THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with ELTON JOHN! Half of a live show captured by the OGWT on Christmas Eve, 1974.  Your setlist includes: "Grimsby" (incomplete), "Rocket Man," "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," "Daniel," Grey Seal,"  "Bennie And The Jets," "I Saw Her Standing There," "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me," "Honky Cat," "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting," "Crocodile Rock," "The B^tch Is Back," "Your Song," and "White Christmas."

MATT BERNINGER plays KEXP.

BARTEES STRANGE plays KEXP.

THE BESNARD LAKES share “Our Heads, Our Hearts On Fire Again.”

WEAPON OF CHOICE, but with Fred Astaire instead of Christopher Walken.

SMOKEY ROBINSON took a do-over at pronouncing Hanukkah for a fan on Cameo, the celebrity greeting service.

THE 25 BEST EPs of 2020, according to Paste.

THE BEST REISSUES & BOX SETS of 2020, according to NPR.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at Madonna ackshually singing on "Live to Tell."  (Somehow I missed this earlier in the week.).

JEREMY BULLOCH, who played Boba Fett in the original Star Wars trilogy, has died aged 75.

IAN McKELLEN gets vaccinated.

COMING 2 AMERICA: EW has your first look.

TOM CRUISE and... Hayley Atwell?

PEDRO PASCAL talks Wonder Woman 1984, The Mandalorian, Nicolas Cage and more.

DENISE RICHARDS is opening up about her public split from Charlie Sheen — and the toll it took on her career.

THE BEST MOVIES of 220, according to Uproxx.

EDWARD SCISSORHANDS: How They Made It.

FROSTY the Snow-Rat.

OPOSSUM vs SKUNK: Who You Got?

A BOBCAT, sighted on the Bronx River.

AN EXPEDITION IN THE ANDES revealed 20 species new to science, including the ‘lilliputian frog.'

A WHALE had enough of the dolphins.

EURYTHMICS'. Dave Stewart declares "Christmas is For Lovers".

THE WATERBOYS' Mike Scott visits World Cafe.

ASHLEY RAY plays a Tiny Desk Concert from home.

DJANGO DJANGO plays "Asking For More" and "Hail Bop" for NME.

FLEET FOXES' Robin Pecknold Reviews 2020.

AQUARIUM DRUNKARD's 2020 Year in Review.

LED ZEPPELIN is getting their own pinball machine.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at Billy Ocean's Motown-pastiche ballad "There'll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)."

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: Newly surfaced behind-the scenes footage.

LILY JAMES & SEBASTIAN STAN are on board to play former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson and Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee in a new limited series for Hulu.

GAL GADOT and Fallon try new foods.

NIGHT COURT is back in session?

SETH MacFARLANE is developing a reboot of the seminal '80s comedy “Revenge of the Nerds.”

SOUL: Inside Pixar's trippy Christmas offering.

THE MANDALORIAN has a Christmas present for you.

THE BEST MOVIES of 2020, according to The Ringer.

THE LUCKIEST Warthog.

A PIGLET and a calf.

A CAT, working a Chrismtas tree like Rocky Balboa.

PAPA found a home.

DARLENE LOVE's final "Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)" for Letterman.

LIT UP LIKE A CHRISTMAS TREE, Vols. 1 & 2:  A Vintage Holiday Mixtape.

ALL SONGS CONSIDERED features lovely Ludwig Van.

LANA DEL REY sings “Let Me Love You Like A Woman” for Fallon. And sports a big ring.

THE 35 BEST ROCK LPs of 2020, according to Pitchfork.

THE TOP 20 DEBUTS of 2020, according to NME.

MEGXIT: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have signed a multiyear deal with Spotify to host and produce podcasts for the streaming platform.

TOM CRUISE enforces the COVID rules on set.

DAVID CHAPPELLE now has HBOMax pulling his show off the service.

JEFF BRIDGES shares a health update following his lymphoma diagnosis.

SHARON OSBOURNE is recuperating from COVID away from Ozzy.

MICHAEL JACKSON's estate won an appeal that allows it to pursue arbitration after claiming the creators of Leaving Neverland violated a non-disparagement clause.

GEORGE LUCAS defends the prequels' dialogue.

A CHEEKY BABY ELEPHANT tries to hide behind a light pole after being caught eating sugarcane in a field in Thailand.

THIS GUIDE DOG is a sneak.

THIS CROCODILE is all of us getting through 2020.

KIM WILDE drunkenly warbles "Kids In America" and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" on the subway.

LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III visits with World Cafe.

BRUCE HORNSBY also visits with World Cafe.

LOU BARLOW covers Kacey Musgraves' "Glittery."

BLOODSHOT RECORDS at the crossroads. (Thx Scott)

THE BEST LPs of 2020, according to Discogs.

THE TOP 40 POP SONGS of 2020, according to Stereogum.

THE NUMBER ONES looks at Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald's wailing breaking duet "On My Own."

JUSTICE LEAGUE: The Snyder Cut will also be shown theatrically, with Batman dropping an F-bomb.

MEGXIT: Meghan Markle has prompted fury from the palace by enlisting Oprah Winfrey to help flog a vegan coffee she has invested in.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY: Star-Lord is bisexual and polyamorous... in the comics.

DAKOTA JOHNSON is fueling rumors that she's engaged to boyfriend Chris Martin.

THE SOPRANOS' surviving cast will read a new sketch for charity.

CHER is profiled at The Guardian.

GREASE, THE BLUES BROTHERS, THE DARK KNIGHT and a RECORD NUMBER OF WOMEN DIRECTORS join the National Film Registry.

ANN REINKING, the Tony Award-winning actor, dancer and choreographer who is perhaps best known for playing the role of Roxie Hart in 1977's Chicago, has died at 71.

DON'T ARGUE with a goat.

ROCKY (1976).

MORNING WASH-UP for the pup.

A FALCON -- or is it a hawk -- has head stabilization skills.

NEW RELEASES: Pitchfork will point you to Taylor Swift, The Avalanches, and more.

BILL'S INDIE BASEMENT has Guided by Voices, Osees, Brigid Dawso, and more.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN brought two of his new songs to SNL.

CHARLEY PRIDE, the first major Black star in country music, dies at 86 of covid-19.

SHARON VAN ETTEN: So, How Was Your 2020?

THE 50 BEST LPs of 2020, according to NME.

THE 50 BEST SONGS of 2020, according to Paste.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE?  No new releases this weekend, but Croods: New Age threepeats atop the chart with 3MM on a 32 percent drop; Half Brothers places with 490K on a 30 percent drop; and the re-reease of Elf showed with 390K.

JUDD APATOW thinks the HBOMax deal showed a stunning disrespect to creators.

THIS BLOCKBUSTER Is Coming to a Living Room Near You.

HOWARD STERN is a Scrooge, according to ex-staffers.

BEHIND THE MUSIC: The Muppet Christmas Carol.

THE 50 BEST TV THEMES, according to Paste.

TOM CRUISE'S Holiday Cake is a Hollywood status symbol.

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA talks to Vulture about Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone and much, much more.

JOHN le CARRE, whose exquisitely nuanced, intricately plotted Cold War thrillers elevated the spy novel to high art by presenting both Western and Soviet spies as morally compromised cogs in a rotten system full of treachery, betrayal and personal tragedy, died on Saturday in Cornwall, England. He was 89.

AS SKATEBOARDING DOGS GO, this one is pretty good.

HITLER'S PET ALLIGATOR will be stuffed for posterity and put on display at Moscow’s Darwin Zoo.

A DOGGO, taunted by a groundhog eating pizza.