Whitney Houston‘s “I Will Always Love You” (originally by Dolly Parton) and Johnny Cash‘s “Hurt” (originally by Nine Inch Nails) made the top ten, as did two covers of songs by Minnesota artists: Sinead O’Connor‘s version of Prince‘s “Nothing Compares 2 U” and Jimi Hendrix‘s transformative take on Bob Dylan‘s “All Along the Watchtower.” The best cover version of all time, though—according…

As digital download sales plummet—along with sales of physical music formats, excluding vinyl—Apple is focusing on streaming as the future of its music services. According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple will re-launch Beats Music (which it now owns) next year as a part of iTunes rather than a standalone service. On the one-year anniversary…

As bassist for Cream, Jack Bruce was part of the group—along with guitarist Eric Clapton and drummer Ginger Baker—who helped to define the concept of a “power trio.” On Saturday morning, Bruce’s family confirmed that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee had died, at his home in Suffolk, at the age of 71. A cause of death…

Taking a break from his anti-War-on-Drugs campaign, Mark Kozelek (Sun Kil Moon) is readying a holiday album: Sings Christmas Carols will be released on Nov. 4. Pitchfork has premiered Kozelek’s cover of Vince Guraldi‘s “Christmas Time is Here,” famously featured in A Charlie Brown Christmas. Towards the end of the track, Kozelek recites a few lines of Charlie Brown’s dialogue…

Plenty of people have made statements against Kenny G, but it’s not his smooth jazz that’s upsetting the Chinese government—in fact, the saxophonist is a huge star in China. That’s why his participation in pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong inspired a reprimand by China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman. “Kenny G’s musical works are widely popular in China,” said Hua…

Raphael Ravenscroft, the saxophone player responsible for one of the most iconic sax lines in pop music history, has died of a heart attack at age 60. Though he worked with artists including Pink Floyd, Daft Punk, and Robert Plant, it was the 1978 solo hit “Bakers Street” by Stealers Wheel‘s Gerry Rafferty that made Ravenscroft a saxophone legend. (Billboard)…

Is the Strokes‘ Julian Casablancas anti-brunch? A firestorm now being referred to as “Brunchgate” erupted over a GQ profile in which Casablancas said he’d moved out of New York City because “I don’t know how many, like, white people having brunch I can deal with on a Saturday afternoon.” After the quote spread across the Internet as evidence that Casablancas…

Tragedy struck, and was then compounded, over the weekend when a ventilation grate collapsed at a South Korea concert by K-pop stars 4Minute. On Friday night, 16 fans fell to their deaths down a 65-foot shaft leading to an underground garage, and 11 more were seriously injured. “There was a sudden, loud screaming,” said one…

The world’s most infamous twerker, Miley Cyrus, is done with that allegedly appropriated dance move. Her new jam? The Atlanta-born “Nae Nae,” which involves putting a hand in the air, dropping the rest of your body low, and more or less freestyling from there. (Billboard) Here’s the move as performed by its inventors, We Are Toonz. 2015…

After weeks of criticism over U2‘s decision to drop their new album into the music libraries of 500 million unsuspecting iTunes users, Bono has finally made it official: he’s sorry. “I’m sorry about that,” he said in a video posted to the band’s Facebook page. “I had this beautiful idea but we got carried away with ourselves. Artists…