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An Eddie Murphy classic, a landmark horror flick, and a timeless Eighties romance are among the films joining the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry for preservation.

Twenty-five films were added to the registry this year, including Beverly Hills Cop, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Dirty Dancing. Other major titles include Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, David Fincher’s Facebook origin story The Social Network, Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke, and the Coen Brothers’ Best Picture-winner No Country for Old Men.

The Film Registry class of...

Marijuana is legal in 38 states, and now Cheech & Chong are in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry. The country is going to pot!

Up in Smoke (1978), the first feature from Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong, is one of the 25 “culturally, historically or aesthetically” motion pictures selected for preservation this year, it was announced Tuesday.

Among those also making the cut are Angels With Dirty Faces (1938), The Pride of the Yankees (1942), Invaders From Mars (1953), The Miracle Worker (1962), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Beverly Hills Cop (1984), Dirty Dancing (1987), Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt (1989), My Own Private Idaho (1991), No Country for Old Men (2007) and The Social Network (2010).

Five picks include prominent Hispanic artists or themes: American Me (1992), Mi Familia (1995) — both featuring the work of Edward James Olmos — Up in Smoke, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and Spy Kids (2001).

It’s a great day for Marin, who also starred in Spy Kids,...

Hollywood anarchist and noted nudist Jack Nicholson saw his career flash before his eyes in the mid-1980s as the era’s most popular movies totally confounded him. In a 1986 interview with The New York Times, Nicholson was asked if he felt “like a creative person trapped in an uncreative age in the industry.”

''Well, you know,” Nicholson replied, “last night I saw — what’s that movie? Ferris something?”

Was Nicholson referring to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? Anyone? Anyone?

“Well, that movie made me feel totally irrelevant to anything that any audience could want, and 119 years old,” he explained.

To make matters worse, it felt like the audience was on John Hughes’ side of the argument. “Believe me, everyone else watching it liked it,” he said. “And you know, I literally walked out of there thinking my days are numbered. These people are trying to kill me.”

Imagine what...

Jack Nicholson, 87, hasn't officially retired from acting, but he also doesn't do it anymore. In 2013, Nicholson spoke with Vanity Fair about rumors of his retirement, and he merely wanted to say that he had retired from incessant flirting, not acting. He did admit, however, that he wasn't passionately driven to put himself out in the world anymore. Nicholson's good friend Lou Adler (the famed record producer) told Marc Maron in 2023 (via The Wrap) that Nicholson had been contacted several times about appearing in multiple film projects since 2010, but that Nicholson turned them all down. It seems that the actor would rather sit under a tree and read a book. Which is, of course, his right. With 80 film credits and multiple Academy Awards, not to mention worldwide fame, Nicholson has earned it. So, although he's never announced his retirement, Nicholson is more or less retired.

And if Nicholson isn't going to...

When we talk about movies being hard to categorize or even succinctly summarize, this movie is the poster child for that statement. Almost 50 years on and that still holds true but how about is it good? Does a movie need to be put in a specific area or even be able to be explained to still be good? The Rocky Horror Picture Show is in a category all by itself and yet has had spinoffs of sorts and on-stage revivals since its inception and shows no signs of slowing down. I’m not even sure how the introduction to such a movie should be fleshed out so take a jump to the left, a step to the right, put your hands on your hips and bring your knees in tight. We are about to take a time warp and see if The Rocky Horror Picture Show still stands the Test of Time.

I’ll never think about coyotes the same way again.

That was a big takeaway from the silly, weird first night of John Mulaney’s multi-night Netflix special, “Everybody’s in LA.” The week-long residency/miniseries/experiment was ostensibly created as additional promo for Netflix’s own Netflix Is a Joke comedy festival in Los Angeles, which is going on right now. Thirty+ comedians are in town with something to promote — why not take advantage of it by giving Mulaney an hour to chat up his friends, the thinking goes, while Netflix continues to play around with live programming?

Based on the first episode, which aired May 1 (additional episodes will air May 6 through 10), the program has the feel of a late-night public access show (complimentary). After kicking things off with an opening monologue full of great LA jokes — “The city was officially founded in 1842 as a place for improv students...

There’s a moment in the first episode of Everybody’s in L.A., John Mulaney’s delightfully chaotic live Netflix special, in which Mulaney asks special guest Jerry Seinfeld why he decided to make his Pop-Tarts origin movie Unfrosted (which was released on — you guessed it — Netflix the same day Mulaney’s special aired, because there’s nothing more on-brand for a special about Los Angeles culture than cross-promotional synergy) .

