Nirvana | Nevermind (album) The Accidental Revolution On January 11, 1992, Nevermind knocked Michael Jackson’s Dangerous from #1 on the Billboard 200, a result nobody at the label saw coming, least of all the band that made it. On January 11, 1992, a record that nobody expected to matter very much climbed to number one […]
Nevermind Conquered the World Against Its Will Read More »
Beastie Boys | Licensed to Ill (album) The Joke Nobody Got Licensed to Ill was a satirical album everyone took at face value, an inside joke that went Diamond and outsold every rap record before it, cobbled together from borrowed parts and happy accidents. “There were tons of guys singing along to ‘Fight for Your
Licensed to Ill Was Never Supposed to Work Read More »
John Lennon | Imagine The Song Everyone Knows Wrong “Imagine” is the most-played peace anthem in history, and John Lennon openly called it a sugar-coated Communist Manifesto. Nobody seemed to notice, or maybe nobody wanted to. The most-played peace anthem in human history is, by its own creator’s cheerful admission, “virtually the Communist Manifesto.” John
The Contradictions John Lennon Built Into “Imagine” Read More »
AC/DC | Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap Dial 36-24-36 A couple in Illinois got hundreds of prank calls because fans misheard a lyric, the opening act of a song that outlived its own rejection and the man who sang it. In 1981, Norman and Marilyn White of Libertyville, Illinois had a problem. Their phone wouldn’t
The Song Atlantic Rejected and Death Made Famous Read More »
Semisonic | Closing Time Last Call for Meaning Everyone knows “Closing Time” as the universal bar-closing anthem, but its songwriter hid a second meaning so personal that his own bandmates didn’t know for 15 years. You know the moment. It’s 2 AM. The house lights snap on, ugly and fluorescent, and suddenly everyone in the
You’ve Been Singing a Lullaby in a Bar Read More »
Third Eye Blind | Semi-Charmed Life The Brightest Dark Song A song about crystal meth addiction became one of the most beloved pop anthems of the ’90s. Nearly three decades later, people are still finding out they were tricked, and the deception runs deeper than just the lyrics. Here’s something that happens on TikTok roughly
The $10,000 Riff That Fooled a Generation Read More »
Ramones | Ramones (debut album) Twenty Minutes, Twenty Songs Sire Records president Seymour Stein was home sick when the Ramones played their showcase, so he booked a rehearsal room the next day. They ripped through twenty songs in twenty minutes and he signed them on the spot, to make the $6,400 album that blew apart
The Ramones Spent $6,400 to Change Everything Read More »
Phil Collins | In the Air Tonight The Wait The most famous drum moment in pop history works because of three and a half minutes of near-silence before it, a song built entirely out of what’s missing. You already know what’s coming. That’s the whole point. Put on “In the Air Tonight” right now, the
The Sound of Nothing: How Absence Built a Classic Read More »
Leonard Cohen | Hallelujah The Floor of the Royalton Leonard Cohen spent five years writing Hallelujah, banging his head on a hotel floor in despair, and then his label rejected it. How it got from there to everywhere is one of popular music’s strangest accidents. Here’s the image. It’s sometime in the early 1980s, and
80 Verses, One Rejection, and a Slow Miracle Read More »
Prince | Purple Rain The Song That Scared Stevie Nicks Prince sent Stevie Nicks a ten-minute instrumental cassette hoping she’d write lyrics for it. She sent it back, saying it scared her, that it was too much for one person. She turned out to be right, but not in the way either of them expected.
Prince Wrote a Country Song. It Became Purple Rain. Read More »
