The ’80s were a weird time for patriotic pop, protest songs and nuanced commentary on America that fell somewhere between pop and protest. The decade
Category: History
You’d expect the first song written for any Van Halen album to be a blazing rocker. Not so with 1988’s OU812. In his 2011 memoir
The Rolling Stones have been certified hitmakers and superstars for more than half a century, but singer Mick Jagger enjoyed a pop-cultural resurgence when Maroon 5 invoked him
Joni Mitchell held nothing back on her classic 1971 album Blue. From personal relationships to her own insecurities, every aspect of the singer-songwriter’s life was
By the time producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange signed up to work with Mick Jones on Foreigner’s fourth album 4, his reputation preceded him. Lange’s
As most songwriters can attest, there often comes a point in the writing process where something stalls. In 1970, Chicago’s Robert Lamm, one of the
It wasn’t unreasonable to wonder how Bonnie Raitt could follow up her long-awaited breakthrough on 1989’s Nick of Time. Even Bonnie Raitt wondered. So, rather
The Beatles and Frank Sinatra were from disparate universes: The Beatles sang “A Day in a Life”; Sinatra sang “That’s Life.” The Fab Four floated
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “A Woman in Love (It’s Not Me)” was released as the second single from Hard Promises in June 1981. With its soft
On March 26, 2004, Van Halen announced they would be heading on tour that summer and erstwhile singer Sammy Hagar was back in the fold, eight years