Exclusive Album Stream: Stars Salute Buddy Holly on 'Listen to Me'

Click to listen to the 'Listen To Me: Buddy Holly' album

Listen to Me: Buddy Holly celebrates what would have been the 75th birthday of the late rock icon with covers of his best-loved hits by superstars such as Stevie Nicks, Brian Wilson, Ringo Starr, Natalie Merchant, Jackson Browne, Patrick Stump and Zooey Deschanel. The record, which is a benefit in support of several music-related charities, will be accompanied by a special V.I.P. live concert at the Music Box in Hollywood that will be shot for PBS' December pledge drive and an eventual DVD release. Listen to Me will hit stores on September 6th, but you can preview the album in full now.

Related
• Buddy Holly's Widow Embraces Wave of Tributes
• Video: Chris Isaak Covers Buddy Holly's 'Crying Waiting Hoping' for Tribute Album

• 
  MUSIC Exclusive Live Chat With Linkin Park and Incubus
• 
  MOVIES & TV Peter Travers: 'The Avengers' Has it All
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Jon Corzine Is the Original Zimmerman
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive Premiere: Tenacious D's 'Tinnitus'

Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter