What sort of qualities must a song have for both Nick Cave and Boney M to cover it? What those two acts have in common is a fascination with piety, and a fondness for playing up a track’s seriousness so that it totters into kitsch*. “The […]

Jon Kutner’s 1000 Number Ones tells a story about “Get Off Of My Cloud”. The song was played on Juke Box Jury, and host David Jacobs complained that he couldn’t hear the words properly. Told of this, Keith Richards remarked th[…]

Phil Spector’s great insight was that the massive orchestrations of early 50s pop would compliment the teenage agonies of late 50s pop. Like most really good ideas it proved infectious, and so it was that a new hearthrob group like the Walker B[…]

That riff – we have to start with that riff – sounds like Morse code. A harsh nonsense message, transmitted on a loop. Too much information, too much communication. Ten thousand whisperin’, nobody listenin’. “Satisfactio[…]

Devotees of the authentic might expect a love duet between real lovers to be particularly intense, or sincere, or believable. They are no doubt disappointed by “I Got You Babe”, where both singers sound like they’re in a radio play […]

Such a strange way to begin a song: “so much younger than today” – nostalgia? regret? at their age? at this of all points, with medals round their necks, with the pop future they helped create expanding by the week? But there it is […]

The impact of Bob Dylan as lyricist isn’t so much in the idea that pop could be ‘poetry’ but in the idea that it could be a riddle-game. (Of course the difference between these two ideas is mostly one of emphasis: that’s why w[…]

Solid beat-groups-to-order record which I’d guess lands unerringly in the “had to be there” box. If this hit you at a certain age or in the right situation then maybe something would spark – but what pop song can’t you s[…]

A curious fake-out – this is not a song about grief, so why stress the “crying”? And who sees Elvis crying there? The presence of a “you” changes the song from a sermon into a conversation, a private attempt at conversio[…]

Whether it’s the slight haughtiness in her voice or the sediment of my teenage Morrissey crush I’m not sure, but I’m casting around for reasons to like Sandie Shaw and this awkwardly jolly little song isn’t offering many. The […]