Wednesday 10pm: Feature LP: Elton John – Sleeping With The Past (1989)

Sleeping with the Past is the 22nd studio album by the English singer-songwriter Elton John, released on 29 April 1989. It is his best-selling album in Denmark (where it was recorded) and is dedicated to his longtime writing partner Bernie Taupin. The album features his first solo number-one single, “Sacrifice”, in his home country of the UK, which helped the album also hit number one there, his first since 1974’s Elton John’s Greatest Hits. John and Taupin meant for the songs to reflect the style of 1960s R&B icons such as Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding and Sam Cooke, whom they admired. It also became his first platinum album in the UK since 1983. In the US it was certified gold in October 1989 and platinum in April 1990 by the RIAA. Guy Babylon made his debut on this album and would continue to play keyboards with John for the next 20 years, while Fred Mandel left the band shortly after. John went into rehabilitation in 1990.

“Durban Deep” – 5:29
“Healing Hands” – 4:31
“Whispers” – 5:28
“Club at the End of the Street” – 4:52
“Sleeping with the Past” – 4:54
“Stones Throw from Hurtin'” – 4:45
“Sacrifice” – 5:06
“I Never Knew Her Name” – 3:29
“Amazes Me” – 4:37
“Blue Avenue” – 4:33
“Dancing in the End Zone” – 3:55
“Love Is a Cannibal” – 3:53

Friday 10pm: Feature LP: Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

45th Anniversary of the release of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road which was the seventh studio album by Elton John, released in October 5,1973. The album sold over 30 million copies worldwide and is regarded as one of John’s best. It was recorded at the Château d’Hérouville in France after problems recording at the intended location of Jamaica. Among the 17 tracks, the album contains the hits “Candle in the Wind”, “Bennie and the Jets”, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” plus “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” and “Harmony”.

The move to the château from Jamaica provided John and his band with a great deal of creative inspiration, and an abundance of quality material was produced, leading to the decision to release the work as a double album (LP).

In 2003, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The album was ranked number 91 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and number 59 in Channel 4’s 2009 list of 100 Greatest Albums.

1. “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” 11:09
2. “Candle in the Wind” 3:50
3. “Bennie and the Jets” 5:23
4. “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” 3:13
5. “This Song Has No Title” 2:23
6. “Grey Seal” 4:00
7. “Jamaica Jerk-Off” 3:39
8. “I’ve Seen That Movie Too” 5:59
9. “Sweet Painted Lady” 3:54
10. “The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909–34)” 4:23
11. “Dirty Little Girl” 5:00
12. “All the Girls Love Alice” 5:09
13. “Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock ‘n Roll)” 2:42
14. “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” 4:57
15. “Roy Rogers” 4:07
16. “Social Disease” 3:42
17. “Harmony” 2:46

Monday 6pm: Max 20th Century – 1971 (Part I)

February 1 – After months of feuding in the press, Ginger Baker and Elvin Jones hold a “drum battle” at The Lyceum.
February 3 – Davy Jones announces he is leaving the Monkees.
February 8 – Bob Dylan’s hour-long documentary film, Eat the Document, is premièred at New York’s Academy of Music. The film includes footage from Dylan’s 1966 UK tour.
February 16 – Alan Passaro of the Hells Angels, who was acquitted on January 19 of the stabbing death of Meredith Hunter at the Altamont Speedway in 1969, files a lawsuit against The Rolling Stones for invasion of privacy because the documentary film Gimme Shelter showed the stabbing.
March 1 – The line-up for Queen is completed when bassist John Deacon joins the band.
March 4 – The Rolling Stones open their UK tour in Newcastle upon Tyne, intended as a “farewell” to the UK prior to the band’s relocation to France as “tax exiles”.
March 5 – Ulster Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland, sees the first live performance of Led Zeppelin’s iconic song “Stairway to Heaven”.
March 6 – The Soul to Soul concert takes place in Accra, Ghana, headlined by Wilson Pickett.
March 12–13 – The Allman Brothers Band records its live album, At Fillmore East.
March 16 – The 13th Grammy Awards, honoring musical accomplishments of 1970, are presented. The ceremonies are broadcast on live television for the first time.
April 3 – The 16th Eurovision Song Contest, held in the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, is won by Monaco with the song “Un Banc, Un Arbre, Une Rue” sung by Séverine.
April 6 – The Rolling Stones hold a party in Cannes to officially announce their new contract with Atlantic and the launch of Rolling Stones Records.
May 12 – Mick Jagger marries Bianca de Macías in Saint-Tropez, France, in a Roman Catholic ceremony. Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and their wives are among the wedding guests.
June – Rafael Kubelík becomes music director of the Metropolitan Opera, New York, at the invitation of Göran Gentele, the new general manager.
June 1 – Elvis Presley’s birthplace, a two-room shack in Tupelo, Mississippi, as opened to the public as a tourist attraction.
June 6 – John Lennon and Yoko Ono join Frank Zappa on stage at the Fillmore East for an encore jam. The performance would be released the following year on the Some Time in New York City album.
June 8 – Carole King gives her first live concert, at Carnegie Hall.
June 20-24 – The first Glastonbury Festival to take place at the summer solstice is held in South West England. Performers include David Bowie, Traffic, Fairport Convention, Quintessence and Hawkwind.
June 27 – Promoter Bill Graham closes the Fillmore East in New York City with a final concert featuring The Allman Brothers Band, The Beach Boys and Mountain.
July 3 – Jim Morrison is found dead in a bath tub in Paris, France, aged 27. Alain Ronay would claim, years later, that he assisted Morrison’s lover, Pamela Courson, in covering up the circumstances.
July 4 – The Fillmore West is closed in San Francisco with a final show featuring Santana, Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Grateful Dead.
July 9 – Grand Funk Railroad becomes only the second band (after The Beatles) to perform a sold-out concert at Shea Stadium breaking The Beatles record of selling out the venue.
August 1
The Concert for Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden, New York, starring George Harrison, Ravi Shankar, Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan and Leon Russell; also featuring Billy Preston, Eric Clapton, Jesse Ed Davis and Badfinger.
The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour premieres on CBS.
August 14 – The Who release their fifth studio album Who’s Next, reaching No. 1 in the UK and No. 1 in the US.
September 11 – The Jackson 5ive, a Saturday morning cartoon series based on the popular Motown group The Jackson 5, premieres on ABC.
September 11-12 – The Avandaro rock festival takes place in Valle de Bravo (Mexico) with an estimated attendance of 300,000.
October 5 – Black Sabbath perform the first set of their Whisky a Go Go performance in all-white tuxedos.
October 29 – Allman Brothers Band guitarist Duane Allman dies in a motorcycle accident in Macon, Georgia after colliding with a truck.
November 6 – Cher earned her first solo number one hit in US (Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves) staying atop for two consecutive weeks. Eventually the song was certified gold.
November 8 – Led Zeppelin release officially untitled fourth studio album, which would become the biggest-selling album of the year (1972), the band’s biggest-selling album, and the fourth best-selling album of all time.
December 1 – Belgian singing duo Nicole & Hugo are married at Wemmel.
December 4 – The Montreux Casino in Montreux, Switzerland, catches fire and burns during a performance by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention when a fan fires a flare gun into its rafters. Members of Deep Purple, who were due to begin recording at the casino the next day, watched the scene from their hotel across Lake Geneva, and later immortalized the events in their song, “Smoke on the Water”.
December 10 – Frank Zappa breaks his leg after being pushed off the stage by a deranged fan at The Rainbow in London.
December 31 – Bob Dylan makes a surprise appearance for the encore of The Band’s New Year’s Eve concert at the Academy of Music, joining the group for four songs including “Like a Rolling Stone”. – Wikipedia

