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How Three Dog Night’s Cover of “Black and White” Helped Bring Reggae to the U.S.
Not long before Bob Marley and the Wailers charted for the first time in the U.S. with their 1973 album Catch a Fire, reggae was starting to make some inroads on U.S. pop radio. Even in the early...
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The Story Behind Alabama Football’s Anthem, “Dixieland Delight”
Everyone knows SEC football and country music go together like fine wine and stinky cheese. However, it’s unclear exactly how that came to be. Yes, there are a plethora of cultural attributes pointing...
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The Beatles’ Song Paul McCartney Couldn’t Remember Writing (But He Probably Did)
When you write as many songs as Paul McCartney has, it’s understandable if you might have forgotten a few of them. It’s even more understandable if they’re Beatles’ songs, since he was often...
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Remember When: David Lee Roth and Steve Vai Wrote a Tribute to the Statue of...
By 1985, David Lee Roth released his debut solo EP Crazy from the Heat months before leaving Van Halen and had his first hits with his cover of “Just a Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody,” first made famous by...
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The 19th Century Poem That Prompted Stevie Nicks to Write “Annabel Lee” at...
On October 9, 1849, just two days after Edgar Allan Poe died, the final poem he wrote before his death was released. “Annabel Lee” told the story of a young love cut short. In their youth (I was a...
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Behind the Meaning of Reba McEntire’s New Theme Song, “Happy’s Place”
Reba McEntire is gearing up for a new sitcom, Happy’s Place. The show sees the main character (McEntire) take over her father’s bar in the wake of his death. After learning that he had another family,...
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The Story Behind “Wordy Rappinghood,” the First Song Ever Recorded by Tom Tom...
Talking Heads were one of the most influential rock bands of the late 1970s and early ‘80s, so it shouldn’t have been surprising that a spinoff project would have achieved some commercial success. At...
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The Story and Meaning Behind “Come Sail Away,” Styx’s Shape-Shifter of a Hit...
There’s a wonderful scene at the end of the very first episode of the cult TV series Freaks and Geeks where a wallflower of a kid gets a chance to slow dance with his crush. But then the song kicks...
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The Story and Meaning Behind “Undercover of the Night,” The Rolling Stones’...
There have been a lot of them released over 60 years or so of the band’s existence, so it’s understandable if some of The Rolling Stones‘ singles, even ones that were hits at the time, don’t get...
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The Story and Meaning Behind “It’s Not Unusual,” the Mammoth Hit that...
Now about 60 years long, Tom Jones‘ career thankfully shows no signs of slowing down. He’s still touring, recording, and appearing on television with regularity. It’s fair to wonder how that career...
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The Story and Meaning Behind “Hold Me Now,” Thompson Twins’ Attempt at Making...
When most couples have a disagreement, they go to neutral corners and cool down before coming back together again. The couple at the heart of Thompson Twins decided to dissect their most recent...
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Yacht Rock Essentials: Firefall’s Flute-Filled Signature Song “You Are the...
It’s a tale as old as time, or at least as old as the Billboard charts. A band changes up their hard-rocking approach with a love song that goes down smooth with the masses. That’s how it happened for...
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The Unusual Origins of The Offspring’s Explosive Breakthrough Hit “Come Out...
On the surface, The Offspring’s first hit “Come Out and Play” seems like a pretty straightforward song. It’s an account of a high school riddled by gang violence set against an aggressive, punky...
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Post-Millennial Classic: “One for the Cutters,” The Hold Steady’s Harrowing...
The Hold Steady gained a lot of mileage with songs about characters who spent their youths living for the good times without worrying about the consequences. On “One for the Cutters,” a stunning track...
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The Story Behind the Song Vince Gill Struggled to Sing at George Jones’...
After the death of country star Keith Whitley in 1989 at the age of 34, Vince Gill started writing a song in memoriam. Gill returned to “Go Rest High on That Mountain” and finished it four years later...
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Behind the Song: How Billie Eilish Impressed Her Mom on “Birds of a Feather”
Billie Eilish debuted “Birds of a Feather” in the Season 3 trailer for the Netflix series Heartstopper. It’s a British coming-of-age rom-com about a gay student who’s smitten with his classmate. Eilish...
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Behind the Meaning of Lainey Wilson’s “Ring Finger”
Lainey Wilson has many songs that feature a well-told and relatable storyline, but few are as cathartic as “Ring Finger.” Though we might not all have the gumption to up and leave when someone does us...
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The Everly Brothers Were Once Banned on Boston Radio for This “Controversial”...
Although it’s hard to imagine the pop duo behind hits like “All I Have to Do Is Dream” and “Walk Right Back” would ever be controversial enough to get banned from the radio, that’s precisely what...
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David Crosby Wrote This CSNY Classic in Prison, Called It Best Song He Wrote...
In the early 1980s, folk rock icon David Crosby found the silver lining of his five-month prison stay in the form of a new life and one of the best songs he’s ever written. His sentence came after...
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The 1977 ‘CSN’ Hit Graham Nash Wrote After a $500 Bet With a Drug Dealer
While heading home to Los Angeles from Maui in 1976, Graham Nash had some time to kill before a flight back, sat at the piano, and wrote a song after someone bet him he couldn’t. Nash met the dare by...
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