Memory Lane Music

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

Every great career has a day that divides the before from the after, and for Aretha Franklin that day was 24 January 1967, in a small studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. She arrived there as a gifted singer with a decade of work behind her and no breakthrough to show for it. She left the … Read more

Every great soul career has a first chapter that does not sound like the rest of it. For Al Green, that chapter is a small, scrappy, almost accidental hit called “Back Up Train,” released in 1967 under a name that was not quite his own — Al Greene and the Soul Mates — on a … Read more

Listen: Bonnie Tyler – More Than a Lover on YouTube Before the power ballads and the widescreen productions, there was a young Welsh singer with a voice that already sounded lived-in. “More Than a Lover,” from Bonnie Tyler’s 1977 debut album, shows that voice in its early, direct form: no spectacle, just a song about … Read more

Harrison’s 1973 album pairs spiritual reflection with sharp observation of fame, money and the music business, without losing its melodic warmth. Put the record on, or find the song on a playlist, and give it one uninterrupted listen before reading further. The first hearing is the one that matters most, because it tells you what … Read more