The Monkees – Valleri
The story of The Monkees is a collision of artifice and ambition, a pop paradox where a manufactured band fought…
Minnie Riperton – Lovin’ You (Live 1975)
I remember late autumn light slicing across my living room, catching dust motes suspended in the air. The needle dropped.…
Louis Armstrong sings “Mack the Knife”
The New York air in the fall of 1955 wasn’t cold yet, but the music industry felt a chill of…
Santana – Black Magic Woman
The memory of late-night radio is a sense-memory for a certain generation, an experience inseparable from the music itself. Long…
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus – The Ronettes
There are pieces of music that soundtrack a season, and then there are records that become the season. The Ronettes’…
Ricky Nelson – Gypsy Woman
The air in the studio must have been thick with cigarette smoke and the low, expectant hum of tape machines.…
Louie Louie – Paul Revere & The Raiders
Forget the matching Revolutionary War uniforms for a moment. Forget the slick, technicolor pop-art aesthetic that made Paul Revere &…
The Tornados – All The Stars In The Sky
There are certain sounds that immediately transport you. For those of us who grew up with the shadows of the…
CW McCall (Convoy)
The sound hits you not with a guitar riff or a drum crack, but with a sudden, startling burst of…
Lenny and the Squigtones – Night after Night
I remember exactly where I was the first time I heard the full studio (or rather, “live”) recording of “Night…