Neil Diamond – Cracklin Rosie (1970)
The air in the cabin radio station was thick with cigarette smoke and the faint aroma of burnt coffee. It…
Oldies Songs
Tony Orlando & Dawn – “Tie a Yellow Ribbon” (1973)
The highway rolled out before me, a ribbon of asphalt under a late-autumn sky. The car, an old sedan, smelled…
Ricky Nelson – Cindy
It’s late, the city has gone quiet, and the only light comes from the glow of an old tube amplifier.…
Dean Martin & Ricky Nelson – My Rifle, My Pony and Me & Cindy Cindy
The camera is close. The lighting is low. There is a palpable tension that has nothing to do with gunfire…
Johnny Rivers “Memphis Tennessee”
The air in Los Angeles in early 1964 was thick with the strange, exhilarating panic of a cultural takeover. The…
The Stylistics – Betcha By Golly Wow
The air in the listening room is thick with a kind of gilded, cinematic melancholy. It is a quiet Sunday…
Louis Armstrong – Hello Dolly
The world had gone monochrome. Specifically, it had gone Beatles monochrome. By the spring of 1964, the Fab Four were…
Little Richard – Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On
The first sound is a sonic detonation. It’s a riot of frantic keys and a voice that sounds like it’s…
Let It Rock – Chuck Berry
It’s 1960, and the American promise is humming—often with the sound of a rhythm and blues beat barely disguised by…
The Silhouettes “Get a Job”
It’s an image burned into the collective American unconscious: a darkened street corner, perhaps under the glow of a lone…