SINCE U BEEN GONE…

Jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, 70, sultry singer, cabaret star and Catwoman Eartha Kitt, 81, and singer/guitarist/bandleader Delaney Bramlett, 69, passed away… Madonna's 2008 "Sticky & Sweet" tour was the biggest of the year, racking up $280 million in ticket sales… Facebook had its biggest day ever Christmas Eve… Prince told the L.A. Times’ Ann Powers that he plans to release not one but three albums in 2009, all without benefit of a record label. The Purple One said he was negotiating with a major retailer for the physical releases, while an unnamed digital store will sell it online. The first album will be a solo recording that recalls “When Doves Cry,” Powers noted... The Dead opened the new year by setting dates for the band’s first concert tour since 2004, beginning with an April 12 show in Greensboro, NC, and winding up May 10 in Mountain View, CA. The lineup will include original Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, along with guitarist Warren Haynes and keyboard player Jeff Chimenti... To celebrate their 40th anniversary, the Allman Brothers Band will play 10 shows at longtime New York venue the Beacon Theatre, from March 9 through March 21. Original members Gregg Allman and Butch Trucks told our own Bud Scoppa that the run will be loaded with “big surprises.”… Kings of Leon were Australia’s biggest-selling act of 2008, moving more than 350k units, according to ARIA. The breakout Nashville-based band was followed by Pink, local heroes AC/DC, Coldplay and Sydney duo the Presets… Our pals at Digital Music News did the math on the impact of the 2008 economic meltdown on music-related stocks. As of Friday, with the Dow back over 9000, Apple, at least for the moment, was trading at $90.75, down 53.4% from a year ago; Live Nation was at $5.60, down 61%; Ticketmaster was at $6.63, off 72% from its August debut; WMG was back over $3 at $3.24, but still down 44.2% from 12 months previously; and Sirius XM Radio was trading at 12.2 cents, down 96.2%... Guns N’ Roses guitarist Richard Fortus claimed he was “misquoted” after a St. Louis newspaper reported that he’d said the band would kick off a two-year tour in March... Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard and actress Zooey Deschanel (who’s also half of She & Him with M. Ward) got engaged, a source close to the couple told Us. The couple are “so thrilled,” the source says, “Zooey was swept off her feet, and Ben is so excited.”… Yoko Ono granted charity One Laptop Per Child permission to use the digitized image and voice of John Lennon for a TV commercial. “Imagine if every child, no matter where in the world they were, could access a universe of knowledge,” the virtual Lennon says. “They would have a chance to learn, to dream, to achieve anything they want. I tried to do it through my music, but now you can do it in a very different way.” John then speaks directly at the camera: “You can give a child a laptop and more than imagine, you can change the world.” According to Rolling Stone, "Even 28 years after his death, the ad is still pretty haunting."