behind Fifties hits like “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” “Stagger Lee” and “Personality,” has died at the age of 88.

Price’s manager Tom Tripani confirmed to Rolling Stone that Price died Monday, May 3rd; no cause of death was provided.

Friend Rickey Poppell added on Facebook (via Variety), “Those of us close to Lloyd have been keeping his declining health issues to our selves for the past five years, while Tom kept me up to date along the way. Lloyd was one of the sweetest,...

Back to the Future is a classic comedy, one of the most popular films in motion picture history. Almost every laugh line lands with a perfectly executed punch. Every skateboard flip is a motion picture wonder. It’s one of those films which is broadly silly yet still has heart, and it’s a treasure of commercial cinema. But when Michael J. Fox’s Marty McFly straps on a cherry red Gibson Es-345 he plunders the golden oldies right out of the fingers of the true original. Ignore the bit where “Marvin Berry” calls his cousin on the phone. Chuck Berry didn’t just write “Johnny B. Goode,” he was Johnny B. Goode.

The song about the country boy who could play guitar like ringing a bell could have referred to any number of musicians, from Buddy Holly to Bo Diddley or Ricky Nelson. But the singer-songwriting guitarist who penned...

Rolling Stone interview series Unknown Legends features long-form conversations between senior writer Andy Greene and veteran musicians who have toured and recorded alongside icons for years, if not decades. All are renowned in the business, but some are less well known to the general public. Here, these artists tell their complete stories, giving an up-close look at life on music’s A list. This edition features keyboardist Chris Stainton.

He performed at Woodstock, even though he took so much LSD that morning that he puked on the helicopter ride over.

A version of this story was originally published in November 2017 and has since been updated.

One night in the late 1950s, the Flamingos’ bus pulled up to a concert hall in Birmingham, Alabama, and a row of 30 to 50 police officers holding rifles and billy clubs was waiting for them. The cops escorted the six-member doo-wop group, famous for “I Only Have Eyes for You” and “The Ladder of Love,” to its dressing room and gave strict instructions: As black performers, they were to make eye contact with only the black fans,...

Sylvain Sylvain, the punk icon and guitarist for New York Dolls whose riffs bridged the gap between punk and glam, died Wednesday. He was 69. The musician, who also contributed bass, piano and songwriting to the groundbreaking band’s first two albums, had been battling cancer.

“As most of you know, Sylvain battled cancer for the past two and 1/2 years,” his wife, Wanda O’Kelley Mizrahi, wrote in a statement on his Facebook page. “Though he fought it valiantly, yesterday he passed away from this disease. While we grieve his loss,...

In 1971, Peter Guralnick published Feel Like Going Home, which told the story of the blues through a series of revelatory profiles of Muddy Waters, Skip James, Howlin’ Wolf, and more. He ended the book with a goodbye: “I consider this chapter a swan song,” wrote Guralnick, who was 27 at the time. “Not only to the book but to my whole brief critical career. Next time you see me I hope I will be my younger, less self-conscious and critical self. It would be nice to just sit back and listen...

“If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry,’” John Lennon proclaimed on The Mike Douglas Show in 1972. “In the 1950s, a whole generation worshipped his music, and when you see him today, past and present all come together, and the message is Hail, Hail Rock and Roll.’” The two idols then kicked off into Berry’s song “Memphis, Tennessee.” Chuck Berry: The Original King Of Rock ‘N’ Roll is the first-ever feature-length documentary on the duck-walking electric guitarist and songwriter. It’s been playing, like any good rock and roll film, at special drive-in events across the country. The film will be available on VOD platforms and on Blu-ray on November 27.

In the same class as James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley, “The first-ever Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee crossed...

Chances are, you’ve never heard a boast track quite like “Exuma, the Obeah Man,” the opening song off Exuma’s self-titled 1970 album.

A wolf howls, frogs count off a ramshackle symphony, bells jingle, drums palpitate, a zombie exhales, all by way of introducing the one-of-a-kind Bahamian performer, born Tony Mackey: “I came down on a lightning bolt/Nine months in my mama’s belly,” he proclaims. “When I was born, the midwife/Screamed and shout/I had fire and brimstone/Coming out of my mouth/I’m Exuma, the Obeah Man.