“I don’t know. Because they let me,” Seinfeld responds, referring to Netflix. “Probably the same reason why you’re doing this.

Los Angeles is not the first city fans would associate with comedian John Mulaney. That would be Chicago, his hometown and the backdrop to innumerable childhood anecdotes in his stand-up act, or New York, where he broke out as a writer on “Saturday Night Live” and shot a special at Radio City Music Hall. But L.A. is where Mulaney now lives; it’s also currently home to the second iteration of Netflix Is a Joke, a massive, weeklong comedy festival organized by the streaming service as a show of genre dominance. (Netflix stand-up head Robbie Praw used to run programming at Montreal’s vaunted Just for Laughs event and has essentially created a West Coast version.) And so we have “John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in LA,” a weeklong special event combining studio segments, pre-taped sketches and man-on-the-street interviews into a sort of pop-up talk show.

“We’re only doing six episodes,...

In Robin Hardy's supremely creepy 1973 cult picture "The Wicker Man," a cop named Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) travels to a remote island called Summerisle to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. The citizens of Summerisle are secretive and strange and still abide by ancient Celtic religious rites. Howie, a devout Christian, is put off by their pagan weirdness. During his investigation, Howie stays at a local inn, The Green Man, overseen by Mr. McGregor (Lindsay Kemp) and his comely daughter Willow. Willow is sexually forward with Howie, something else he finds discomforting.

Later that night, while Howie attempts to sleep, Willow strips nude in her own room and gyrates seductively against the wall that neighbors Howie's. Howie can't see or hear it, but he seems to sense something strange is happening. Is she casting a spell of some kind?

It turns out that the nude body audiences saw dancing wasn't Ekland at all,...

Mary Tyler Moore once called herself the only one of Elvis Presley’s leading ladies who didn’t sleep with him, but the singer reportedly struck out with more than one co-star. Elvis worked with actor Shelley Fabares on three films and reportedly pursued her across all of them. His bodyguards said it came as a major blow to Elvis’ ego when Fabares continually rejected him.

Elvis pursued a co-star who turned him down

After Elvis left the army in 1960, he began making movies at a relentless pace. While he was in a relationship with Priscilla Presley during this period, he still pursued many of his co-stars.

“It pretty much followed the same pattern,” bodyguard Red West said in the book Elvis: What Happened? by Steve Dunleavy. “Priscilla was in Memphis, Elvis dated his leading lady and I, as usual, ended up in the movie getting knocked on my a...

Cheech and Chong persist in the popular culture mainly as a metonym for stoner humor, but as any comedy fan knows, even the dumbest jokes — the one’s that can only be enjoyed while baked — don’t just appear out of smoke-filled air. “Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie,” a new documentary chronicling the eponymous duo’s meteoric rise in the 1970s, emphasizes the sheer amount of work and determination it took to become one of America’s most popular comedy acts. Long before Seth Rogen was born, Cheech and Chong were the hardest-working potheads in Hollywood, even if they played exaggerated burnouts on screen and stage.

Alas, every success story comes with its fair share of complications. “Last Movie” also explores the financial headaches and managerial difficulties Cheech and Chong weathered at the height of their success, as well as the creative differences that ultimately drove the two men apart.

“Cheech and I were on the Paramount lot after we’d done the movie, and we’re kind of trying to figure out what we were going to do next— how we were going to get another movie going,” remembers Tommy Chong of the weeks following the 1978 release of Up in Smoke, the first film from him and comedy partner Cheech Marin. “And Warren Beatty, pulls up in his convertible. He took off his sunglasses and looked at us and he goes, ‘You guys have no idea what you’ve done.’ And we looked at each other like thinking, ‘Oh, what did we do?’ What we did was we pulled a movie out of thin air.”

Up in Smoke, which was made independently by principals with no filmmaking experience, grossed over $100 million at the box office, simultaneously launching and proving the commercial value of the genre, all in one go.

Director Denny Tedesco previously scored a hit among music fans with his 2008 film “The Wrecking Crew,” a documentary about the battalion of 1960s studio musicians whose names were little known even among the cognoscenti, until these unknown soldiers started to quietly get their due decades later. Although it took another 15 years after that film to come to fruition, Tedesco had an easy go-to for an unofficial sequel. “Immediate Family” focuses on a smaller cadre of players that soon came to dominate the L.A. recording scene and who were, for a time, known collectively as the Section. One thing the earlier movie had that this one doesn’t was a sense of injustice corrected, because let’s face it — in the 1970s, everybody knew their names.

