Etta James Album Sales Leap 378% Following Death

Sometimes you don’t know what you have until it slips away. That seems to be the case with the late Etta James’ soulful songs. As reported by Billboard, James scored her highest-charting album ever on the Billboard 200 chart this past week with The Best of Etta James – 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection, which rose from #162 to #46 with 8,000 copies sold, as reported by Nielsen SoundScan. That’s up 149% over the preceding week. Until now, the R&B/blues crooner had never surpassed #68 on the pop album charts, when At Last hit that spot in 1961.

According to Billboard, for the week ending Sunday (January 22), James’ total catalog of albums moved 30,000 units. That’s a 378% increase over the week before, when her albums sold just over 6,000. James also entered the Billboard 200 chart at #59 with her 1997 greatest hits set, Her Best, selling 7,000 copies, which is up 4,226% from the week before. At Last! the album hit #96 on the chart with 5,000 units sold, up 907%.

“At Last” is likely James’ signature tune, although she wasn’t the original singer. That song was James’ highest-charting of the week, pushing 63,000 downloads, with a weekly gain of 1,361%. For the week, James' catalog of songs sold a total of 118,000 downloads – with over half of those “At Last's” numbers – for an overall gain of 1,091%.

View the original article here

<em>Time</em> Posts Previously Unreleased John Lennon Photos on Anniversary of His Death

Today (December 8) marks the 31-year anniversary of the tragic death of John Lennon.

The ex-Beatle was shot and killed December 8, 1980, at age 40 in New York by a man named Mark David Chapman at the entry to the building where he lived. His passing happened just three weeks after the release of his album, Double Fantasy, which was the first album Lennon had released since his son was born in 1975.

In honor of Lennon, Time Light Box – consisting of the photo editors of Time magazine – has posted previously unseen images of John Lennon and Yoko Ono during their “Bed-In” for peace at Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel in June of 1969. The striking main shot shows Tommy Smothers (an unknown friend), John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Rosemary Leary and Timothy Leary. Check out the gallery here.

View the original article here

Ringo Starr Calls for Peace on the Anniversary of John Lennon’s Death

Beatles legend Ringo Starr unveiled his self-designed replica “Knotted Gun” statue for the Non-Violence Foundation in the Gibson Guitar Studio in Central London today. He urged others to back the Non-Violence Project campaign.

Thursday, December 8 marks 31 years since John Lennon was murdered and Ringo Starr is aiming to spread Lennon’s famous message of peace.

In an urgent call to action, Ringo urged musicians from across genres and generations to unite behind The Non-Violence Foundation (NVF) and its aim to put a stop to violence affecting young people. Ringo was joined at the “Knotted Gun” unveiling held exclusively in the Gibson Guitar Studio by Bafta’s Rising Star nominee Adam Deacon and MOBO Award-winning hip-hop artist Akala.

Ringo Starr said: “I am doing the best I can – how about you?”

The former Beatle created his own design on the charity’s signature logo of the knotted gun statue “Non-Violence” which was originally created by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reutersward as a memorial tribute to John Lennon.

Founded in 1993, NVP is a Swiss-based, non-profit international youth education and leadership initiative. It promotes social change, with representation on five continents. NVP’s goal is to become the world’s foremost organization for violence prevention education and to create a meeting place for the next generation of leaders.

To learn more about Non-Violence Project, please visit http://www.nonviolence.com/, and to learn more about the Knot Violence art project, please visit http://www.knotviolence.org/.

Photo Credit: Lauren Keogh

View the original article here

Death Cab to do Orchestral Tour?

Death Cab for Cutie are mulling over the idea of touring with a string section. Billboard.com talked to guitarist/producer Chris Walla about adding some other instruments to the live mix.

“The idea is still on the table,” Walla said. “It would be really fun to take Magik*Magik Orchestra out. But unfortunately, it is kind of nightmare to try and figure it out.”

Magik*Magik Orchestra contributed heavily to the band’s latest album, Codes and Keys. They also helped the band perform material from the album on VH1 Storytellers.

“It’s sort of turned into the Polyphonic Spree dilemma,” Walla joked. “You can make a living or you can play with an orchestra. They’re totally mutually exclusive – you almost can’t do one and the other. But, I do think that we’ll be able to do some shows with Magik*Magik somewhere at some point, even if it’s not a full tour.”

Death Cab will be hitting the road to begin the second leg of their current tour on July 27 in Columbus, Ohio. The trek will end about a month later in Chicago.

View the original article here

This Day in Music Spotlight: The Bizarre Death of a Yardbird

Special thanks to ThisDayinMusic.com.

When the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted ’60s greats The Yardbirds in 1992 they made the following statement:

“In addition to their six Top 40 songs, the Yardbirds will be remembered as having produced the top three English blues-based guitarists of the ’60s: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page.”

True enough, but that sentiment did overshadow the contribution of the band’s founder, lead singer and exceptional harmonica player Keith Relf, who sadly passed away in tragic circumstances on this very day in 1976.

The story starts at the Crawdaddy pub in Richmond, just outside London, in 1963. When The Rolling Stones left their residency there for bigger and better things, the club needed a replacement – another young blues band fronted by Keith Relf alongside Top Topham (very quickly replaced by Eric Clapton), Chris Dreja, Paul Samwell-Smith and Jim McCarty. Originally called the Metropolitan Blues Quartet, the band had wisely changed their name to The Yardbirds (after Charlie “Yardbird” Parker).

With Clapton on board, the band issued Five Live Yardbirds in December 1964 with a bunch of hardcore American blues, but broke through into the U.K. charts the next year with the poppy “For Your Love” (written by Graham Gouldman, later of 10CC). After that commercial success, Clapton left to be replaced by another gifted young guitarist Jeff Beck, and the hits continued with “Heart Full of Soul,” “I’m a Man” and “Shapes of Things.”

When original bass player Samwell-Smith left in the summer of 1966, another guitar player joined, one Jimmy Page who played on the band’s last hit record, “Happenings 10 Years Time Ago.” Beck left next, in 1966. When Relf and McCarty decided to leave Page and the boys behind to play folksy acoustic music, The Yardbirds transformed into something even more powerful: Led Zeppelin.

In a more mellow vein, Relf and drummer McCarty first formed an acoustic rock combo, Together, and then the folky Renaissance, who signed with Island Records  and released a couple of well-received albums.  

Keith Relf left Renaissance in 1972, played for a while with a rock band called Medicine Head, and then teamed up with Louis Cennamo and Martin Pugh to form a much heavier band – the metal/rock/folk band Armageddon. Based in Los Angeles, the band, with drummer Bobby Caldwell in the camp, released one album which chuggged up to #60 on the U.S. album chart.

Relf had not been a well man for some time. He had chronic asthma, which had threatened his life three times over the years, and emphysema. But neither of these conditions directly influenced the events of May 14, 1976. Back in London, Relf had been rehearsing in the cellar of his house. He stood on a gas pipe by the cellar fireplace while playing guitar. Unfortunately, his guitar had not been grounded correctly and an electrical fault caused the musician’s electrocution, striking at Relf’s already weak heart.

He was found by his eight year old son the next morning. Keith Relf, best-known as the voice of The Yardbirds, was just 33 years old.

View the original article here