Tuesday 6pm: Artist Countdown: Elton John Top 100 (Part III) with Ron Kovacs

Final installment 40 to number one.

Tuesday 6pm: Artist Countdown – Elton John Top 100 Hits (Part II) with Ron Kovacs

Join Ron Kovacs for Part II of the Elton John Top 100 Countdown.

Tuesday 6pm: Artist Countdown – Elton John Top 100 Hits with Ron Kovacs

Sir Elton Hercules John CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947) is an English singer, pianist, and composer. He has worked with lyricist Bernie Taupin as his songwriting partner since 1967; they have collaborated on more than 30 albums to date. In his five-decade career Elton John has sold more than 300 million records, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world. He has more than fifty Top 40 hits, including seven consecutive No. 1 US albums, 58 Billboard Top 40 singles, 27 Top 10, four No. 2 and nine No. 1. For 31 consecutive years (1970–2000) he had at least one song in the Billboard Hot 100. His tribute single “Candle in the Wind 1997”, re-penned in dedication to the late Princess Diana, sold over 33 million copies worldwide and is the best-selling single in the history of the U.K. and U.S. singles charts. He has also composed music, produced records, and has occasionally acted i films. John owned Watford Football Club from 1976 to 1987, and 1997 to 2002. He is an honorary Life President of the club, and in 2014 had a stand named after him at the club’s home stadium.

Raised in the Pinner area of London, John learned to play piano at an early age, and by 1962 had formed Bluesology. John met his songwriting partner, Bernie Taupin, in 1967, after they had both answered an advert for songwriters. For two years they wrote songs for other artists, including Lulu, and John also worked as a session musician for artists such as the Hollies and the Scaffold. In 1969 his debut album, Empty Sky, was released. In 1970 a single, “Your Song”, from his second album, Elton John, reached the top ten in the UK and the US, his first hit single. After decades of commercial chart success, John has also achieved success in musical theatre, both in the West End and on Broadway, composing the music for The Lion King (film and musical), Aida and Billy Elliot the Musical.

He has received five Grammy Awards, five Brit Awards – winning two awards for Outstanding Contribution to Music and the first Brits Icon in 2013 for his “lasting impact on British culture”, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, a Disney Legends award, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him Number 49 on its list of 100 influential musicians of the rock and roll era. In 2013, Billboard ranked him the most successful male solo artist on the Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists (third overall behind the Beatles and Madonna). He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, is an inductee into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and is a fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. Having been named a Order of the British Empire in 1996, John was made a Knight Bachelor by Elizabeth II for “services to music and charitable services” in 1998. John has performed at a number of royal events, such as the funeral of Princess Diana at Westminster Abbey in 1997, the Party at the Palace in 2002 and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Concert outside Buckingham Palace in 2012.

He has been heavily involved in the fight against AIDS since the late 1980s. In 1992, he established the Elton John AIDS Foundation and a year later began hosting the annual Academy Award Party, which has since become one of the highest-profile Oscar parties in the Hollywood film industry. Since its inception, the foundation has raised over US$200 million. John, who announced he was bisexual in 1976 and has been openly gay since 1988, entered into a civil partnership with David Furnish on 21 December 2005, and after same-sex marriage became legal in England and Wales in 2014, wed Furnish on 21 December 2014. On 24 January 2018, it was announced that John would be retiring from touring and would soon embark on a three-year farewell tour, which commences in September 2018. – Wikipedia