Well, let’s not exaggerate — maybe not quite everyone was devoted to fondling LP packaging and devouring it for information, even in the physical media era.

Because they managed to dip their toes into so many different genres, The Beatles covered Tony Orlando’s doo-wop version of an old song. That was part of a long history of Orlando finding his way into classic rock history. After several decades, The Beatles’ song eventually appeared on one of their albums.

The Beatles covered a Tony Orlando song based on the work of a classic writer

The Beatles covered Orlando’s “Beautiful Dreamer.” Orlando’s song was a doo-wop version of an old standard. During a 2016 interview with the Vancouver Sun, Orlando discussed his song. “It was an extension of a Stephen Foster song, ‘Beautiful Dreamer.’ The Beatles did cover it.” Foster was the famous writer behind tunes such as “My Old Kentucky Home,” “Oh! Susanna,” and “Camptown Ladies.”

Orlando shared an interesting Fab Four anecdote. “What’s interesting about that, if you read The Beatles’ liner notes,...

In The Wrecking Crew, Denny Tedesco lovingly chronicled a legendary collective of musicians, his father among them, who appeared on countless studio recordings in the 1960s, revered within the business but unsung in the public sphere. By contrast, the names of the four players he profiles in his new documentary appeared on nearly every record they worked on. Other musicians sought them out, fan bases were born, and careers flourished. And, it turns out, besides being extraordinary musical talents, they’re exceptionally charismatic interview subjects — sincere, soulful and effortlessly funny raconteurs.

Receiving a one-night theatrical release Dec. 12, three days before it’s available on demand, Immediate Family is an affectionate and insightful group portrait and a sweet jolt of nostalgia for boomers — but more than that, it’s time well spent with delightful subjects who played crucial roles in shaping the popular music of a ground-shifting era.

As Billy Bob Thornton...

As prolific as Neil Young continues to be, much of the veteran singer-songwriter’s contemporary output has consisted of repackaged old material in the form of live albums and studio outtakes. His latest, Before and After, continues in this vein, as every track has appeared, in one form or another, on a previous release.

None of that is to say that Before and After is inessential. Young is a conceptual thinker, a fact that his strict adherence to live recording and spartan production techniques has often disguised. On Before and After, however, the concept is front and center, and the intimacy of the recordings emphasizes what Young was trying to achieve rather than obscures it. Barring some keys provided by Bob Rice, these recordings feature Young singing and playing alone in a room, including some awkward fumbling around on a pump organ.

Opener “I’m the Ocean” in particular is served well by this approach.

Pop music stars Billie Eilish and brother Finneas are putting their money where their mouth is. Specifically, they’re backing a new restaurant, Argento, that will debut in Silver Lake in the building formerly known as Little Pine when it was run by recording artist Moby.

Restaurateur Nic Adler, the son of producer Lou Adler and a veteran eatery entrepreneur who also works as VP of festivals at Coachella parent company Goldenvoice, brought Eilish and Finneas in as investors.

Right now, Adler told LA Mag, they are redecorating, adding a VIP chef’s table, and expanding the outdoor patio. They anticipate Argento opening next month.

Adler also runs four Monty’s Good Burgers and Nic’s On Beverly in West Hollywood.

“They’re part of the makeup of the community,” Adler said of Eilish and Finneas O’Connell, whom he calls a bona fide foodie. Plus, “Billie’s a fan of Good Burger,...

Jack Nicholson hasn’t acted since James L. Brooks’ 2010 feature “How Do You Know,” but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of people who would love to see him on the big or small screen again. Those people include Brooks, who famously worked with the actor previously on the 1983 film “Terms of Endearment” (and secured him an Oscar. In a recent interview with TheWrap celebrating the 40th anniversary of “Terms,” the director said he doesn’t believe Nicholson is retired.

“I don’t think he’s retired,” Brooks said. “I don’t buy that he’s retired.”

“I remember there was once a friend of mine who one of these raging, alcoholic-driven arguments [with me] about who was the greatest actor at the time,” Brooks said. “This was at Dustin Hoffman’s height and everything like that. I’m saying Jack Nicholson. He’s saying Dustin Hoffman.”

“I went with...

Jack Nicholson technically hasn’t announced his formal retirement from the film biz, but it sure sounds like he’s still enjoying his time off. On a recent episode of Wtf with Marc Maron, the actor’s longtime record producer pal Lou Adler said he’s still turning down acting jobs in favor of other more leisurely activities like, say, sitting under a tree and reading a book.

