FT music critics and contributors discussed the story of a song, from its origins and early recordings through cover versions good and bad.
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Kate Bush retreated to a farmhouse to craft her richly layered song of love and inse…
Before Julie Andrews' famous film performance, John Coltrane had turned this Broadwa…
Rising above personal tragedy, Edith Piaf wrote a defining classic for post war Fran…
It took Wilbert Harrison a long time to get traction with his ode to fidelity, but i…
Bob Dylan’s cryptic number is one of the signature songs of the 1960s, signalling a …
The grand hymn of redemption took a long path to its current stature in American spi…
Sam Cooke's political lament, released after his untimely death, went on to become a…
What drew jazz musicians like Miles Davis and Chet Baker to a twinkly tune from Disn…
Bobbie Gentry's understated ballad was reworked by jazz musicians, the 'rebel-countr…
Written for The Shirelles in 1960, Carole King and Gerry Goffin's song nailed the in…
Jimmy Webb's mournful ballad became one of the most-covered songs of the 20th centur…
Before becoming one of the most sampled tunes in music history, "Apache" was an unex…
How is music streaming changing the experience of listeners?
"I Feel Love" by Donna Summer changed the future of music, paving the way for today'…
Written in a log cabin when Bon Iver had all but given up, "Skinny Love" was an unli…
Ben Lerner is one of the most highly praised and unconventional writers of his gener…
Miles Davis' "So What" is one of the most famous compositions in jazz.
Is the abundance of information in the age of Google and Facebook storing up problem…
"Every Rose Has Its Thorn" by Poison's Bret Michaels was the last popular flourish o…
Before "Everything I Own" became a reggae classic, it was an ode to paternal love by…
The coolification of Phil Collins is among pop's most curious turnarounds.
Tim Buckley's ode to doomed love has exerted a siren-like attraction for artists inc…
Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" has been used in the campaigns of George HW…
Jethro Tull's prog rock hit rejected the hippy idealism of Swinging London.
David Cheal discovers how this hymn to friendship eventually came to divide its crea…
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