The King Cole Trio issued their second 78rpm single of the year in late March 1948. The three, who were already well-known for crossover pop hits like (I Love You) for Sentimental Reasons, decided to try something new for their upcoming album. Nature Boy, which was originally buried on a B-side, was unlike anything else […]

Melanie vividly recalls the day she busked in London. It was 1983, and the performance she was supposed to perform had been canceled owing to low ticket sales. So she was dining with friends, sipping Pimm’s, when she got a phone from someone informing her that admirers had gathered outside the Royal Albert Hall. “I […]

Mick Rock, a music photographer who died last week at the age of 72, famously remarked that he was “in the business of evoking the aura” of the people he photographed. It was his great fortune to be working at a period when the androgynous otherness radiating from rock stars like David Bowie, Lou Reed, […]