The Jimi Hendrix Experience 1967 – Hey Joe
The first time I really heard “Hey Joe,” I was sixteen, hunched over a pair of borrowed, mid-range studio headphones…
Oldies Songs
Tom Jones with Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young 1969 – Long Time Gone
There are moments in music history that feel less like a planned collaboration and more like a rip in the…
Mark Wynter 1964 – Love Hurts
The air in the studio must have been thick with the scent of ambition and old cigarette smoke. It was…
The Small Faces 1966 – Sha La La La Lee
There is a precise point in the life of every truly great, slightly abrasive rock-and-roll band when they must either…
Dusty Springfield 1964 – Stay Awhile
The air in the room is thick and blue, smelling faintly of worn velvet and late-night rain. It is not…
Gene Vincent 1956 – Blue Jean Bop
I remember the first time I heard it—not the single, which had long since passed into legend, but the sheer…
Amen Corner 1968 – Bend Me, Shape Me
I remember the first time I heard it—not in 1968, of course, but years later, on a scratched-up compilation LP…
Millie Small 1964 – My Boy Lollipop
The sound of 1964 was supposed to be the ringing chime of The Beatles, the churning R&B of the Stones,…
The Ivy League 1965 – Funny How Love Can Be
The year is 1965. The air across Britain is thick with the crackle of overdriven guitar amplifiers and the primal…
The Nashville Teens 1964 – Tobacco Road
The cassette tape clicked into the player, the air thick with the smell of old vinyl and ozone from a…