The interview was just to wrap up when host Maron had to ask Adler how Nicholson was doing. “He’s doing whatever he wants to do,” Adler responded, reminiscing on the Lakers games the two octogenarians would often attend together. “He wants to be quiet. He wants to eat what he wants. He wants to live the life he wants.”

“A friend of mine wanted to put him in a movie,” Maron recalled. “And he had a conversation with him. But Jack says,...

An actor so iconic, he’s sometimes referred to simply as “Jack.” With many classic movies and classic performances under his belt, plus an impression that people like to do, Jack Nicholson has been sealed in film history as one of the boldest actors in history. Jack’s career spans decades with some of the most notable movies in cinema, including The Shining, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Batman, Wolf, As Good As It Gets and The Departed. Jack’s been out of the game for a while, and for someone so famous, even the paparazzi rarely catch him anywhere, except at Los Angeles Lakers games as a notorious fan.

Jack’s last film was a low-key supporting role in a comedy that may not be known to too many people. Thirteen years ago, he appeared in the 2010 movie How Do You Know — a romcom from his As Good As It Gets director,...

It’s been 13 years since Jack Nicholson appeared in “How Do You Know,” a dud of a romantic comedy starring Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd and Owen Wilson.

While the supporting role wasn’t the high point of Nicholson’s career — and brought the Hollywood legend to nearly 80 total acting credits — it did little to diminish a legacy that features a formidable if not unmatchable roll call of cinema classics that includes “The Departed” (2006), “The Shining” (1980), “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975) and “Chinatown” (1974), among others.

And though he never announced his retirement, the film by all accounts will be his last. One of those accounts surfaced in the “Wtf With Marc Maron” podcast this week, during a wide-ranging interview with famed record producer, Sunset Strip impresario and longtime Nicholson friend Lou Adler.

Maron had nearly wrapped up the hour-plus conversation when he popped an essential question to Adler that led...

In the middle of August this year, three legends of the music industry died within 72 hours of each other: founder of A&m Records Jerry Moss; music lawyer Abe Somer; and my father, the “Black Godfather” himself, Clarence Avant. These three men helped define the recording industry of the past six decades, and what’s more, they were inseparable best friends.

Somer, Moss, and Avant met in New York City in the early 1960s, and in the six decades since, never left one another’s side, never once let their “soul contract” expire.

Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong are an iconic Canadian comedy duo. Based in Vancouver, their humorous performances have made them beloved worldwide for decades. Audiences flock to see these two zany personalities bring laughter into people’s lives.

The duo achieved commercial and cultural success through stand-up acts, albums, movies, and TV shows. Fans around the world appreciate their distinct brand of comedy. Humor is what made them so admired by everyone.

Related: 10 Best Comedies of All Time, Ranked by Viewers

In this post, we’ll provide you with a guide about all the Cheech and Chong movies in order. This way, you can enjoy their classic works.

List of Cheech & Chong Movies in Order Up In Smoke (1978) Cheech & Chong’s Next Movie (1980) Nice Dreams (1981) Things Are Tough All Over (1982) Still Smokin (1983) Cheech & Chong’s The Corsican Brothers (1984) Get Out of My Room (1985) Cheech & Chong’s Animated Movie...

On April 28, 2023, the sports and entertainment worlds lit up with joy at the sight of Jack Nicholson taking his courtside seat at Crypto.com Arena for the Los Angeles Lakers' semifinals-clinching game against the Memphis Grizzlies. This was the 86-year-old star's first appearance at a game since the home opener of the 2021-22 season, and it dispelled rumors of ill-health that had flitted about due to his absence from the public eye.

Ever since his career took off in the late 1960s, Nicholson exemplified Hollywood stardom. He played the celebrity game with devilish glee, donning his Ray-Ban sunglasses and strutting down red carpets to the delight of shutterbugs and fans. He was a near-constant presence at the Academy Awards, where he typically sat in the front row because, well, he's Jack. And no Lakers home game felt official without him sitting just to the right of the visiting team's bench...

Jack’s back! Oscar winner, Hollywood bad boy and Lakers superfan Jack Nicholson stepped out and took his rightful place courtside during Friday night’s playoff game. While the Lakers wiped the boards with the Memphis Grizzlies, the real draw was the appearance of Nicholson, who hasn’t been to a game since 2021.

