#102 Mar. 13, 2012: Taylor Swift, Bon Jovi, Sade & Celine Dion; Herman's Hermits leader Peter Noone; Reba McEntire; Jethro Tull leader Ian Anderson; bubble gum pop king Tommy Roe; Johnny Rivers; Los Lobos - and more!

Swift beats U2, Bon Jovi, Sade & Celine Dion

Taylor Swift topped Billboard’s 2012 Top 40 Money Makers based on last year’s earning from concerts, and album, singles and download revenues as well as songwriting royalties. Nearly $30 million of her $35.7 million total came from ticket sales from her lengthy “Speak Now” tour. 

Others in the Top 10 included U2 (2^nd, $32 million), Bon Jovi (6^th, $19 million), Sade (7^th, $16 million) and Celine Dion (8^th, $14 million).

Others in the Top 40 were Journey (12^th, $12 million), Elton John (13^th, $11 million), Bob Seger (17^th, $10 million), Rod Stewart (29^th, $6 million), Canadian rockers Rush (32^nd, $5.8 million) and Steely Dan (37^th, $5.4 million), and Motley Crue (38^th, also with $5.4 million.

Last year, The Backstreet Boys toured with New Kids on the Block and both made the Top 40. The Backstreet Boys placed 33^rd with a total of $5.7 million, while NKOTB finished 36^th with $5.5 million.

Even though The Beatles broke up 42 years ago, the Fab Four nonetheless came in 24^th with $6.7 million, while eternal Beatle Paul McCartney finished just behind his old group in 25^th place, also with a total of $6.7 million.

Peter Noone’s Wild Teen Idol ‘60s

Peter Noone was the teenage “Herman” of British Invasion giants, Herman’s Hermits, the group that racked up more Top 40 hits in the U.S. from 1964 through early 1967 than any other British act except The Beatles, who they outsold in 1965; more than The Rolling Stones, The Dave Clark Five, The Hollies, The Kinks, Petula Clark, Tom Jones, The Animals, The Spencer Davis Group, Gerry and The Pacemakers, Peter and Gordon, Chad and Jeremy, The Zombies, The Yardbirds, The Who and so many others.

Their classic singles include Gerry Goffin and Carole King’s “I’m Into Something Good,” “Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat,” “Listen People,” “No Milk Today,” “There’s a Kind of Hush” and the quintet’s two No. 1’s, “I’m Henry VIII, I am,” and “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter.”

During the mid-‘60s, Noone’s image was that of a wide-eyed innocent. The 64-year-old Noone is back in Britain on a two-month tour without his current Hermits on a junket called The Solid Silver ‘60s Show with one-time Tremolos singer Brian Poole and Yank Brian Hyland. In an interview with the U.K. daily, the Daily Mail, to promote the tour, Noone says of his early hit-making days, “My stage persona was a shy little boy, which is basically what I was.”

Soon, that changed and, as the Daily Mail reports, except for drugs, he was living the rock and roll lifestyle to the hilt. “We were 16, 17, and we could easily stay up all night, go on a rampage then be up the next morning to do interviews and go to gigs. It was a brilliant time.”

“I remember going to the house of one of The Moody Blues and it was considered a real den of iniquity. None of the girls smoked dope, so I used to hang out with them,” he remembers.

While he didn’t do drugs, booze was something altogether different. “I did like to drink. I used to go out with Richard Harris and try to drink more than him,” he says of his escapades with the actor and singer of the 1968 No. 1 biggie, “MacArthur Park,” who prodigious drinking was the stuff of legend.

Noone, who was a close pal of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, recalled, “I used to love The Beatles and The Stones and I’d always want to hang out with them, even though they were about seven years older. We’d go to the Ad Lib Club in London, and John Lennon would buy my drinks because he knew I was only 16.”

His drinking was such that when he was 19 he and his heavy drinking father began attending Alcoholics Anonymous, even though he didn’t really consider himself an alcoholic.  He says he hasn’t touched a drink in 16 years. Noone, who’s been married to wife Mireille for 43 years, moved to southern California in the ‘70s. Long ago he got into SoCal’s healthy lifestyle. “Not many people survived the debauchery of the ‘60s, so I feel lucky and try to look after myself.”

After his current British tour ends on May 6, Noone will once again return to his relentless touring of the United States with The Hermits, where he usually performs between 100-150 concerts annually.

With the exception of a June 2 date in Jackson, California, southeast of Sacramento, and a headlining gig at this year’s huge Hot August Nights fest in Reno on the 9^th, the remainder of Noone’s shows this year are each east of the Mississippi and in eastern Canada, including a May 18 gig in Manistee, Michigan, called Where The Action Is” with Raul Revere & The Raiders and Gary Lewis & The Playboys.

Reba in Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame

Reba McEntire, one of the most successful females in country music history and a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame as well as the Grand Ole Opry, will be inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame on the Bowl’s opening night, June 22.

McEntire, 56, who joins the likes of Frank Sinatra, The Carpenters, Henry Mancini, Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Monty Python, Donna Summer, B.B. King, Randy Newman, and Liza Minelli, will perform with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. Julie Andrews is hostess for the evening.

McEntire’s TV special, “Al the Women I Am,” the title of her November 2012 CD that hit No. 3 on the Billboard Country Album chart, premiered this week on GAC (Great American Country) and a TV movie she’s starring in with Lily Tomlin, “Malibu Country,” is in pre-production.

Tull’s Anderson Honored
Ian Anderson, mastermind since 1967 of England’s Jethro Tull, is the recipient of the Germany-based NatureLife-International’s 2012 Environmental Award, reports Vintage Vinyl News. He’ll receive the award in May.

