Marvin Gaye’s divorce settlement required him to make two new albums and pay the royalties to his ex-wife – the sister of Motown boss Berry Gordy. It’s one of the weirdest Motown records ever. Phil Spector builds his Wall of Sound as his teen protégée (and future wife) Ronnie Spector belts “Be My Baby” and “Walking in the Rain,” while songs like “I Wonder” and “Baby, I Love You” ache with hope for a perfect love that always seems to be impossibly ideal and just within arm’s reach. More a Spanish Harlem street gang than a girl group, the Ronettes were pop goddesses dressed as Catholic schoolgirls gone to hell and back. II includes two mammoth hits, courtesy of Babyface: “I’ll Make Love to You” and the audaciously baroque “Water Runs Dry.” But the group’s own Nathan Morris and Shawn Stockman composed II‘s most poignant moment, “Khalil’s Interlude,” a soft onslaught that’ll leave you sobbing in the fetal position: “I need shelter from the rain/To ease the pain of changing from boys to men.” With their innocent romanticism and meticulous vocal arrangements, Boyz II Men became the most commercially successful R&B vocal group of all time. To keep up the momentum, Shakira enlisted Emilio Estefan to help produce her next LP, this stellar globetrotting dance-rock set, which blends sounds from Colombia, Mexico, and her father’s native Lebanon. Long before she went blond and took her never-lying hips to the top of the American pop charts, Shakira was a raven-haired guitar rocker who’d hit peak superstardom in the Spanish-speaking world with her 1995 LP, Pies Descalzos. With a sweet track by Graceland collaborators Ladysmith Black Mambazo (“Nansi Imali”), its badass joy needed no translation. Full of funky, loping beats and gruff, Howling Wolf-style vocals (most prominently from “goat voiced” star Mahlathini). The greatest album ever to be marketed under the heading “world music,” this 1985 compilation of South African pop was a huge influence on Paul Simon’s Graceland that still sounds jarringly fresh today. A droning voice in the wilderness when they appeared in the Seventies, the duo would influence bands from Arcade Fire and the National to Bruce Springsteen, who covered Suicide live in 2016. Late-night listening to “Frankie Teardrop,” a 10-minute-plus tale of a multiple murder, is not recommended. Martin Rev’s low-budget electronics are violent and hypnotic Alan Vega screams as a rhythmic device. These New York synth-punks evoke everything from the Velvet Underground to rockabilly. Khan glided through the head-nodding “Everlasting Love” and the twisty-turny “Better Days,” and fans appreciated the adjustment: Ask Rufus was the group’s first platinum record. But after spending 16 months in the studio working on Ask Rufus, they came out with a record that gave their songs more room to breathe, anticipating the lithe, loose arrangements of Nineties neo-soul. But for all its sad realism, Butler’s is music that still finds solace, and purpose, in communal celebration.įronted by Chaka Khan, one of soul music’s most combustible singers, Rufus built its mid-Seventies sound on heavy-footed, guitar-slathered funk. Built on family ties (leader Win Butler, his wife, Régine Chassagne, his brother Will), the Montreal band made symphonic rock that truly rocked, simultaneously outsize and deeply personal, like the best pop. McCartney and Lennon actually wrote the Stones’ first hit, “I Wanna Be Your Man,” and, four years later, Jagger was in the studio when the Beatles recorded “All You Need Is Love.”Īccording to Rolling Stone magazine, “Jagger was a semi-regular guest of honor at Beatles sessions: He also turned up for the mixing of Revolver and the recording of the orchestral section of ‘A Day in the Life’.Loss, love, forced coming-of-age, and fragile generational hope: Arcade Fire’s debut touched on all these themes as it defined the independent rock of the ‘00s. “I think our net was cast a bit wider than theirs.”īut despite the friendly jibes, this is not the first time the stars have worked together. Stones frontman Mick Jagger responded, saying in another interview “there’s obviously no competition.”Ī year later, in an interview to promote his book “The Lyrics,” McCartney said: “I’m not sure I should say it, but they’re a blues cover band, that’s sort of what the Stones are. In an interview with Howard Stern in 2020, McCartney said simply: “The Beatles were better.” Ringo Starr cancels all North American tour dates after testing positive for Covid again Allan Jung/Telegram & Gazette/USA Today Network The former Beatles member has tested positive twice this month.
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