The moment was captured on video, showing Jack Nicholson and his son taking their seats at the Lakers game to much fanfare and a genuine “Welcome back!” Many have pointed out that Nicholson has a pair of binoculars around his neck, which might seem odd considering he’s two inches from the action, but come on, these are Lakers Girls!

Jack Nicholson back courtside for the Lakers – first time since last season’s opening night. pic.twitter.com/OEyr3XPsqA

— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) April 29, 2023

Jack Nicholson’s outing to cheer on the Lakers in their 125-...

If there was any question how important tonight’s playoff Game 6 against the Memphis Grizzlies was for the Lakers, one need look no further than a certain iconic court-side seat.

Jack Nicholson took his customary place at Crypto.com arena tonight for the first time since October 19, 2021, according to Showtime’s Rachel Nichols. For some context on how long ago that was, in October 2021 the building was still known as Staples Center.

Jack Nicholson back courtside for the Lakers – first time since last season’s opening night. pic.twitter.com/OEyr3XPsqA

— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) April 29, 2023

His presence did not go unnoticed by other media outlets. The Lakers pregame and Spectrum SportsNet telecasts both made mention of Jack’s return, flashing his image onscreen. Ditto the Lakers’ official Twitter feed & radio broadcast. ESPN L.A. beat reporter Dave McMenamin took note, too.

Game 6: Jack's Back pic.twitter.com...

Sal Piro, who stoked audience participation routines for “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and extended its popularity as a cult classic, died at his home in New York City on Jan 21. He was 71.

The Rocky Horror fanclub Twitter account posted a statement announcing Piro’s death Sunday.

“With profound sorrow we pass on the news that Sal Piro, founder and long time president of The Rocky Horror Picture Show Fan Club, has passed away,” the statement reads. “Sal was the defacto face of Rocky Horror fandom for decades. He will be sorely missed.”

With profound sorrow we pass on the news that Sal Piro, founder and long time president of The Rocky Horror Picture Show Fan Club, has passed away. Sal was the defacto face of Rocky Horror fandom for decades. He will be sorely missed. #salpiro #rockyhorrorpictureshow #rockyhorror pic.twitter.com/rPjdSO0cnx

— Rocky Horror fanclub (@TRHPSFanClub) January 23, 2023

The...

Sal Piro, who played a pivotal role in creating the audience participation routines that turned The Rocky Horror Picture Show into a multi-decade, world-wide phenomenon, died at his home in New York City Jan 21.

His death was announced by The Rocky Horror Picture Show Fan Club, which he founded in 1977 and served as its president until his death, becoming a major figure in creating the movie’s cult classic status.

Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries Related Story Lloyd N. Morrisett Dies: 'Sesame Street' Co-Creator Was 93 Related Story Andrew Leynse Dies: Off Broadway Artistic Director Who Championed Works By A.R. Gurney, Terrence McNally, Theresa Rebeck Was 53

“Sal was the defacto face of Rocky Horror fandom for decades,” the fan club said in a tweeted statement. “He will be sorely missed.”

Opening to terrible reviews in 1975, The Rocky Horror Picture Show soon became a staple...

Danny Kortchmar with Carole King in Denny Tedesco’s close-knit and illustrious Immediate Family states: “We got to meet and play with our heroes.” Photo: Denny Tedesco

Denny Tedesco’s close-knit and illustrious Immediate Family (a Doc NYC highlight which includes animation by Lewie Kloster and Noah Kloster), features on-camera in-person interviews with Stevie Nicks, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Don Henley, Jackson Browne, Carole King, Phil Collins, David Crosby, Lyle Lovett, Keith Richards, Steve Jordan, Peter Asher (of Peter and Gordon), Lou Adler, and Neil Young (on Zoom) on their seminal work with the masterful foursome of Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel, and Waddy Wachtel (featured in Morgan Neville’s Keith Richards: Under The Influence) on some of the biggest hits of the Seventies and Eighties. The impact of The Beatles looms large (as it did for Don Letts in Bill Badgley’s Rebel Dread) and a peak at Immediate Family,...

Looking back 50 years at anything that isn’t related to geology, evolution or astronomy feels like a glimpse at a long-bygone age. That’s especially so for the 14th annual Grammy Awards, which took place on March 14, 1972 at the Felt Forum in New York’s Madison Square Garden and were broadcast on ABC.

