“Sex and Candy” is a cipher wrapped in an enigma, smothered in secret sauce. It’s Marcy Playground’s first, last and only Billboard Hot 100 hit, spending a record-setting 15 weeks atop the industry trade publication’s Modern Rock Songs chart, yet despite the 1997 single’s cultural ubiquity, it is so opaque — so maddeningly inscrutable — […]
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.38 Special shoots for pop immortality with ‘Hold On Loosely’ and ‘Caught Up in You’
Jim Peterik owned rock radio in the summer of 1982. At the same time the Survivor founder co-wrote the group’s worldwide number one “Eye of the Tiger,” the theme song from the blockbuster Rocky III, he also teamed with .38 Special guitarists Don Barnes and Jeff Carlisi to author a series of hits including “Hold […]
Billy Squier riffs on rock stardom with ‘Everybody Wants You’
Billy Squier’s second solo album, Don’t Say No, made him a superstar. His fourth LP, Signs of Life, made him a laughing stock. Then there’s the album Squier made in between them, Emotions in Motion. It boasts cover art by no less than Andy Warhol and features a cameo appearance by none other than Queen’s […]
Red Rider plunges into the heart of darkness with ‘Lunatic Fringe’
Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat celebrated for saving thousands of lives during World War II, may seem like an unlikely source of inspiration for a classic rock mainstay, but the hit song Wallenberg sparked, Red Rider’s “Lunatic Fringe,” remains as earnestly powerful — and as sadly topical — as it did back in 1981. KSID::F32S03I520341L
Breaking down Sheryl Crow’s breakout song
This week we explore the instrumental tracks of Sheryl Crow’s 1993 chart-topping global smash “All I Wanna Do.” As always, you can hear the song and each of its stems here in KORD; sit back for a top-to-bottom analysis.
The session musicians who elevated ‘American Pie’
There are hidden gems just waiting to be discovered inside this folk anthem. KSID::P3R204123403J47
Gossip grinds Marvin Gaye to dust in ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’
When music critic Dave Marsh published his book The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made in 1989, he declared “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” the greatest single of them all — and as the years go by, the selection seems more and more unassailable. Marvin Gaye’s searing account of […]
The Wallflowers navigate a path to pop stardom with ‘One Headlight’
Say this much for Jakob Dylan: the guy’s got balls. It’s one thing to pursue a career in music, a profession with a 90 percent failure rate; it’s another thing when your father is Bob Dylan, whose musical career is the gold standard by which all others are judged. And it’s another thing altogether to […]
The DNA of Blind Melon’s signature smash
One-hit wonder, or song of the summer? Either way, Blind Melon’s “No Rain” rose to the top of the U.S. rock charts on its way to going multi-platinum.
Homer Simpson’s favorite band?
Homer Simpson loves donuts, beer, and Grand Funk Railroad. America’s favorite cartoon dad famously declared his affection for the hard rock group in 1996’s “Homerpalooza,” the penultimate episode of the seventh season of The Simpsons, highlighting among Grand Funk’s virtues “the wild shirtless lyrics of Mark Farner, the bong-rattling bass of Mel Schacher and the […]
