We use cookies for a number of reasons, such as keeping FT Sites reliable and secure, personalising content and ads, providing social media features and to analyse how our Sites are used.
A new world is possible. Let's not go back to what wasn't working anyway.
Add this topic to your myFT Digest for news straight to your inbox
The power of Joy Division’s 1980 song, released a month after singer Ian Curtis’s death, comes in the contrast between its elements
The duo’s singer Neil Tennant says the aim of their 1987 hit was to go ‘mega-Catholic’
The Isley Brothers were the first of many to record this immaculate Holland-Dozier-Holland track
The singer and her co-writer Paul Epworth created an epic track with a secret ingredient
The singer’s 1983 hit was sparked by unrest in south London 40 years ago
Early iterations of the song, including one newly released, reveal the care and craft behind it
Added percussion gave the song a distinctive groove — and inspired a famous comedy skit
Men Without Hats’ 1982 track has been covered by a staggeringly strange array of artists
The icy 1977 track went on to be covered by greats such as Grace Jones
Tiny Bradshaw’s 1951 track might have vanished but for a brutal, distorted version by The Rock and Roll Trio
The Rolling Stones’ singer went through a satanic phase, and this diabolic 1968 track was one of the results
Recorded with his band Wings in challenging conditions, the song reflected the former Beatle’s new-found sense of freedom
Bonnie Tyler had the perfect voice for Jim Steinman’s 1983 epic
The track spoke of men and women treating each other well — though many subsequent versions got the lyrics wrong
Blind Willie Johnson was the first to record this apocalyptic song
The track sounded like a rallying cry but its message was subtler
It became an arena classic for the ages — but the track was originally conceived as a duet with Stevie Nicks
The ethereal 1959 song’s purity has endured through the decades
The track’s invitation to dial down the angst struck a chord in the post-’60s US
The epic break-up track, which epitomised Phil Spector’s ‘wall of sound’, reached the number one spot in 1965
Beneath the song’s jovial call-and-response melody lies a dark story of drug addiction
The singer confessed he didn’t know what it was about — but that didn’t prevent it from being widely covered, and sung
After a faltering start, Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach’s song has been a smouldering success
Released in 1976, the track that emerged from a piano doodle has stood the test of time
Subsequent versions hoped to capitalise on the track’s notoriety — or tried to reclaim it
International Edition
