Though best known in their native U.S. as the subject of the cult-favorite music documentary Dig!, the Dandy Warhols are celebrated across the Atlantic for the swaggering “Bohemian Like You,” which soared into the U.K. Top Ten in the fall of 2001 after featuring in an advertisement for mobile network operator Vodafone.
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ 1997 hit “The Impression That I Get” remains one of the signature records to emerge from ska-punk’s brief commercial heyday.
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“Don’t Leave Me This Way” may well be the greatest disco song ever recorded. Thelma Houston’s signature hit topped the U.S. charts in 1977, landed in the Top Ten in more than a dozen other countries, and earned the first Grammy ever awarded to a solo female Motown Records artist. The track also has all the hallmarks of a disco-era floor-filler: lush orchestration over a classic drum beat, a killer bass line, and a diva’s voice on an explosive chorus. More than that, though, “Don’t Leave Me This Way” has achieved something few songs do: it has become a cultural touchstone, with a meaning and resonance that extend far beyond its moment in the limelight. Though Houston may be forever remembered for just one song, that song will be remembered forever.
Read More“Never Can Say Goodbye” reveals the true scope of the Jackson 5’s preternatural talent, highlighted by 11-year-old Michael Jackson’s most mature and nuanced performance to date.
Read More“Fireflies” ascended from the restless mind of Owl City’s Adam Young to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 2009.
Read MorePop Smoke’s unflinching breakout hit “Welcome to the Party” rocketed drill music into the pop mainstream, elevating the Brooklyn-born rapper to Billboard chart success less than a year before his untimely death at the age of 20.
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“Somebody’s Watching Me” is NOT a Michael Jackson song. Michael Jackson’s voice is the most interesting thing about it, but the single is by a completely different artist: a guy named Rockwell. It’s important to keep this in mind, despite what your ears tell you every time you hear “Somebody’s Watching Me.” The history of the song’s creation is a tale of nepotism, the attempt to escape it, and of a career based on a forgettable novelty track with an unforgettable backup vocal hook.
Read MoreYou don’t need to speak a word of the Tamasheq language to understand what “Tala Tannam” says or which emotions it stirs. Mdou Moctar’s luminous, lyrical love song pledges his eternal devotion to wife Layla, connecting the couple across space and time the way that only music can do.
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“Proud Mary” tells the tale of a nonconformist taking control of their life by ditching the shackles of working-class reality for the freedom of a rolling riverboat. But when the Ike and Tina Turner Revue set the U.S.A. ablaze by recasting Creedence Clearwater Revival’s mid-tempo strut as a rollicking boogie, Tina was trapped inside a life she didn’t control at all.
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