A British Drummer Rebuilt This 1966 Motown Number One Sixteen Years Later
There is a particular kind of joy that some songs carry, the kind that does not age and does not apologize for being cheerful. In the early…
One of the 1980s’ Most Famous Melodies Began During an Ordinary Bus Ride
Some of the most polished recordings in pop history did not begin in a recording studio. They began somewhere far more ordinary — a bedroom, a kitchen…
One Movie Scene Sent This 1965 Vocal Back to Number One
Some songs outlive their original moment by decades. Some songs outlive two or three generations of listeners and still feel brand new to anyone who hears them…
This Breezy 1990s Pop Hit Had Already Lived Two Different Musical Lives
Some songs arrive sounding so fresh and complete that it is hard to imagine them belonging to anyone else. They settle into the radio, into summer afternoons,…
A Country-Gospel Television Moment Inspired This Unusual Fuzz-Rock Hit
Some songs arrive from the most unexpected combinations of people, places, and moments. This one began not in a church, not in a recording studio, and not…
This Huge 1980s Chorus Hid a Much Harder Working-Class Story
Some choruses are so big, so bright, and so relentlessly powerful that they take on a life of their own. They get separated from the verses that…
This Joyful 1972 Soul Recording Invited the Whole World to Ride Together
Some songs arrive with a simple idea and somehow manage to say everything. This one came out of Philadelphia in the early 1970s, built on a groove…
One Deep 1960 Voice Transformed This Older Standard Into a Soul Classic
Some songs spend years waiting for the voice that will finally make them unforgettable. They exist on records, they get played on radio, they pass through living…
The Famous Chant in This 1980s Pop Hit Was Missing From the Original
There is a chant in one of the most recognizable pop songs of the early 1980s that almost no one can forget once they have heard it….
A Real Journey Through Churches and Clubs Inspired This 1991 Classic
There are songs that come from imagination, and there are songs that come from somewhere a writer actually stood, breathed in the air, and felt something shift….