James Burton is the quintessential sideman. The virtuoso electric guitarist’s legacy spans more than half a century, and encompasses stints behind many of the most celebrated artists of the rock and roll era, including Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson, Merle Haggard, Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris. While Burton spent the vast majority of his career 20 […]
Jason Ankeny
Eddie Kendricks’ ‘Keep on Truckin’ drives disco to the promised land
Three years after his acrimonious exit from the Temptations, Eddie Kendricks broke through as a solo artist with 1973’s infectiously funky “Keep On Truckin’,” arguably the first disco record ever to reach number one on the Billboard pop chart. KSID::Z195a1E5a19Y3
How George Thorogood’s ‘Bad to the Bone’ became cultural shorthand
“Bad to the Bone” is the b-b-b-b-best thing ever to happen to movie trailers. George Thorogood and the Destroyers’ snarling, stuttering blues-rock anthem failed to reach the Top 40 during its original 1982 release, but the song is now permanently ensconced in America’s collective consciousness thanks to decades of use and abuse in Hollywood features, […]
‘You’ve Made Me So Very Happy’ ends Brenda Holloway’s unhappy Motown tenure
Brenda Holloway deserved so much better. She had all the makings of a superstar, but her tumultuous tenure with Motown Records yielded only a handful of Top 40 hits, including her swan song for the label, the pop standard “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy.” KSID::F435a43463048H8
Dobie Gray’s ‘Drift Away’ frees your soul
No song captures and communicates the healing power of popular music more eloquently than “Drift Away.” Dobie Gray’s country-soul reverie celebrates pop’s extraordinary capacity to soothe the mind, body and spirit — to liberate listeners from the stress and strain of their everyday lives, and transport them to a dimension reality cannot reach. KSID::204d04321P45l […]
Eddie Kendricks’ falsetto elevates the Temptations’ ‘Just My Imagination’
The otherworldly “Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)” brings full circle Eddie Kendricks’ career with the Temptations, concluding a remarkable 11-year run that made him, in the words of Motown Records historian Brian Chin, “a star among equals in one of the greatest vocal assemblages in American music history.”
‘Words’ and pictures come together to rocket Missing Persons to fame
Gail Zappa’s voice is the first thing Dale Bozzio remembers after regaining consciousness. “Moon’s playing the harp,” Zappa told her. “We tried to wake you up. And I made you some spaghetti. Why did you fall out of a fucking window?” KSID::Z395a3I920418M
How a toxic relationship inspired Poison’s ‘Every Rose Has Its Thorn’
“Every Rose Has Its Thorn” is the biggest and brawniest of the hair-metal power ballads, that short-lived species of dinosaur lumbering across the pop music landscape of the late 1980s — a Tyrannosaurus rex in spandex and eyeliner. KSID::Z395a3I92042B7
How a Motown superfan launched the Miracles’ ‘Tears of a Clown’ to number one
Smokey Robinson was on the brink. After 15 years fronting the Miracles, one of the first and most formidable acts signed to Motown Records, he was poised to leave the group. But those plans abruptly changed with the fluke success of 1970’s “The Tears of a Clown,” the Miracles’ first-ever number one pop single — […]
Bobby Brown does it his way on the classic ‘My Prerogative’
“My Prerogative” is a radical act of defiance broadcast across the nation’s commercial airwaves from the summit of the Billboard pop chart. Bobby Brown’s swaggering, galvanizing declaration of independence — from his former group New Edition, but also from the shackles of public opinion — remains one of the most consequential R&B hits of the […]