HBO’s latest blockbuster drama effort, Lovecraft Country, is a unique Lovecraftian beast. As adapted by Matt Ruff’s novel of the same name, the show takes classic horror, sci-fi, and adventure tropes and adapts them into a timely story of American racism.

Though the series is certainly timely, it’s also timeless. As evidenced by our helpful explainer article, it wasn’t immediately clear when Lovecraft Country even took place. That’s partly because the Jim Crow era of American institutionalized racism was a lengthy one. And the fact that Atticus “Tic” Freeman was a war veteran didn’t help out much. Which war coincided with “whites only” restaurants and sundown towns? World War II, The Korean War, The Vietnam War – take your pick, really. That pleasant disorientation is enhanced by an equally disorienting soundtrack.

Rest assured, Lovecraft Country takes place in the mid 1950s. But the show’s...

Grammy-winning country performer Wynonna will perform covers of John Prine, Fats Domino, and others on her upcoming EP, Recollections. Due out October 30th via Anti- Records, the project’s first release is a down-and-dirty version of Slim Harpo’s “King Bee.”

Largely recorded at Wynonna’s farm in Tennessee during quarantine, the EP retains the looseness of an at-home jam session being captured on tape. Wynonna and her husband, musician Cactus Moser, worked on the recordings together. “King Bee” is a swampy blues number, full of barbed electric guitars and slide riffs,...

Cannes 2020: Tick-tock, stop the clock! Just like Fats Domino, in his debut feature, Dani Rosenberg tries to freeze time. When a filmmaker already quotes Jorge Luis Borges in his director’s notes, one half-expects what’s in store – in short, anything but your typical, easy-to-follow narrative. Dani Rosenberg’s The Death of Cinema and My Father Too, granted the Cannes 2020 label, combines shaky archive footage with fictional scenes, VHS short films and a whole subplot involving an Iranian military attack on Tel Aviv. Oh, and “House of the Rising Sun”, blaring its tale of a father who was “a gamblin’ man down in New Orleans”. And yet, despite all that jazz, ultimately it’s an extremely intimate affair about a son who doesn’t want to let go of his withering father. That sounds simple enough, but it takes some proper digging to get to the core, and Cannes’ stamp of approval.

For almost two weeks now, a debate around the term “urban” has roiled the music industry. Some believe it’s a barely veiled synonym for black that actually ends up harming and limiting the black artists and executives it’s supposed to protect. Others argue the term is a part of an effort “to give black executives a true voice and an opportunity to run and manage an aspect of the [music] business that was largely being ignored by the corporations.” Republic Records announced that it would do away with “urban;” for now,...

The first time I met Little Richard, I had just gotten back from his hometown (and Otis Redding’s, and, more or less, James Brown’s) of Macon, Georgia. It was 1984, and I was working on my book Sweet Soul Music (which wouldn’t be published for a couple of years), while Richard was promoting his own authorized biography, The Life and Times of Little Richard: The Quasar of Rock — which, if you haven’t read it already, you must. It’s a masterpiece of honest, and eloquent (self)-reporting.

Over the weekend, Robbie Robertson shared a tribute to Little Richard that captured the rock & roll legend’s vast and unparalleled influence.

For Robertson, that power was apparent from the moment he first laid eyes on the musician: “When I was 13 yrs. old I saw Richard in the movie Don’t Knock the Rock sing ‘Long Tall Sally’ and I said, that’s it, it can’t get better than that and it never did.”

Robertson also shared various memories of Little Richard and his music. He noted that the...

From his voice to his piano to his pompadoured-wildman aura, Little Richard became a star and unstoppable rock & roll train for many reasons. But one of those reasons – sometimes to the dismay of his fans – was Pat Boone.

Boone, who was a year and a half younger than the rock architect, was a straight-laced white pop singer who, by 1956, had become a teen pop idol thanks to mild-mannered remakes of R&b hits like Fats Domino’s “Ain’t That a Shame” and the El Dorados’ “At My Front Door...

