Various Artists - The Night that Changed America- A Grammy Salute to the Beatles, Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 1-27-2014

I've posted a bunch of tribute concerts to musical greats, but I've missed this one until now. On February 9, 1964, the Beatles performed on the "Ed Sullivan" TV show in the U.S. This concert was meant to honor the 50th anniversary of that performance. It was filmed on January 27, 2014, but was broadcast nationally on February 9, 2014, which was 50 years to the exact day. The main highlight was that the two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, performed separately and together. But many other big names also played cover versions of their favorite Beatles songs.

That 1964 episode of the "Ed Sullivan Show" was the highest rated T.V. program in the history of the U.S. up until that point. It installed a massive wave of Beatlemania in the U.S. (The wave had already hit Britain and other countries in 1963.) As I've read about the history of rock and roll, I've noticed many later stars credited this T.V. show for inspiring them to become musicians. That's a list that includes Billy Joel, Tom Petty, John Fogerty, Kenny Loggins, Bruce Springsteen, Ann and Nancy Wilson, Chrissie Hynde, and many, many more. Here's a very good article that lists many music stars and their recollections about that show:

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/beatles-ed-sullivan-rock-stars-remember/

Getting this album ready to post was a little difficult, because the applause at the ends of songs was often cut off for commercial breaks. Also, there were some non-musical sections I cut out. For instance, there were video montages of the lives of each of the four Beatles. I did a lot of work to get the songs to transition from one to another naturally, usually by adding in more applause. Comedian Eric Idle had a lot of funny things to say, but those were all lead-ups to the video montages, so that got cut as well. However, you'll note a lot of other famous non-musicians introduced some of the musical acts.

Surprisingly, not only has this concert never been officially released in any audio format, it hasn't been released on video either (although some "grey market" versions exist). The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and 23 minutes long. 

01 talk (LL Cool J)
02 All My Loving (Maroon 5)
03 talk (LL Cool J)
04 Ticket to Ride (Maroon 5)
05 talk (Stevie Wonder)
06 We Can Work It Out (Stevie Wonder)
07 talk (Joe Walsh, Jeff Lynne & Dhani Harrison)
08 Something (Joe Walsh, Jeff Lynne & Dhani Harrison)
09 talk (Kate Beckinsale)
10 In My Life (Ed Sheeran)
11 Don't Let Me Down (John Mayer & Keith Urban)
12 Yesterday (Katy Perry)
13 talk (LL Cool J)
14 Revolution (Imagine Dragons)
15 talk (Dave Grohl)
16 Hey Bulldog (Dave Grohl & Jeff Lynne)
17 talk (Kate Beckinsale)
18 The Fool on the Hill (Eurythmics)
19 talk (Alicia Keys & John Legend)
20 Let It Be (Alicia Keys & John Legend)
21 talk (Anna Kendrick)
22 Here Comes the Sun (Pharrell Williams & Brad Paisley)
23 While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Gary Clark Jr., Joe Walsh & Dave Grohl)
24 talk (Jeff Bridges)
25 Matchbox (Ringo Starr)
26 talk (Ringo Starr)
27 Boys (Ringo Starr)
28 Yellow Submarine (Ringo Starr)
29 talk (Sean Penn)
30 Birthday (Paul McCartney)
31 talk (Paul McCartney)
32 Get Back (Paul McCartney)
33 talk (Paul McCartney)
34 I Saw Her Standing There (Paul McCartney)
35 talk (Paul McCartney)
36 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Paul McCartney)
37 With a Little Help from My Friends (Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr)
38 talk (Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr)
39 Hey Jude (Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/m1LQbH9L

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/IxtME1FVAp1xf6w/file

The cover image of Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr is from this exact concert.

Ed Sheeran - VH-1 Storytellers, Whelan's, Dublin, Ireland, 1-24-2015

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a Taylor Swift album. Now, I'm posting an Ed Sheeran one. I'm starting to threaten to post music from currently popular music acts! ;) The reason Sheeran has come across my radar screen is because he did an episode of "VH-1 Storytellers" in 2015. Here it is.

I plan on posting most of the Storytellers episodes I can find. But most is not the same as "all." There are a handful that I've found that I won't be posting because I just can't stand the music. (For instance, Kanye West, the Backstreet Boys, Jay-Z, and Kid Rock.) With Sheeran, I was on the fence. But I gave this album a listen, and I decided it's okay. Not my favorite by any means, but there's real musical talent here. 

Perhaps I was helped by the fact that this doesn't suffer so much from modern overproduction issues due to it being a relatively stripped down live performance. Most of the songs feature just Sheeran and his acoustic guitar.

From what I can gather, the Storytellers show was basically finished in 2012. But three years later, it came back for one more episode, at Sheeran's request. Since then, in 2023, the show has kind of been revived by CMT, a country music channel, and has broadcast a few episodes of country artists. I haven't been able to find any full episodes of those.