The 64-year-old Anderson has long been an environmental and animal rights supporter, including the protection f endangered species, the fight for threatened area and the re-naturization of habitats.

Anderson planted more than 35,000 oak and ash in his native Scotland, where for a quarter-century he’s owned one of the country’s largest salmon farms that employs hundreds (he sold off some of his interests in 2001). He saved large acreage of woodlands by purchasing them and has financially supported numerous conservation and research endeavors and he helps endangered wild cats in zoos and in the wild.

On April 2, he’ll release a solo album sequel to his band’s 1972 epic, “Thick as a Brick.” He is spending the year promoting the album with tours of Britain, Europe and the U.S., including on October 20 at the Terrace Theatre of Long Beach. These shows will see him perform the original album in its entirety for the first time since its release, along with a good chunk of “Brick 2.”

Multi-group Summer Tours

It makes sense for bands and solo artists to join forces for big buck summer tours. This habit dates at least to the ‘50s when you could see five, six, seven of the acts that dominated the Top 40 all on one big show.

This summer one such caravan will feature ‘90s hitmakers The Barenaked Ladies, Blues Traveler and Cracker hitting the bricks. Their six-week jaunt throughout America makes a pit stop on July 27 at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City.

A harder-edged tour featuring Def Leppard supported by Poison and ex-Runaway Lita Ford kicks off summer on June 20 in Salt Lake City and stops at the Verizon Amphitheatre in Irvine on June 22.

Classic Artist in Top 10
There are several classic acts with albums in the Top 10 in various countries around the globe. Bruce Springsteen’s new “Wrecking Ball” is No. 1 in The Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Norway and in the U.S.  

Leonard Cohen’s first album in eight years, “Old Ideas,” is in the Top 10 in France, Poland, Finland, Denmark and Portugal. In Britain, Meat Loaf’s “Hell in a Handbasket” sits at No. 5, and the re-release of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall,” commemorating its 30^th anniversary, is the No. 8 album in Switzerland.

In the wake of Whitney Houston shocking passing, it’s no surprise that fans are grabbing up her albums. She recently had seven on Billboard Hot 100 Album chart. Her “Ultimate Collection” or “Greatest Hits” albums are in the Top 5 in Australia, New Zealand, Austria and the U.S.

Tommy Roe’s New Album & Tour

Tommy Roe, the ‘60s pop rocker who lived in the Top 10 with “Sweet Pea,” “Hooray for Hazel,” “Everybody” and many others, is about to release his first album in more that two decades. He’ll follow it up with five months of concert dates, according to a release from his publicist, who is also his guitarist and music director. Roe, 69, said the album will tentatively be called, “Devils Soul Pile” and will contain at least four new Roe compositions as well as a re-recording of a 1965 album cut, “Kick Me Charlie” and a cover of Tim Hardin’s “If I Were a Carpenter.” The release date has not been set.

Doobie’s Drummer Hossack Dies

The Doobie Brothers’ drummer Michael “Big Mike” Hossack died at his Dubois, Wyoming, home of cancer at 65, according to Rolling Stone. Hossack joined the San Jose rockers that have sold more than 40 million albums in 1971, a year after they formed. He performed on most of the bands rock hits, including “Jesus Is Just Alright,” “Listen to the Music,” “Rockin’ Down The Highway,” “Black Water,” and “China Grove.”

He quit the band in 1974 and played in several other bands, including DFK with guitarist Les Dudek. In 1987, Hossack joined the reunited Doobies and remained with the band until his illness forced his retirement in 2010. 

New Releases

Among the new CD releases, re-releases and deluxe packages are “Live At The Carousel Ballroom 1968” from Big Brother & The Holding Company Featuring Janis Joplin; an import, “Love Is,” from Eric Burdon 7 The Animals; a 2-CD, “Do Not Kick against The Pricks,” from rotating member supergroup Cactus; “If You Leave Me Now & Other Hits” from Chicago; a 5-CD import box set, “From the Beginning,” from Emerson, Lake & Palmer; and an import, “Eric, Rick, Wayne, Rob Plus” from Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders;

“Before the Turbulence” from The Ian Gillan Band fronted by Deep Purple’s singer; “I Just Want to Make Love to You,” an import from Etta James; “Big Man Blues” from British blues pioneer John Mayall; Meat Loaf’s latest, “Hell In A Handbasket”; “Because You Love Me,” from country singer T.G. Sheppard; a 5-CD import, “Just For What I Am,” from country gal Connie Smith; an import, “Giants,” the first album in six years from British punk pioneers The Stranglers; Earl Van Dyke’s “Motown Sound: The complete Albums Singles & More”; “Ssss,” and “EP2,” by VCMG, the reunion music of early Depeche Mode co-leaders Martin Gore and Vince Clark; and “Live at Carnegie Hall” from David Velos and former Talking Heads leader David Byrne.

Now Playing

Classic acts from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s continue to perform. Here’s what some of them are doing.

The “Secret Agent Man” himself, Johnny Rivers, has a handful of concerts set through October, including on March 24 at the Buffalo Thunder Casino in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and April 13 at the Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix.

That Lil’ ol’ band from East L.A., Los Lobos, began formed in 1973, and hit the big time in the ‘80s with “Will the Wolf Survive” in 1984 and their classic Richie Valens-copy of “La Bamba” that made it all the way to No. 1 in 1987.

Nearly four decades later, all five original guys are still playing in the band. Group leaders, singer-guitarists Dave Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas are currently playing with the popular “Experience Hendrix” tour up through near the end of the month. Los Lobos will then gas up the jet and hit the road for 17 gigs including a March 31 party in Woodstock, New York, with Levon Helm, the former drummer for The Band, at Helm’s home studio, and a May 5 date at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles with Neko Case and punk pioneers X.