“Wolf Like Me” summons and celebrates the awesome power of transformation, launching the shapeshifting avant-pop outfit TV on the Radio to new critical and commercial renown. KSID::40xak52013202
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
‘Tell Me Something Good’ reverses Rufus’ fortunes, and makes Chaka Khan a star
When Stevie Wonder gives you a song, you humbly accept it, thankful for the legendary musician’s interest in your band. Unless, that is, you’re 20-year-old Chaka Khan. “You got anything else?” the Rufus frontwoman asked Wonder after his first offering failed to impress. KSID::F143e24U2
3 Doors Down’s ‘Kryptonite’ breathes the post-grunge era’s last gasp
The saga of 3 Doors Down’s “Kryptonite” splits cleanly — and, at the same time, very messily — into two halves: before Jan. 19, 2017, and after Jan. 19, 2017.
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 — […]
Solve the ‘Love Rollercoaster’ murder mystery that will not die
“Love Rollercoaster” is an absolutely fantastic title for a funk record. It promises dizzying peaks and valleys, heart-stopping twists and death-defying turns — in short, the ride of your life — and its playfulness and pizzazz no doubt helped the Ohio Players rumble all the way to the top of the charts in early 1976. […]
When America got hooked on Robert Palmer’s ‘Addicted to Love’
The first thing you think of is the video. That’s okay: everybody thinks of the video first. “Addicted to Love” has been viewed, referenced and imitated so many times that it’s familiar even to people who never had MTV — who weren’t even alive the last time the network played music videos. It represents Reagan-era […]
How Smash Mouth’s ‘All Star’ became the holy text of meme culture
KORD is designed to help you engage with the history of a song’s creation, and yet the creation of Smash Mouth’s “All Star” — a song that has come to define the late-Nineties’ quagmire of commercially-successful alternative rock — might be the least interesting thing about it. After songwriter Greg Camp begrudgingly composed “All Star” […]