Rush Returns With A New Bestselling Song
Hugh McIntyre
Feb 28, 2025
Rush’s upcoming Rush 50 collection gets a strong start as a 1974 live version of “Before And After” ... [+]
In just a few weeks, the band Rush will release a highly-anticipated career-spanning anthology. The simply-titled Rush 50 collection is off to a fantastic start, as fans wasted no time in collectively purchasing the first track delivered from the greatest hits collection.
Rush scores one of the top debuts on iTunes this Friday in America. The end of the workweek is always the busiest time for new releases, as it begins a new tracking frame in the music industry. Looking at iTunes’s rankings throughout the day on Friday typically shows what has just been shared by major artists and what Americans couldn't wait to get their hands on.
A live take of the tracks “Before" and "After,” which have been lumped together into one song, debuts at No. 29 on iTunes’s ranking of the bestselling tracks in the U.S. On that one platform, as of the time of writing, Rush’s cut is the third highest-ranking new arrival. It comes in behind “Sorry, I’m Here for Someone Else” by recently Grammy-nominated pop singer Benson Boone at No. 22 and “Granite Mills” by Alison Krauss and Union Station at No. 26.
The version of “Before And After” that hits iTunes this Friday (February 28) was recorded in May 1974. The band performed the composition at the Laura Secord Secondary School in St. Catharines, Canada, along with a number of other tunes that are expected to be included on Rush 50. According to a Rush webpage, this track was demanded by fans, and thus has finally been released.
In late January, Rush announced Rush 50, a career-encompassing collection which will drop on March 21. It seems that fans of the Canadian rock group are so excited that they are rushing to buy anything connected to the project, including a decades-old live recording. A description of the upcoming release on the group’s website calls it “the evolution of Rush’s sound from first single in 1973 to last performance in 2015.” |
