The sliver of feedback that opens “I Feel Fine” has become one of pop’s great use-other-facts-please. It’s historically interesting, it’s a strong gimmick, but it has very little to do with the rest of the record, which […]

I’m a bit slow tonight. I just typed something about Mick Jagger’s cock, and then looked at the name of the song, and – ohhhhh, right. Now I get it.
Sung, as opposed to written, it is a more discreet metaphor at least. And Jagger&#8[…]

At the start of this record – though maybe it was mixed in years later – there’s a lovely bit of stereo panning where a troupe of polite feet tap across your head from right to left and then quickly back. What images does it summon?[…]

Something in Sandie Shaw’s voice reminds me of Helen Shapiro, but whether it’s the vastly improved material, or the changed times, or those few crucial extra years on her, Sandie sounds impressive where Helen sounded precocious. There&#82[…]

The song where doughy, doleful Roy Orbison finally gets the girl – of course we’re on his side from the start, and Orbison plays on his persona and our sympathies with a wonderful piece of three-minute theatre. From the opening, stutterin[…]

Sunshine pop from Goffin and King – and whether their pen-portrait of dating etiquette seemed quaint at the time or not, Peter Noone sings it with a perfect innocence. Hands clap, the backbeat rolls gently along, the Beach Boys harmonies comple[…]

The sound of the atom splitting. Break open the basic unit of pop music, the hook, and we discover a mess of gimmickry, noises and ideas so primeval you can often barely describe them, let alone hum one. Find one strong enough and you can top the cha[…]

In which, if you like, post-punk gets invented eleven years (or maybe two weeks) before punk. Which is to say, when I listen to the instrumental break on this record, bright guitar and sharp keyboard slicing tuneless chunks out of each other, it&#821[…]

There’s so much happening in pop at this point that some records end up nudging into the canon almost by accident – they were just in the right place at the right time and got caught up in the general magic of things. “Do Wah Diddy […]

The Beatles at a peak of high-energy Fabness, “A Hard Day’s Night” is crammed with hooks and ideas – they don’t all neccessarily fit, but the record’s so irrepressible it’s hard to care. The opening chord mak[…]