Allbutforgottenoldies.net Music News Digest: Week Of December 10, 2017

December 18, 2017 by Amy Gold

During the week of December 10, 2017, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced its inductees for 2018. Among the honorees are The Moody Blues, The Cars, Nina Simone, and rock and roll pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharpe. The awards ceremonies will take place April 14, 2018 at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland and will be broadcast later on HBO and SiriusXM.

Also that week, the U.S. Postal Service announced a new commemorative "Forever" stamp featuring John Lennon to be released sometime next year.

Two classic Ringo Starr solo albums, "Ringo" (1973) and "Goodnight Vienna" (1974), have been remastered and will be reissued on high-quality 180-gram vinyl next January. A new audio/video release titled "The Doors: Live At The Isle Of Wight 1970" that documents the band's last major concert prior to Jim Morrison's passing will be coming out next February as DVD/CD and Blu-ray/CD sets. Also coming out that month are a limited-edition single featuring an Alice Cooper song dating back to 1967, "The Sound Of A," and a Frank Zappa box set titled "The Roxy Performances" that captures his entire two-night, four-show run from December 1973 at the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles.

Hall & Oates singer John Oates announced a solo tour in support of his upcoming album, "Arkansas," to take place beginning next January in West Virginia. Grateful Dead founders Bob Weir and Phil Lesh announced their first-ever tour as a duo beginning next March in New York City. Also, the Steve Miller Band and Peter Frampton will launch a joint North American tour beginning next April in British Columbia, Canada, which will cover several states in the Midwest.

Also that week, a Grammy tribute concert for Elton John titled "I'm Still Standing" was announced which will take place January 30, 2018 at New York's Theater at Madison Square Garden. This event will be televised as a CBS TV special sometime later in 2018.

Finally, December 10, 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the untimely passing of Otis Redding at age 26 in a plane crash that also took the lives of four members of The Bar-Kays.

(For more information about the above-listed news items, please see below for a list of sources with links.)

Below is the trailer for the upcoming documentary, "David Bowie: The Last Five Years," to air January 8, 2018 on HBO.