Lionel Richie – Hello
A moment, an album, a world of listeners When Lionel Richie released “Hello” on February 13, 1984, it arrived as…
The Spencer Davis Group – Gimme Some Lovin’
Few records announce themselves with more authority than The Spencer Davis Group’s “Gimme Some Lovin’.” Its first seconds—drums pushing the…
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – The Tracks of My Tears
Few singles summarize the artistry of Motown in the mid-1960s as elegantly as “The Tracks of My Tears.” Written by…
Fats Domino – Blueberry Hill
Few recordings capture the easygoing warmth and quiet authority of early rock ’n’ roll like Fats Domino’s 1956 rendition of…
Chubby Checker – The Twist
Ask ten people to imitate a foundational moment in pop music, and half of them will instinctively pivot on their…
The Del-Vikings – Come Go with Me
If you’re tracing the bright line where street-corner harmony vaulted into the American mainstream, The Del-Vikings’ “Come Go with Me”…
The Chordettes – Mr. Sandman
There are a handful of mid-century pop recordings that feel like they live outside of calendar time—records that glide in…
Dion – Runaround Sue
If you want a time capsule of what made early-1960s American pop so contagious—street-corner harmonies, hand-clap propulsion, a cautionary tale…
The Crystals – Then He Kissed Me
Few early-’60s singles capture the head-spinning rush of a first romance as vividly as The Crystals’ “Then He Kissed Me.”…
Waylon Jennings’ “The Stage (Stars in Heaven)” — a survivor’s elegy that turned grief into country gospel
There are songs that feel like messages smuggled into the present from a room we can’t enter anymore. Waylon Jennings’…