The show was hosted by virtuoso easy-listening singer Andy Williams; presenters included Ed Sullivan, the Fifth Dimension, the Carpenters and “Brady Bunch” star Florence Henderson. Carly Simon won Best New Artist; Kris Kristofferson won Best Country & Western Song for “Help Me Make It Through the Night”; and in a horrifying-in-retrospect accolade, best children’s album went to “Bill Cosby Talks to Kids About Drugs.”

However, in uncharacteristically hip moves, Isaac Hayes’ “Shaft” won Best Original Score for a Motion Picture; Aretha Franklin, Bill Withers and Ike & Tina Turner won R&b categories; Cheech and Chong, nominated for Best Comedy Album,...

Back in 1990, Carole King entered the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer along with her former husband and songwriting partner, Gerry Goffin. It’s taken 31 years, but she’ll finally join the Hall of Fame this year as a performer. She’s not only the third double female inductee after Stevie Nicks in 2019 and Tina Turner this year, but the first woman to join as both a performer and non-performer.

Just two hours after she learned the news, King called up Rolling Stone from her home in Idaho to talk about the honor,...

When Merry Clayton woke up in the hospital, she just had one question. In June 2014, three months after Twenty Feet From Stardom, the documentary telling the story of the legendary backup singer, won an Oscar, Clayton suffered a near-fatal car accident in her Los Angeles hometown, resulting in months of hospitalization and the amputation of both her legs. A team full of doctors and nurses surrounded her bed to inform Clayton of her life-altering surgery.

“When they gave me the news, I asked them, ‘Well, did anything happen to my throat?...

Merry Clayton — the famed gospel singer who features on songs like the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” — has announced her new album Beautiful Scars, due out April 9th on Motown Gospel.

The singer’s new LP, co-produced by Lou Adler and Terry Young, features a mix of classic covers — a new version of Leon Russell’s “A Song for You,” which Clayton originally covered in 1971, plus the “Ooh Child Medley” — alongside new compositions penned by Coldplay’s Chris Martin (“Love Is a Mighty River,...

All these decades later, it’s easy to take Tapestry for granted. Like other 1971 staples, from Led Zeppelin IV to Joni Mitchell’s Blue, Carole King’s second solo LP — released 50 years ago today, and recently named the 25th greatest album of all time by Rolling Stone — has always seemed to be there. After its release, it was the Number One album in the country for an astonishing 15 weeks straight, a feat that seems unimaginable now. (Adele’s 21 topped it, at 24 weeks, but that’s the recent exception.) And subsequent...

Bob Dylan’s music has always attracted an unusually high number of cover artists, both because he’s such a brilliantly original songwriter and because something about the way he performs his songs makes other people think they can do better. This has happened since the beginning of his career, when Peter, Paul, and Mary hit pay dirt by making “Blowin’ in the Wind” sound a little sweeter, and it’s still going on today: The first song on this playlist comes from a new Dylan covers album whose other...

Epix’s two-part docuseries Laurel Canyon, directed by Alison Elwood, explores the musical community which nestled into the wooded area right outside the Sunset Strip. Chris Hillman, the first member of The Byrds, moved in after creating folk rock. The Monkees’ Mickey Dolenz threw ping pong tournaments next door to Alice Cooper. Frank Zappa planted his freak flag on the corner of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Lookout Mountain. And Michelle Phillips and John Phillips moved onto Lookout Mountain in 1965.

Their band, The Mamas and the Papas, practically invented the Southern California hippie sound, and Michelle was the catalyst. After hearing John Sebastian strum a tune which would become a major hit for his band The Lovin’ Spoonful, Michelle saw the direction the New Journeymen–the band she was in with her husband and other future Papa Denny Doherty–should go. Both sonically and geographically.

Michelle finished up John Phillips’ song...

Over the past 60 years, trumpeter-vocalist Herb Alpert has scored 14 platinum albums, co-founded A&m Records (the home to Janet Jackson, the Police, and Peter Frampton) and become a major philanthropist; his foundation has donated millions to arts-education programs ranging from the Harlem School of Arts to UCLA.

Alpert’s story will be told in Herb Alpert Is …, a new film directed by John Scheinfeld (who directed Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary and co-produced The U.S. vs. John Lennon). The film has been picked up by the independent distributor...

Director Denny Tedesco scored with his 2008 film “The Wrecking Crew,” his critically praised documentary on the legendary session musicians of the ‘60s who performed with everyone from the Beach Boys and Phil Spector to Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley — so it makes perfect sense that he’s begun work on a film about legendary 1970s session musicians called “Immediate Family.”

