Do you remember the happiest songs on the radio in 1977? Two of them came from the same album, and they could hardly have been more different in subject — yet they shared the same feeling, a kind of pure, overflowing joy that made listeners smile before they even knew the words. One was a … Read more
Do you remember the first time you heard a child sing with the soul of a grown man? In the early 1960s, American radio had such a wonder. He was small, full of energy, and he played harmonica like a seasoned bluesman while singing with a voice far beyond his years. His name, as the … Read more
Do you remember the summer of 1973, when the radio seemed to be playing songs that made you think as well as dance? One album above all others captured that mood. It was only nine songs long, but it felt like a whole world: songs about city streets and country dreams, about faith and temptation, … Read more
Do you remember waiting for a record that seemed to take forever to arrive? In the mid-1970s, Stevie Wonder’s fans knew that feeling well. His previous albums had set an almost impossible standard, and word spread that his next record would be something bigger: a double album, years in the making, that would sum up … Read more
Do you remember the first time that riff came out of a radio and stopped you in your tracks? It was not a guitar. It was not a horn section. It was something sharper and funkier, a keyboard sound that seemed to strut across the room, followed by a drumbeat that made it impossible to … Read more
Do you remember the first time you saw a small black-and-white sticker on a record cover and wondered what it meant? It was the mid-1980s, and record stores were changing. Albums that teenagers had bought without a second thought suddenly carried a warning label, and parents and young listeners found themselves on opposite sides of … Read more
Close your eyes and imagine a city in winter. Snow on the sidewalks, cold air off the Mississippi, and inside a downtown club, a band playing music that sounds like summer in another country: drum machines snapping, synthesizers glittering, a guitar cutting through the beat like a knife. That contradiction — a cold Midwestern city … Read more
Do you remember the winter of 1982, when a new record arrived with a strange invitation: a party, but a party with an ending in sight? You might have heard it first at a friend’s house, on a stereo turned up too loud, or in a record store where the clerk had put the new … Read more
Do you remember the first time you heard it on the radio and something felt wrong — in the best possible way? It was the summer of 1984, and the song coming out of the car speakers sounded almost empty. There was a beat, there were keyboards, there was a voice, but the bottom of … Read more
Do you remember the summer of 1984, when the record store seemed to have only one colour in the window? You would walk past the displays on a Saturday afternoon, and there it was again: a purple cover, a motorcycle, a young man in a ruffled shirt staring back at you. On the radio, in … Read more