Record sales continue to free-fall—sales are down about 13 percent from last year but that isn’t preventing the labels from unloading a massive amountof big-name product on what has been dubbed Super Monday.  Typically, new releases bow on Tuesdays, but because of Thanksgiving, next week’s superstar crop comes early to still get a four-day sales week.

So many things happening in music this week, so much to grumble about.  So over the weekend, we hear that Steven Tyler is leaving Aerosmith, and Joe Perry is tweeting about finding a replacement singer.  Let that latter part sink in for a moment. Joe Perry. Rock-guitar hero. Tell ing Aerosmith fans about the band’s plans in 140 characters or less.

You might know that Paul Shaffer wrote “It’s Raining Men.“  You might even know that he performed in the first house band for “Saturday Night Live.“  But did you know that he was briefly in the Patty Smyth-fronted’80s band Scandal and played the synth solo on its hit “Goodbye To You”?

Sometimes you forget Michael Jackson is dead, because he’s so alive in “This Is It.“  Other times, you’re struck with a profound sadness when you remember that what is on screen really is the last piece of history from an artist who truly cared about his craft and excelled at executing it.

It begins with Jon Bon Jovi flat on his back, his leg being stretched toward the ceiling by a burly leg-stretching guy.  Outside the room, in a cinder-block corridor of Madison Square Garden, the rest of Bon Jovi—guitarist Richie Sambora, drummer Tico Torres and keyboardist David Bryan—awaits the arrival of Their Leader.

The best thing about the release this week of the new/old Michael Jackson song “This Is It”? That Paul Anka might finally get some Grammy cred.  The worst thing? That it would be for this forgettable, fizz-less trifle.  The Grammy-less Anka, the wizard behind such gems as the theme music for “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” and Frank Sinatra’s signature “My Way” (Anka wrote the English lyrics), quickly addressed the Jackson estate this week, hours after “This Is It” was released online, to claim his co-writing credit.

With shout-outs to Mamma’Zu, the Byrd Theatre and Belle Isle, “River City (Richmond, VA)“ taps some of the area’s most recognizable names.  Throw in the Edgar Allan Poe Museum and the statue of Bill Bojangles, and now you’re really talking Richmond.

The Beat on break Melissa Ruggieri’s The Beat column will return next week.

MELISSA RUGGIERITimes-Dispatch columnist     An anti-gay reggae singer performing in Richmond the same day as the Gay Pride Festival.  Can you get more ironic?  And now the performance has been moved to a new venue that, in its previous incarnation, became the target of a thorny argument with the NAACP.

Want to play?  What: “The Beatles: Rock Band”  Game systems: Available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii Retail price: $59.99 (game only); $249.99 (limited-edition premium bundles include instruments modeled after the band’s, as well as a microphone and stand). The game is compatible with all “Rock Band” controllers.

Iconfess, I have a somewhat elitist attitude toward “Rock Band” and “Guitar Hero.“  Why, I often preach to any unfortunate person in my vicinity, do I need to bang on a rubber-padded fake drum kit from a game when I could make some real noise on the real drums I’ve been playing for 20 years? Believe me, I’ve turned pounding along to Billy Joel and U2 CDs into its own art form.

MELISSA RUGGIERITimes-Dispatch music columnist       Fans of newly sentenced Chris Brown will have to decide if they’re ready to forgive him.  But Whitney Houston’s fans will have to decide how much they still care.  On Monday, the pop diva, at one time unchallenged and unparalleled in her vocal abilities, returns with “I Look to You,“ her first studio album in seven years.

This week, Chris Brown said he was sorry.  Not on MTV, where a conversation with a reasonably competent correspondent might have forced him to acknowledge his position as a role model to millions of young music fans.  Not on “Dateline,“ where Ann Curry might have shot him some pointed questions about domestic abuse.

MELISSA RUGGIERI   Music fans of a certain age probably reminisce fondly over the 45.  If you want to get technical, that was the 7-inch vinyl disc, played at 45 rpm’s, with room for only one song per side.  I prefer to remember it as the first form of music I ever bought—well, my mother purchased it after I begged like the 9-year-old that I was for my own copy of The Stray Cats’ “Stray Cat Strut” (I believe the only reason I emerged victorious in that grovel-fest was because I convinced her the song was about cats).

In 2007, Def Leppard’s summer shed tour with Styx and Foreigner grossed about a half-million dollars per show and played to 13,000-18,000 fans per stop.  Those are big numbers for a headlining band whose biggest success came more than 20 years ago.  This summer, Def Leppard is touring with the even-better matchup of Poison and Cheap Trick, and now, the mostly-British rockers might find a new faction of fans amid the packs of long-haired’80s holdovers and thirtysomething women who spent their prom nights singing along to “Pour Some Sugar on Me”: country-music listeners.