This crew, which backed Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon and countless others, includes guitarists Danny Kortchmar and Waddy Wachtel, bassist Leland Sklar, drummer Russ Kunkel and others.

Kortchmar, Sklar and Kunkel made up three-quarters of The Section, known for their studio and live work in support of some of the top selling singer/songwriters and solo singers of the era, as well as their own instrumental albums. (They were later joined by Wachtel.) Individually or together, in addition to the artists listed above, the musicians worked with Carole King,...

In a final, previously unpublished Guardian interview, the late great documentarian looks back at his groundbreaking film with Lou Adler, the legendary music festival’s promoter

Da Pennebaker dies, aged 94

In 1967 there was a meeting at Mama Cass’s house that included Paul McCartney. The general conversation was: “Why isn’t rock’n’roll considered an art form in the way that jazz and folk are?” A few weeks later, the promoters Alan Pariser and Ben Shapiro got in touch to book the Mamas and the Papas for one night at Monterey County Fairgrounds in California. We said we’d think about it. About three o’clock in the morning I got a call from John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas. He said: “Why don’t we do a festival, add more days, and get the acts to play for nothing?” This was a chance to elevate how...

“It’s sort of strange,” D.A. Pennebaker said in 2017, about restoring Monterey Pop, his document of the Summer of Love’s most famous music festival. “Seeing my films in later years is like seeing your children and they have beards. You weren’t ready for that.”

Related: Greatest Rock Documentaries

In 1967, Pennebaker, or “Penny” as people called him, was in his early forties and had established himself as a leading documentary filmmaker. That year, he released Dont Look Back, a picture he’d made a couple of years earlier about Bob Dylan,...

As the classic song goes, “Rock and roll is here to stay…”. That’s true at the clubs, the arenas, the stadiums, and, for the last year or so, the movie theatres. We’ve seen a love story, a couple of biographies, and now a feature documentary. Now those bios told the story of music superstars of the ’70s, so many younger fans may wonder about the artists that inspired them in the decade before. And not those from the home turfs of Elton and Freddie, but rather some home-grown American icons. Those influencers are remembered and celebrated by their works that still reverberate all through the years from a never silenced Echo In The Canyon.

This nostalgic rock odyssey is mainly helmed by two men: the film’s director, and head of Capitol Records Andrew Slater and musician Jakob Dylan. Oh, the canyon in the title refers to Laurel Canyon,...

Tony Sokol May 28, 2019

Andrew Slater's documentary Echo in the Canyon twiddles the knobs in the Laurel Canyon studios that gave birth to the California Sound.

Before forming the Byrds, Roger McGuinn backed up Bobby Darin, the "Dream Lover" who let "Mack the Knife" swing. The Bronx-born rock and roll legend was adding folk and protest music into his live shows and saw McGuinn playing guitar and making faces behind the Chad Mitchell Trio when they were opening for Lenny Bruce at the Crescendo night club on Hollywood's Sunset Strip. By the time The Beatles hit, McGuinn played, sang harmonies and trained as a professional songwriter under the rock and roll innovator. After the British Invasion, McGuinn consolidated the folk rock sound, first by playing Beatles' songs on solo guitar in folk clubs and then by plugging a 12-string guitar onto a Bob Dylan song. Andrew Slater's loving documentary...

Arguably the most sturdily crafted and entertainingly anecdotal documentary of its kind since Denny Tedesco’s “The Wrecking Crew,” a similarly nostalgic celebration of artists who generously contributed to the soundtrack of the baby boomer generation, Andrew Slater’s “Echo in the Canyon” offers a richly evocative and star-studded overview of the 1960s Laurel Canyon music scene.

Audiences old enough to have many of the epochal LPs referenced here stashed in their closets will know they’re in good hands right from the start, as the iconic first chords of the Byrds’ “Turn! Turn! Turn!” resound during the darkness of the film’s opening moments. But wait, there’s more: The songs of Buffalo Springfield, the Mamas and the Papas, the Beach Boys and other L.A.-based hitmakers of the era are also featured in a doc that shows how music that defined the California Sound of a half-century...

As leggy and lithesome flower girl and undercover cop Julie Barnes on ABC’s “The Mod Squad,” Peggy Lipton, who is dead on age 72 from cancer on May 11, became a counter-cultural sex symbol alongside actors Michael Cole as long-haired Pete Cochran and Clarence Williams III as African-American Lincoln Hayes. The catchphrase for the series that lasted five seasons from 1968 to 1973, “One black, one white, one blonde,” might sound corny these days, but it was one of the first network shows to feature an integrated cast that also reflected the times were a-changing by tackling cases with social issues and using the cool jargon of the day.