Though best known for the Fifties classics that defined early rock & roll, Little Richard’s career was full of fantastic lesser-known moments, as he responded to the arrival of British rock, Sixties soul and Seventies funk, at times returning to his gospel roots while always showing the elasticity of his uproarious bedrock sound. Along the way, he turned in great covers of songs by everyone from Hank Williams to the Rolling Stones while recording excellent originals as well.

“Directly From My Heart” (1957)

Little Richard was known for his absurd vocal power,...

Little Richard Penniman, whose boogie woogie blues piano laid the foundation for rock and roll, died Saturday, May 9, at 87, according to Rolling Stone. The cause of death was unknown.

Little Richard, along with Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, the Delta Cats, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Elvis Presley, wed blues with gospel and country for a new music genre which changed the world and how we hear it. “Tutti Frutti, “Long Tall Sally,” “Rip It Up,” all pounded out in 1956, got jukeboxes jumping, made senses reel and gave parents fits. “All the flat top cats and the dungaree dolls” swarmed the dance floors, while budding musicians around the world took notice.

Little Richard’s influence is almost beyond measure. The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Elton John, David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Lemmy Kilmister, and his own contemporaries, like Presley, Buddy Holly, and Bill Haley and fellow piano pounder Jerry Lee Lewis,...

Following news of Little Richard’s death at the age of 87, artists turned to social media Saturday to pay tribute to the founding father of rock & roll.

“The King Of Rock And Roll. Zero Questions,” Questlove wrote on Instagram. “Journalists Do Your Job. Not Architect not Pioneer. not Hitmaker. This man was literally The Blueprint of all the world took from. Little Richard is The True King. Long Live The King.”

“I’m very sorry to hear about Little Richard,” Brian Wilson tweeted. “He was there at the beginning and...

As if there wasn’t enough sorrow in the world right now, the news arrived Saturday morning that Little Richard died from bone cancer. The rock pioneer was 87. “A lot of people call me the architect of rock and roll,” he told Rolling Stone in 2004. “I don’t call myself that, but I believe it’s true.”

It’s not hard to justify that claim. Starting with “Tutti Frutti” in 1955, the flamboyant piano player unleashed a series of classic singles – including “Long Tall Sally,” “Lucille” and “Good Golly Miss Molly...

First the movies were silent, and then early Hollywood composers like Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold filled them with sound. By the time “American Graffiti” arrived in 1973 with a chart-topping soundtrack that ranged from Fats Domino to The Beach Boys, it was clear that songs — and not just scores — could be woven into the auditory fabric of a film. Since then, the cinematic relationship between image and music has only grown more exciting, more open-ended, and more liable to get lost in translation.

Fortunately, a brilliant new breed of interpreter has emerged over the last few decades: the music supervisor. And no music supervisor has been more instrumental in shaping the best movies of the last 30 years than Randall Poster. After producing an unsuccessful indie called “A Matter of Degrees” with some of his friends in the early ’90s, Poster realized that his passion for (and encyclopedic knowledge of...

A review of this week’s Watchmen, “This Exceptional Being,” coming up just as soon as I read Action Comics #1 for the first time…

Many of the most distinct and beloved American art forms were invented by black artists who were then quickly eclipsed in the public imagination by their white imitators. Elvis Presley borrowed liberally from Chuck Berry and Fats Domino, among many others. When they were starting out, white rappers like the Beastie Boys and Eminem often found it easier to get radio play than more established black hip-hop veterans.

Sony Music Masterworks today releases The Irishman Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, an album of music from the Martin Scorsese-directed film starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci. Available everywhere now, the soundtrack features music carefully curated by Scorsese and music supervisor Randall Poster as a sonic companion to the film's enthralling narrative of organized crime in postwar America.

The twenty-track collection includes top hits by legendary artists Fats Domino, Jackie Gleason, Jerry Vale, Johnny Ray, Marty Robbins, P&#233rez Prado and more, as well as a new theme composed by legendary guitarist and composer Robbie Robertson - listen here. Making its critically-acclaimed world premiere at this year's New York Film Festival, The Irishman is in theaters now and begins streaming on Netflix Wednesday, November 27.

You can buy The Irishman soundtrack available everywhere now. Of the soundtrack, director Martin Scorsese says, "For me, music is always essential. When I hear the music,...

