Friday Spins: Hendrix Anniversaries, a Country-Rock Box Set and a Big Release Day
Written by Jarvis Prime on October 16, 2026
October 16 brings a busy record-store Friday, a crate of classic-rock reissues and plenty of rock history, plus a few stories from the radio business.
Happy Friday, friends, and welcome to a big day for anybody who still loves flipping through the new-release bins. October 16 is stacked with fresh music and fresh pressings of old favorites, and there's a fair bit of rock and roll history attached to the date too.
Start with the history. On this day in 1968, the Jimi Hendrix Experience released Electric Ladyland, their final album, which went on to spend two weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Top LPs chart. Hendrix fans get a new treat today as well: Magic Boy, a live release capturing the Experience's first show at Berkeley. Also on this date: in 1951 an 18-year-old Richard Penniman cut his first tracks at a radio station right up the road in Atlanta, recording as Little Richard. The Beatles laid down the rhythm track for "Day Tripper" on October 16, 1965. CCR announced they were no longer an active band in 1972. And ZZ Top put out Recycler, their tenth studio album, in 1990.
Happy birthday, too, to Grateful Dead co-founder Bob Weir, born on this day in 1947 in San Francisco. Fittingly, his album Blue Mountain comes back today as a 180-gram double LP.
The reissue shelf is crowded. Cheap Trick's Dream Police comes out on translucent red vinyl. ELO's A New World Record returns on vinyl, Kiss marks 30 years of You Wanted the Best, You Got the Best!! with a double LP, and Tears for Fears expands The Seeds of Love. The one we'd grab first is Before the Gold Rush: An American Country Rock Anthology 1966-1973, a three-CD box featuring Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers. That's the family tree of half the music we play here.
For new music, prog fans can dig into Rick Wakeman's Return to the Red Planet, the sequel to his 2020 album, with vocals from Mollie Marriott, daughter of Small Faces and Humble Pie frontman Steve Marriott. Richard Thompson has a new one called Hippies, Thugs and Heroes, and Bruce Cockburn returns with The Blood of Others.
Over on the country and Americana side, the folks at Saving Country Music are calling it a huge release day. Highlights include Wyatt McCubbin's 650, produced by Dave Cobb for his Lucille Records label; Jesse Daniel's Looks Like Rain, recorded live to analog tape; and Charlie Parr's Rooming House on Smithsonian Folkways. Zach Bryan has a new eight-song EP, Young Manhood and Other Donatable Organs, that includes a collaboration with the Turnpike Troubadours. There's also a posthumous David Allan Coe album, A Million Reasons, recorded back in 2017.
A little radio news to close out. The Radio Hall of Fame inducted its Class of 2026 on October 8 in Chicago, including Bob Pittman, Boomer Esiason, Rickey Smiley and Shotgun Tom Kelly. And Alice Cooper has picked up a new weekly SiriusXM show, Alice in Underland, airing on Little Steven's Underground Garage.
That's the news for now. Go buy a record this weekend, and keep it right here on Pretoria Fields Radio.
— The Pretoria Fields Radio news desk
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