As I write this in 2024, Sheeran is massively popular, and has sold over 150 million albums worldwide. At the time of this concert, he had only released two albums. But both of them were massively popular. For instance, his second album, "x" (a.k.a. "Multiply"), sold about ten millions albums worldwide. So even though he performed in a club that could only hold a couple hundred people, he had a super enthusiastic crowd. As you'll hear listening to this, it sounds to be mostly women, who screamed quite a lot and also sang along with the songs. 

But the crowd noise you'll hear is actually toned way down, because I ran all the songs through the MSVEP audio editing program specifically to separate out the crowd noise. I didn't remove it entirely, since it was part of the overall sonic picture, but I lowered the volume of the crowd way down during the songs, while keeping it high at the ends of songs.

It seems some extra songs from this performance were made available on the Internet but not as part of the TV show. I couldn't find them. If you have them, let me know and I'll add them in.

This album is 56 minutes long.

01 Don't (Ed Sheeran)
02 talk (Ed Sheeran)
03 The A Team (Ed Sheeran)
04 talk (Ed Sheeran)
05 Bloodstream (Ed Sheeran)
06 talk (Ed Sheeran)
07 Thinking Out Loud (Ed Sheeran)
08 talk (Ed Sheeran)
09 Take It Back - Superstition (Ed Sheeran)
10 talk (Ed Sheeran)
11 Photograph (Ed Sheeran)
12 talk (Ed Sheeran)
13 Sing (Ed Sheeran)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17168511/EDSHERN2015StrytllrsWhlansDblnIrlnd__1-24-2015_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/9U1aiJfe

The cover is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert. I upgraded the image quality using the Krea AI program.

Various Artists - Songs in the Key of Life - A Grammy Awards Tribute to Stevie Wonder, Nokia Theatre, Los Angeles, CA, 2-10-2015

Here's something a little different than my usual stuff. It's a tribute concert for Stevie Wonder. But because it's from relatively recently, 2015, it has a whole different bunch of musical acts performing songs for him than those that typically show up in these kinds of tribute concerts that I post. There are very big stars that I usually don't have on my blog, such as Beyonce, Ed Sheeran, Lady Gaga, and Ariana Grande. Whether you like those kinds of stars or not, they all performed classic Stevie Wonder songs, so it was very hard to go wrong. Plus, the concert ended with a short set by Stevie Wonder himself.

This concert was professionally recorded and broadcast on TV in 2015. I hasn't been officially released in any format as far as I know, not even on video. But I found the video of it on YouTube. The sound quality is excellent, so I did my usual thing of converting it to audio and cutting it into individual mp3s. 

I edited out some sections where there was talking while video montages of Wonder's life were shown on a big screen. That didn't translate well to just a listening experience. I also edited out some speeches that didn't have much do to with the songs performed. There also is some banter by famous people who weren't always introduced, or at least not introduced each time, like LL Cool J, Jamie Foxx, and Tyler Perry. So keep an eye on the song list for those details.

This album is an hour and 20 minutes long.

01 Fingertips, Part 2 (Beyonce)
02 Master Blaster [Jammin'] (Beyonce & Ed Sheeran)
03 Higher Ground (Beyonce, Ed Sheeran & Gary Clark Jr.)
04 talk (LL Cool J)
05 I Believe [When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever] (John Legend)
06 talk (Maya Rudolph)
07 talk (Lady Gaga)
08 I Wish (Lady Gaga)
09 talk (Jason Derulo)
10 Signed, Sealed, Delivered [I'm Yours] (Ariana Grande & Babyface)
11 talk (LL Cool J)
12 My Cheri Amour (Annie Lennox)
13 talk (Pharrell Williams)
14 Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing (Pharrell Williams & Ryan Tedder)
15 talk (Tony Bennett)
16 For Once in My Life (Tony Bennett)
17 I Was Made to Love Her (Ed Sheeran)
18 talk (Tyler Perry)
19 You Haven't Done Nuthin' (Band Perry)
20 talk (Mary Wilson)
21 talk (Janelle Monae, India.Arie & Jill Scott)
22 As (Janelle Monae, India.Arie & Jill Scott)
23 talk (Andrea Bocelli)
24 I Just Called to Say I Love You (Andrea Bocelli)
25 talk (Jennifer Hudson)
26 All in Love Is Fair (Jennifer Hudson)
27 talk (LL Cool J)
28 Isn't She Lovely (Ne-Yo with Aisha Wonder)
29 talk (Jamie Foxx)
30 Contusion [Instrumental] (Stevie Wonder)
31 Sir Duke (Stevie Wonder)
32 You Are the Sunshine of My Life (Stevie Wonder)
33 Overjoyed - Ribbon in the Sky (Stevie Wonder)
34 Superstition (Stevie Wonder)
35 talk (LL Cool J with the voice of Martin Luther King, Jr)
36 talk (Stevie Wonder)
37 Happy Birthday (Stevie Wonder & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/2Xa1qTHq

The cover is from this exact concert. From left to right, that's Stevie Wonder on piano, Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga, and Jennifer Hudson.