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 […]

In Ronnie Spector’s 1990 book Be My Baby, there’s an interesting chapter about her singing voice among the jaw-dropping allegations of brutal torture. She claims she was intimidated by the other female vocalists in Phil Spector’s stable: she didn’t have Darlene Love’s or Fanita James’s huge, gospel-trained voices. The producer, on the other hand, had […]

If Chan Marshall’s 11th album included all of Cat Power’s songs in their original form, it would be a fantastic playlist. It would be genre-spanning, taking in everything from forgotten classics (country superstar Kitty Wells’ It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels) to beloved classics (Nico’s These Days), from obscure numbers by obscure artists […]

Jana Horn had no idea what her song Jordan was about when she penned it. She’d been brooding over two chords for two days at her brother’s place after a breakup when a lyric occurred to her: “They called me to Jordan.” She followed the trail of the thread. “I had no idea what I […]

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 […]

Billie Eilish’s existence in 2021 may be summarized by the fact that she awoke one morning last month, turned over to check her phone, and discovered she’d received seven Grammy nominations. She’d slept through the official announcement. “I stayed up late last night watching Fleabag. Again!” We’re talking over Zoom from her Los Angeles home. […]