Memory Lane Music

There is a story about Dolly Parton that gets told at dinner parties, in trivia rounds, and in the introductions to concert programmes, and it is told because it sounds too neat to be true. In a single day, the story goes, Parton wrote two of the most famous songs of the twentieth century: one … Read more

Everybody knows the record that came out of this story: the bass line that walks in first, low and confident, before the voice arrives on top of it; the bright, strutting song about a romance turned upside down; and the fanfare announcing a second song about coming out, stepping forward, being seen. Those two songs … Read more

When Cyndi Lauper broke through in late 1983, she arrived sounding as if she had never doubted herself for a second. The voice was huge, funny, furious and tender in the same breath, and the image — the colours, the thrift-shop clothes, the Queens accent worn like a badge — looked like the invention of … Read more

Most star stories begin with a discovery. A scout in a club, a producer in a studio, a talent show, a chance meeting that changes everything in a single night. The story of how Chaka Khan came to front Rufus does not quite fit that shape, and that is why it is worth telling on … Read more

In the autumn of 1975 Bruce Springsteen was, by every outward measure, the most talked-about new rock star in America. His third album, Born to Run, had been released on 25 August 1975, and on 27 October 1975 he appeared on the covers of Time and Newsweek in the same week. The E Street Band … Read more

Everybody knows the rasp. It is the first thing people mention about Bonnie Tyler: a voice that sounds as if it has lived a little, gravelled at the edges, a voice that could carry a power ballad over an orchestra and still sound like a person singing in a room. What almost nobody tells first … Read more

Everybody knows the voice that opens “Night Moves”, the sound of a man looking back at his youth from the far side of it, and everybody knows the band that carried it: Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, live at Cobo Hall, a Michigan institution finally recognised by the rest of America. What almost … Read more

In the summer of 1984, a British singer in his mid-thirties released a record that should have worked. It was sleek, danceable, modern without being cold, and sung by a man with one of the warmest voices in pop. It had a strong chorus, a saxophone solo that lifted the whole track, and a production … Read more

There is a photograph that stops even lifelong Billy Joel fans in their tracks. Two young men stand among hanging slabs of meat in a cold storage room, dressed in fur, armour and chainmail, glaring at the camera as if they have just ridden in from a battlefield. One of them is Billy Joel. It … Read more

Everybody knows the voice. It is the first thing people mention about Barry White: a bass so deep it seemed to come from somewhere below the floor, a voice that could make a spoken introduction sound like a promise. What almost nobody tells first is how long that voice waited. Before the orchestra, before the … Read more