Check out the clip above featuring a “Mod Squad” scene between Cole and Lipton.

As often was the case back in the ’60s, Lipton would cash in on her TV popularity by recording a self-titled album in 1968, tackling such tunes as Donovan‘s “Wear...

Trailer-wise this week, we saw: Twitter go batshit over the ‘Joker’ teaser, featuring Joaquin Phoenix as the world’s most famous supervillain; a first look at Jim Jarmusch’s all-star zombie movie; clips for two returning series; more Zac Efron as Ted Bundy; and Kristen Stewart as one half of the most notorious literary hoax of the 21st century. Check it out.

Cobra Kai, Season 2

Because you can never sweep too many legs, Johnny. The Karate Kid spin-off/franchise extension/YouTube original returns on April 24th. “Cobra Kai … never dies!

The just-released trailer for Andrew Slater’s Echo in the Canyon is intended to reverberate with the signature sounds of 1960s era Southern California but it also echoes with the memory of a later rock icon: Tom Petty, the late, great Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee who gave his last filmed interview for the music documentary.

Echo in the Canyon, which opens May 24 at Arclight’s Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles, puts a spotlight on the robust music scene centered in leafy Laurel Canyon in the 1960s, when the Byrds, the Beach Boys, the Buffalo Springfield, and The Mamas & the Papas were thriving.

Petty, a devoted disciple of the Byrds legacy, speaks in admiring tones about the musical moment and the influence of the California Sound, as do Jackson Browne, Ringo Starr, Brian Wilson, Eric Clapton, Beck, Michelle Phillips, David Crosby, Cat Power, Lou Adler, Stephen Stills and others.

After 11 years pushing A Star Is Born as producer though three studio administrations — not counting the earlier iterations with Whitney Houston, Aaliyah, Lauryn Hill and Will Smith he worked on while a Warner Bros exec — Bill Gerber is moving on to other projects. Not surprising, a lot of what he’s working on remains in the realm of music.

One of them solves the lingering mystery of the absence of Neil Young in Woodstock, the 1970 Michael Wadleigh-directed documentary. Young will be seen in a new docu that Gerber is producing as a companion piece to the original, and the singer is reunited onscreen for the first time with ex-bandmates David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. Gerber is hard at work on a documentary that will be released within a re-release of the 1970 Michael Wadleigh-directed documentary chronicle of – sorry, Live Aid, Queen and Freddie Mercury — the most famous and...

Exclusive: As the 2019 Sundance Film Festival begins tonight with a number of promising acquisition titles including opener After the Wedding, we can report that the opening-night film of September’s Los Angeles Film Festival, Echo in the Canyon, has just been picked up for distribution by Greenwich Entertainment. It announced today the acquisition of U.S. rights to the 1960s-era musical documentary from Andrew Slater, a first-time filmmaker and veteran music scene insider who has worked as a journalist, record producer and label executive. The film was produced by Eric Barrett and executive produced by Jakob Dylan and Dan Braun. Greenwich is planning a late-spring theatrical run alongside concerts with musicians from the film and a corresponding BMG record with Jakob Dylan, Cat Power, Regina Spektor and Beck re-creating music from the Byrds, the Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield and the Mama and the Papas.

Echo in the Canyon premiered to...

The Recording Academy will honor artists from a wide variety of genres next spring when it hands out Lifetime Achievement Grammys at a special ceremony. It will recognize Black Sabbath, George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, jazz singer Billy Eckstine, Donny Hathaway, Julio Iglesias, Sam and Dave and Dionne Warwick, according to Variety, in Los Angeles on May 11th.

Other honorees include producer Lou Adler, artists and songwriters Ashford and Simpson and songwriter Johnny Mandel, who will all receive Trustees Awards. The late Saul Walker, who innovated microphone preamps and other recording technologies,...

Joe Osborn, the bassist in the famed Wrecking Crew, the group of studio musicians who performed on tracks like Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and the Mamas & the Papas’ “California Dreamin’,” has died at the age of 81.

Denny Tedesco, the director of the 2008 documentary The Wrecking Crew, confirmed to Rolling Stone that Osborn died December 14th following a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

The Louisiana-born Osborn entered the music business as a member of Ricky Nelson’s backing band and appeared on the pop singer’s 1961 hit “Travelin...