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Life of a Song

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  • Monday, 1 March, 2021
    Music
    How Blue Moon became a tune that everyone could sing

    Rodgers and Hart’s classic has been sung by the greats and adopted by football fans — though its origins are disputed

  • Monday, 22 February, 2021
    Music
    Be My Baby — how Phil Spector built his ‘wall of sound’

    The Ronettes’ 1963 hit exemplified the genius of the producer who later went to prison for murder

  • Monday, 15 February, 2021
    Music
    Just Walkin’ in the Rain — a story of incarceration and redemption

    Johnny Bragg’s song was written in prison and earned him parole

  • Monday, 8 February, 2021
    Music
    Heart of Glass — when Blondie went disco

    The New York band’s 1979 breakthrough hit caused disquiet among fans and band members; years later, all is forgiven

  • Monday, 1 February, 2021
    Music
    Killing Me Softly with His Song — how Roberta Flack made the track into a worldwide hit

    The song was originally inspired by a Don McLean performance

  • Monday, 25 January, 2021
    Music
    What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor? — a barnacled old sea shanty surfaces again

    The song, which has its roots in Irish balladry, has become part of the recent TikTok craze

  • Monday, 18 January, 2021
    Music
    Rumble — how Link Wray brought the sound of slashed speakers to rock guitar

    The brutal-sounding instrumental track was hugely influential

  • Monday, 11 January, 2021
    Music
    Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City — a soul track indelibly linked with a hair metal band

    The song first recorded by Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland in 1974 became a Whitesnake staple

  • Monday, 4 January, 2021
    Music
    Love Hurts — a song recorded 60 years ago by the Everly Brothers has had a colourful afterlife

    The track has shown remarkable agility in hopping across genres and styles

  • Promoted Content
  • Monday, 28 December, 2020
    Music
    The Final Countdown — Europe’s song became the soundtrack to the last days of Brexit

    The Swedish band left the song off their first two albums because it was too ‘unusual’

  • Monday, 21 December, 2020
    Music
    I Wanna Be Sedated — how The Ramones’ track emerged from Christmas limbo

    The ultimate anthem to desensitisation is a festive song, of sorts

  • Monday, 14 December, 2020
    Music
    Corpus Christi Carol — an ancient song steeped in mystery

    Jeff Buckley sang what is probably the best-known rendition of a carol whose meaning is still debated

  • Monday, 7 December, 2020
    Music
    Mah-Nà Mah-Nà — an absurd earworm made popular by The Muppets

    From soft porn to satire, this wordless song has a long and surprising history

  • Monday, 30 November, 2020
    Music
    Paper Planes — M.I.A.’s 2008 hit skewered xenophobic paranoia

    The British-Sri Lankan rapper’s song is musically and thematically wide-ranging

  • Monday, 23 November, 2020
    Music
    Friday on My Mind — how The Easybeats helped dispel Australia’s ‘cultural cringe’

    The group’s 1966 hit established a distinctive sound and attitude

  • Monday, 16 November, 2020
    Music
    Rocket Man — Elton John’s 1972 hit boosted his ascent to superstardom

    Lyricist Bernie Taupin was inspired by a science fiction story

  • Monday, 9 November, 2020
    Music
    Venus in Furs — The Velvet Underground’s chilling drone-rock track was highly influential

    Punk bands were beguiled by Lou Reed’s song based on a torrid 1870 novella

  • Monday, 2 November, 2020
    Music
    Atomic Dog — how George Clinton relaunched his career with the funk classic

    The reverberations from this seismic 1982 track are still being felt today

  • Monday, 26 October, 2020
    Music
    Danny Boy — a closing-time classic with curious origins

    A song that speaks of Ireland and absence has a fascinating heritage

  • Monday, 19 October, 2020
    Music
    Hurricane — Bob Dylan’s howl of protest still resonates today

    The hard-hitting 1975 ballad tells the story of a black boxer framed and jailed for murder

  • Monday, 12 October, 2020
    Music
    War Pigs — how Black Sabbath’s epic pushed heavy metal into a new era

    The eight-minute track’s complex structure proved highly influential

  • Monday, 5 October, 2020
    Music
    Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag — how James Brown invented funk

    The singer’s 1965 hit brought a new kind of music to the charts

  • Monday, 28 September, 2020
    Music
    Also sprach Zarathustra — a fanfare that has echoed down the years

    Kubrick and Copland are among those who have felt the force of Richard Strauss’s piece

  • Monday, 21 September, 2020
    Music
    Ol’ Man River — a powerful indictment of black oppression

    Paul Robeson sang the definitive version of this beautiful, rousing tune

  • Monday, 14 September, 2020
    Music
    Red Right Hand — Nick Cave’s song packs a powerful punch

    The story of a devilish figure has been widely covered and had a rich afterlife on TV soundtracks

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