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I Write The Songs: The Brightest Minds Behind The Biggest Hits
Songs can come from anywhere. The distinguished English lawyer Fred Weatherly wrote an estimated 3,000 lyrics during a colorful life. An acquaintance of Charles Dickens and William Gladstone, Weatherly...
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The Raucous World Of Rock’n’Roll Movies
Musicians have been playing versions of themselves on film since the early talkies, and cinema’s long history of rock’n’roll movies ranges across studio features (including all those Elvis Presley...
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The Weekend Starts Here: 1965 TV Debut Spells Ready Steady Who!
“The weekend starts here.” That’s what they used to say on the UK’s celebrated TV music show of the 1960s, Ready Steady Go!, and it was never more true than on the Fridat night of January 29, 1965,...
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Grand Designs: What Makes Epic Music?
Many records are ephemeral – a collection of songs to make us dance, smile or cry – but sometimes you truly bond with a special album, one where you are moved by the triumph of ambition and vision of...
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The 90s: The Decade That Doesn’t Fit?
In A Hard Day’s Night, the exceptional madcap 1964 film 1964 starring The Beatles, a reporter asks Ringo Starr, “Are you a mod or a rocker?” She’s referring to the long-warring British musical...
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‘Pinball Wizard’: The Magic Moment Behind The Who’s ‘Tommy’
“Pinball Wizard” is one of those very special pieces of music: a great rock song, but at the same time a classic pop song, and yet it was not as big a hit as perhaps we all remember, such is its...
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Best Guitarists Of All Time: 75 Legendary Musicians
The guitar is the very backbone of rock – not to mention blues and country music – and the world is a better place to live in thanks to all the six-string geniuses that have come along. The best...
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‘Live At Leeds’: The Who Create A Live Classic On Campus
Rock history took place on an English university campus on February 14, 1970. By the end of the 1960s, there was no doubting The Who’s reputation as one of the greatest live rock bands in the world....
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‘I Can Hear Music’: Beach Boys Head To UK Top Ten With Ronettes Tribute
In terms of their UK audience, the Beach Boys’ 20/20 album was the gift that kept on giving. Released in early 1969, it had been introduced the previous summer by “Do It Again,” which married modern...
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Best Roger Daltrey Songs: 20 Career-Defining Cuts From The Pinball Wizard
In May 1971, The Who were in London’s Olympic Studios recording “Join Together,” which came out a year later as a single in both the UK and America. Pete Townshend’s lyrics include the line, “It’s the...
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Mad Dog On The Road: The Who’s John Entwistle, Solo In 1975
Which member of The Who do you think was the first to go on the road in a solo capacity? The answer may surprise you. It was John Entwistle, who was busy working theaters, halls and arenas across North...
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The Greatest Debut 45 Records In History
The medium may change from analog to digital, but there’s always something magical about a great single, a record that can change your life in four minutes or less, and there’s a special knack to...
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The Ealing Club, The Rolling Stones, And The Birth Of British Rock
A humble west-London basement next to a long-lost ABC bakery is an unlikely place to find one of the most significant venues in music history. Yet the Ealing Club, an overlooked historic venue – at 42A...
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‘Pinball Wizard’: Elton John Sure Played A Mean Cover Of The Who
Some rock standards should never be remade, but others lend themselves brilliantly to another distinctive treatment. So it was when Elton John was persuaded by director Ken Russell, after his initial...
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Cream and The Who Make Their Live Debut In America
When both The Who and Cream made their live debut in America, it could hardly have been any less auspicious. It happened for both of them on March 25, 1967, at the RKO Keith Theater on 58th and 3rd Ave...
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Pete Townshend Preps Half Speed Masters For Two Classic Albums
Pete Townshend is gearing up to release the second in a series of half speed mastered studio albums, All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes and White City (A Novel). Both reissues will arrive on May...
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‘Face Dances’: The Who Deal With Life After Keith Moon
The death of Keith Moon, just after the release of the 1978 album Who Are You, threatened the very future of The Who. But it didn’t take long for Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, and John Entwistle to...
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‘How’s Tricks’: ‘Punch And Drive’ From The Jack Bruce Band
The solo career of Jack Bruce contains many a hidden gem, and there are plenty on an album that was showing its face on the US album chart in May 1977. How’s Tricks was a record that also had...
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The Who’s Best Songs: 20 Rock’n’Roll Essentials
The Who has an almost peerless discography. Theirs was a fast evolution, moving from the swinging mod anthem “Zoot Suit” (released under their original name The High Numbers) to the heady psychedelia...
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‘Happy Jack’: The Who Make Their American Album Chart Debut
The American market wasn’t fully ready for The Who when they made their album debut with My Generation at the end of 1965. Second time around, they cracked it, and won their first appearance on the US...
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