The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ 1997 hit “The Impression That I Get” remains one of the signature records to emerge from ska-punk’s brief commercial heyday. KSID::203d03243P328B
How Thelma Houston’s ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’ became a cultural touchstone
“Don’t Leave Me This Way” may well be the greatest disco song ever recorded. Thelma Houston’s signature hit topped the U.S. charts in 1977, landed in the Top Ten in more than a dozen other countries, and earned the first Grammy ever awarded to a solo female Motown Records artist. The track also has all […]
The Jackson 5 ditch the kid stuff for ‘Never Can Say Goodbye’
“Never Can Say Goodbye” reveals the true scope of the Jackson 5’s preternatural talent, highlighted by 11-year-old Michael Jackson’s most mature and nuanced performance to date. KSID::30308F364A035916
Live’s ‘Lightning Crashes’ traces the circle of life
Live scored its biggest hit with “Lightning Crashes,” a heartfelt if overwrought meditation on the circle of life. KSID::201d0lN0p22
Owl City’s ‘Fireflies’ illuminates post-millennium pop radio
“Fireflies” ascended from the restless mind of Owl City’s Adam Young to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 2009. KSID::g05a323Y030506
Pop Smoke’s ‘Welcome to the Party’ welcomes Brooklyn drill to the pop mainstream
Pop Smoke’s unflinching breakout hit “Welcome to the Party” rocketed drill music into the pop mainstream, elevating the Brooklyn-born rapper to Billboard chart success less than a year before his untimely death at the age of 20. KSID::50z50126b13252
Rockwell records the Eighties’ most paranoid hit with ‘Somebody’s Watching Me’
“Somebody’s Watching Me” is NOT a Michael Jackson song. Michael Jackson’s voice is the most interesting thing about it, but the single is by a completely different artist: a guy named Rockwell. It’s important to keep this in mind, despite what your ears tell you every time you hear “Somebody’s Watching Me.” The history of […]
Mdou Moctar pledges his love on ‘Tala Tannam’
You don’t need to speak a word of the Tamasheq language to understand what “Tala Tannam” says or which emotions it stirs. Mdou Moctar’s luminous, lyrical love song pledges his eternal devotion to wife Layla, connecting the couple across space and time the way that only music can do. KSID::Z4Ui3946056439
Ike and Tina Turner’s ‘Proud Mary’ rolls on through triumph and tragedy
“Proud Mary” tells the tale of a nonconformist taking control of their life by ditching the shackles of working-class reality for the freedom of a rolling riverboat. But when the Ike and Tina Turner Revue set the U.S.A. ablaze by recasting Creedence Clearwater Revival’s mid-tempo strut as a rollicking boogie, Tina was trapped inside a […]
How ‘Closing Time’ came pouring out of Semisonic
If you hear “Closing Time” anywhere today other than in KORD, it means you’ve stayed out much too late, and now it’s time to go home — or wherever else you’re planning on sleeping instead. Semisonic’s signature hit is the last-call anthem of bartenders everywhere, the barroom ballad to end all barroom ballads, and with […]
