AND NOW HERE’S THE NEWS: What’s so...

AND NOW HERE’S THE NEWS: What’s so unusual about “Amanda,” Boston’s first No. 1 single? It not only caps a remarkable comeback for the band, but it also shows the enormous effect of music video over the past few years. If you don’t count Jan Hammer’s “Miami Vice Theme,” which after all, was spawned by a show initially nicknamed “MTV Cops,” the Boston hit is the first single to top the Billboard charts without the benefit of an accompanying video since “Islands in the Stream” by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, which was No. 1 in October, 1983. . . . Jules Shear, the much-lauded singer-songwriter who wrote the Bangles hit “If She Knew What She Wants,” is back with his own album, due out this week from Enigma Records. Titled “Demo-Itis,” it features 13 demo-versions of Shear originals, including the above song, “All Through the Night” (which was a hit for Cyndi Lauper), “Deliver Love,” “Trained for Glory” and “Eligible for Parole.” . . . John Fogerty will headline a benefit concert Tuesday at the University of Kansas. Sponsored by the Youth for Vietnam Veterans organization, the show will also feature George Thorogood and Stephen Stills and hopes to raise $100,000 for a scholarship fund to benefit children of Vietnam War vets. . . . The new Billy Bragg album, due out next week, is titled, “Talking With the Taxman About Poetry.” . . . Our condolences to friends of comedian/broadcaster Jane Dornacker, who was killed recently in a helicopter crash while doing a traffic report for WNBC radio in New York. Dornacker had been a frequent collaborator with the Tubes, having toured with the group for several years and wrote “Don’t Touch Me There.” . . . And Black ‘N Blue’s new single, “I’ll Be There for You,” was written by Journey’s Jonathan Cain.