Peter Gabriel | Sledgehammer The Taxi Was Waiting Peter Gabriel’s biggest hit was a last-minute jam recorded as the musicians were literally leaving the studio. It became his only #1, knocked Genesis off the top spot, and spawned the most awarded music video in history. Manu Katché had called a taxi. The French drummer was […]
The Last Song Recorded for So Made Peter Gabriel Read More »
Dire Straits | Romeo and Juliet Through the Bars of a Rhyme Mark Knopfler admitted he couldn’t write a love song ‘the way it’s meant to be’, then wrote maybe the best love song in rock, born from a real breakup and a 1937 resonator guitar at The Power Station in 1980. Here’s a song
She Called It a Scene. He Made It Immortal. 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 »
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 »
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 »
The Police | Every Breath You Take The Most Dangerous Love Song “Every Breath You Take” is the most-played song in radio history and one of the most misunderstood, a surveillance anthem routinely mistaken for a wedding ballad by the millions who love it most. Imagine telling Sting that you played his song at your
The Police Were Falling Apart. Then Came the Riff. Read More »
Michael Jackson | Billie Jean You Already Know This Song Bruce Swedien said you can identify “Billie Jean” from three or four drum hits. But a song that sounds like pure instinct was actually ground out through months of obsessive, contentious work, ninety-one mixes, fights over the title, an intro nobody could agree on. Every
91 Mixes and They Picked Number Two Read More »
Depeche Mode | Everything Counts Depeche Mode: The Synth-Pop Pioneers Behind ‘Everything Counts’ Discover Depeche Mode’s transformative journey during the creation of ‘Everything Counts,’ exploring their evolution from synth-pop beginnings to mature cultural commentators. Depeche Mode, a name synonymous with the evolution of electronic music, was a band that left an indelible mark on the
“Everything Counts” by Depeche Mode: Meaning, Lyrics & Story Read More »
