Why Roy Orbison’s ‘Go! Go! Go!’ Is the Song You Never Knew You Needed
It begins with a guitar riff that sounds like a jolt of electricity, a slap of the upright bass that makes your heart skip a beat, and a voice that…
It begins with a guitar riff that sounds like a jolt of electricity, a slap of the upright bass that makes your heart skip a beat, and a voice that…
The intro drumbeat of a certain song has become a secret handshake among music lovers—a three-second countdown that summons an entire universe of longing and teenage heartache. It is the…
The moment David Crosby tried to walk out of the studio, the entire session teetered on the edge of collapse. The backing track for The Byrds’ cover of Bob Dylan’s…
The moment Ronnie Spector’s voice erupts with the declaration “Baby, I love you” is pure pop transcendence. It is a sound that has echoed through decades, a raw and passionate…
Picture a dance floor in 1978, the first blast of horns and percussion slicing through the air, and then a crowd of strangers moving as one to the letters Y…
A young Stevie Wonder, blind from birth, would often tilt his head back and envision the sky as a canvas of endless possibility. He imagined ribbons of light and color…
The heavy thud of the kick drum sounds like a sealed vault closing. A bright piano figure plays out a frantic thought you cannot escape. Over it all, a voice…
The moment of confession arrives like a thunderclap. “Dearest darling, I had to write to say that I won’t be home anymore.” With those words, Gene Pitney plunges listeners into…
There are songs that quietly slip into your soul and take root, and then there are those that announce themselves with a sweeping orchestral flourish, demanding your attention from the…
In the summer of 1967, as flames consumed parts of Detroit and the nation wrestled with its conscience, a single word scrawled on a storefront window would ignite one of…