Ron Banks, a founding member of the '70s R&B group the Dramatics, died at his home in Detroit on Mar. 4. The cause was a heart attack, according to Reuters. He was 58.

Banks, known for his falsetto, was born in Detroit on May 10, 1951. He, along with five others, formed the Dynamics in the early '60s. The group soon became a quintet -- Banks, Rob Davis, Larry Reed, Larry "Squirrel" Demps and Elbert Wilkens -- when founding member Robert Ellington left the group, and they soon changed their name to the Dramatics.

Sir Elton John is working on an album with longtime collaborator Bernie Taupin that will feature guest spots from Neil Young and others.

Sir Elton and Taupin are working with songwriter Leon Russell, and together the three have laid down 15 tracks for the album, according to an update on Taupin's website. Veteran producer T-Bone Burnett, recently in the news for his 'Crazy Heart' soundtrack accolades, is overseeing production of the recording sessions, as Taupin previously reported, and the trio is "about to start vocals and overdubs immediately."

The three have "cut fifteen songs ranging from Stones like rockers, Country tinged ballads, Gospel and even a Sinatra like weepy similar to something torn from the grooves of 'In the Wee Small Hours.'"

Ozzy Osbourne and wife Sharon are among the stars set to join in a celebration of what would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday this Oct. 9 in Lennon's hometown of Liverpool.

In an interview with Liverpool radio station Radio City, Sharon Osbourne told DJ Pete Price that she will be traveling with Ozzy to Liverpool in October for a tribute to the Beatle, who was shot in New York City on Dec. 8, 1980.

Band of Skulls; it's the kind of name that, by rights, should have faint-of-heart folk reaching for the smelling salts and club owners preparing for all manner of beastliness in the dressing rooms.

Despite the horned helmet moniker -- and the sometimes crushing volume of their music -- Southampton's Band of Skulls have more in common with Jack White/Alison Mosshart project the Dead Weather than they do with Norwegian death metal. After all, they can partly thank the British art school tradition for developing their sensibilities. No devil worship going on here.

"We all sort of went to art school with differing commitment levels and success rates. Emma [Richardson, bass] went and got a really nice degree, I went for a while and decided, well, got thrown out because I was an idiot," admits singer Russell Marsden ruefully.

Artist: Balkan Beat Box
Song: 'War Again'
Album: 'Blue Eyed Black Boy' [iTunes]
Sounds Like: Ozomatli, Gogol Bordello

Download: 'War Again' (MP3)

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Artist: Tegan and Sara
Video: 'Alligator'
Highlight: With unique outfits, snowy sets and a trash bag fortress, the twin indie rockers leave it up to the viewers to decipher meaning from their latest clip.

His music has been sampled by Eric B. & Rakim, Run-DMC, LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, Gang Starr, Ghostface Killah and dozens of other hip-hop artists. With such a long list of admirers, he is sometimes referred to as the "fifth element of hip-hop."

James Brown? George Clinton? Try easy-listening keyboardist Bob James, recipient of a Lifetime Achievement honor from the Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards. The 70-year-old James, who was discovered by a young Quincy Jones playing bebop at the Notre Dame Jazz Festival in 1963, is credited with some of the most sampled songs in hip-hop history.

Born on Christmas Day, 1939, James has been an unlikely gift to the hip-hop world. Though he's probably best known as the composer of 'Angela,' the treacly theme to the late '70s-early '80s TV sitcom 'Taxi,' that song has been sampled only sparingly. Far more influential are 'Nautilus,' a light-funk instrumental workout from 1974, which was the basis for Slick Rick's 'Children's Story' and features prominently on Eric B. & Rakim's 'Follow the Leader,' Run-DMC's 'Beats to the Rhyme' and dozens of other tracks, and 'Take Me to the Mardi Gras,' a Paul Simon original that, in James's version, shows up in the music of dozens more, ranging from Ice Cube to Timbaland.