A new song from Robbie Robertson will sit alongside classics by Fats Domino, Jackie Gleason and Marty Robbins on the soundtrack for Martin Scorsese’s next film, The Irishman. The film opens in theaters today, November 1st, before hitting Netflix November 27th, while the soundtrack will arrive November 8th.

Robertson wrote the score for The Irishman, although only his theme song for the film will appear on the soundtrack. The track has a captivating aura that’s somewhat reminiscent of a Spaghetti Western song, with Robertson lacing an ominous acoustic...

Robbie Robertson has seen a lot in six decades of rock & roll, but nothing quite like what happened at the Toronto Pop Festival in 1969. He and the Band were on a bill that included the New Orleans studio musician and songwriter Mac Rebennack, newly reinvented as Dr. John, the Night Tripper. “This guy I’m talking to, he has strands of beads and shit coming off his head and powders coming out of his ears and rags hanging down,” recalls Robertson. “He’s got a walking stick that looks like...

Art Neville, a giant of New Orleans music who helped co-found the Neville Brothers and the funk outfit the Meters, has died, Nola.com reports. He was 81.

Neville’s longtime manager, Kent Sorrell, confirmed the musician’s death, saying, “It was peaceful. He passed away at home with his adoring wife Lorraine by his side. He toured the world how many times, but he always came home to Valence Street.”

A pianist and singer, Neville’s career spanned more than 60 years and left an indelible impression on funk, soul and jazz music.

Two new collections will delve into the music Elvis Presley produced in Las Vegas and Memphis in 1969, Live 1969 and American Sound 1969, which will be released August 9th and August 23rd, respectively.

Live 1969 commemorates the 50th anniversary of Elvis’ residency at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, which at the time, marked his first live shows in eight years. The musician performed 57 sold-out shows, during which he was backed by two vocal groups — the Imperials and the Sweet Inspirations — a full orchestra and band later known as the Tcb Band.

Live...

Dave Bartholomew, the New Orleans musician, Fats Domino collaborator and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee who co-wrote the R&b classic “Ain’t That a Shame,” has died at the age of 100.

Bartholomew died Sunday at a New Orleans-area hospital, his son Dave Bartholomew Jr. confirmed to the Associated Press. “His body simply broke down. Daddy was 100 years and six months old. It was just that time,” Bartholomew Jr. said.

A trumpeter, bandleader, producer and arranger who worked with artists like Domino, Lloyd Price, Smiley Lewis and Shirley & Lee,...

Dave Bartholomew, credited by many with creating early rock ‘n roll in his work with Fats Domino, has died at age 100 at East Jefferson General Hospital in New Orleans, his son said. He was 100 years old.

A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, Bartholomew was a trumpeter, producer, arranger, songwriter, and bandleader. He was the longtime collaborator of Fats Domino, helping him write, arrange and perform some of the nation’s biggest hits back in the 1950’s and 60’s.

He was a key behind the scenes man at Cosimo Matassa’s J&m Recording Studio, matching musicians and producing some of New Orleans most memorable music by artists including Smiley Lewis, Snooks Eaglin, Little Sonny Jones, Pee Wee Crayton, Shirley and Lee, Frankie Ford and Sugarboy Crawford.

Bartholomew nurtured Domino’s career, letting him sit-in...

Tony Sokol Jun 6, 2019

New Orleans musician Mac Rebennack conjured the best mojo in Dr. John the Night Tripper.

"They call me Dr. John, The Night Tripper," New Orleans voodoo pianist Mac Rebennack sang on the 1969 song "Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya." With his sizzling Gris-Gris his hand, he lived and breathed New Orleans. The last of the best, Dr. John the Night Tripper, died of a heart attack "toward the break of day" on Thursday, June 6, according to the New York Times. Like Leon Redbone, who died last week, there is some dispute over Dr. John's age, various reports have him listed as 77 or 78.

"The family thanks all whom have shared his unique musical journey, and requests privacy at this time," a statement from the musician's family said. They did not say where he died, though he reportedly was resting at his Lake Pontchartrain area home, not too far from New Orleans.