#musichistory

Music | Music

The Beatles Stormed America in 1964. I Was With Them, Day and Night

A legendary photographer’s diary from the eye of the Beatlemania hurricane.

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Jewish References in Popular Songs

Can you find the connection to Judaism in these popular songs?

Music | Music

Tina Turner's Life in Photos

Known for being a powerhouse on stage, Tina Turner's 50-year career was one of the most prolific in music history. Following her death at age 83 on May 24, take a look back at her life in photos

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10 albums from the 1980s that changed rock history

The '70s might have been when rock came into its own, but the genre underwent a sea change when these albums came out.

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Earliest recording of UK show by The Beatles found

The earliest known full recording of The Beatles playing a live show in the UK has been found almost exactly 60 years after it was made. 

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The Beatles: Abbey Road, throat lozenges, and the frenetic making of Please Please Me

On the 60th anniversary of ‘Please Please Me’, Mark Beaumont takes a deeper look into the 12 hours and £400 spent making the legendary debut that lit the fuse for Beatlemania and ignited rock’n’roll’s second phase

Music | Music

10 albums that ruined artists’ careers

Songs of sinking careers.

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The Beatles’ Rooftop Concert: Behind The Group’s Final Public Performance

In their final public performance, The Beatles made history playing on top of the Apple Studios, becoming the most famous rooftop concert of all time.

Music | Music

How Hamburg changed The Beatles forever

Here, we'll be exploring how The Beatles' trips to Hamburg and their experiences in clubs like The Indra opened up a world of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.

Music | Music News

Different Drum: The Who Stateside Without Keith Moon

On September 10 and 11, 1979, in Passaic, New Jersey, The Who hit the States without Keith Moon, in their first US concerts since his death.

Music | Music

Rarely Seen Photographs of a Very Young David Crosby From the 1960s ~ Vintage Everyday

David Crosby, a folk rock pioneer and one of the founding members of The Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, has died, his family announced Thursday. He was 81.

Music | Music

7 Rock Stars Who Walked Away Too Early—From Bill Wyman to Meg White

The dream of any musician is to be a rockstar. It’s such a dream that the moniker bleeds into other careers. “She’s a rockstar of mathematics,” “He’s a rockstar surgeon” or “Athletes are the new rockstars.&#

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John Lennon's Final Days

Shortly before 11 p.m. on Monday, December 8, 1980, John Lennon was gunned down in front of his New York City apartment building by an obsessed fan. This is the story of the days leading up to that tragedy.

Music | Music

When The Beatles played for just 18 people


Due to a mistake, the Fab Four would play to their smallest crowd ever

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Inside the wild 13-hour recording session that launched The Beatles' career

Exploring how one recording session at EMI Studios in 1963 helped launch The Beatles as they recorded 'Please, Please, Me' tracks such as 'Twist and Shout'.

Music | Music

10 of the Most Influential Grunge Artists of the ‘90s

Bands like Nirvana, Mudhoney, and Pearl Jam helped bring grunge to the mainstream in the '90s and defined the era.

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On this day in history, August 29, 1966, the Beatles played their last live paid concert

The Beatles, otherwise known as The Fab Four, came together for their final live paid performance on August 29, 1966, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on this day in history.

Music | Music

Meet the American who invented the electric guitar and inspired rock 'n' roll

Adolph Rickenbacker, who immigrated to the U.S. from Switzerland as a child, invented the electric guitar in the 1930s, the instrument that inspired the rock 'n' roll phenomenon.

Music | Music

The Rolling Stones' 10 most memorable concerts

Join us as we revisit ten of the most iconic, memorable, and occasionally controversial live concerts in The Rolling Stones' explosive career.

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The Beatle Who Got Away

Revisiting Stuart Sutcliffe’s role in the band’s breakthrough.

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Harmony, melancholy and the Everly Brothers’ indelible influence

From Neil Young to Keith Richards, a generation of musicians revered Phil and Don’s haunting music

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How Fleetwood Mac inspired a Led Zeppelin classic

We are dipping into the Far Out vault to look at how Peter Green and Fleetwood Mac inspired jImmy Page's Led Zeppelin to write a classic song

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How a Stint in Hamburg Helped Catapult the Beatles to Super Stardom

A trove of letters and photographs associated with the band's time in Germany is set to go up for auction next month

Music | Music

The remarkable life of Carol Kaye, the most prolific recorded bass guitarist of all time

We're taking a look at the incredible life of Carole Kaye and how, with her immense talent and drive, she became a name worth remembering.

Music | Music

The 13 most underrated songs from 1968

In our 'Unlucky for Some' feature, we're looking at the 13 most underrated songs from 1968. From Randy Newman to Scott Walker, Harumi and Bobbie Gentry.

Music | Music

Amazing Photos of The Beatles Filming the Promotional Clip for “Strawberry Fields Forever” at Knole Park in Kent, 1967

The Beatles produced a promotional film clip for "Strawberry Fields Forever", which served as an early example of what became known as a mus...

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Punk '76 | Full Movie | Flick Vault

A documentary tracing punk from the SEX shop of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood. Featuring contributions from Tony James, Gene October, Jon Savage, Gle...

Music | Music

How much music theory did The Beatles know?

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Music | Music News

Key Man: Laurens Hammond, Inventor Of The Hammond Organ

Laurens Hammond invented a type of 3-D glasses among many other things, but we know him as the creator of the Hammond organ.

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Watch a free 'Minnesota Hardcore' docu-series on Replacements, Husker Du, Soul Asylum & more

There are currently seven episodes out, including an entire episode on Husker Du, and the series wraps up on New Year's Day.

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Paul McCartney on how Elvis Presley inspired The Beatles to quit touring

SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY has shared how Elvis Presley inspired The Beatles to quit touring.

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The 20 best instrumental songs of all time

Great music does not have to be dependent on memorable lyrics. Simply listening to the composition and creativity of an instrumental track can be just as rewarding.

Music | Music

How Elektra Records ushered in the alternative music revolution—and then helped kill it

For this oral history, The A.V. Club spoke to Pete Rock, Metallica, Spoon, They Might Be Giants, and more about Robert “Bob” Krasnow's time at Elektra Records.

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John Lennon Urged Frank Sinatra to Sing 1 of His 'Walls and Bridges' Songs to No Avail

John Lennon thought he had the perfect song for Frank Sinatra on his 5th solo album. Frank didn't take him up on the offer.

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The making of The Beatles: Watch the earliest known footage of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, recorded in 1958

We're stepping back in time with Far Out Magazine's vault to dig out a moment of history after The Beatles were filmed by the Liverpool police force.

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Soul singer Bill Coday had two careers 20 years apart | The Secret History of Chicago Music

His early releases, especially on Denise LaSalle’s Crajon label, have been widely reissued—and his later soul-blues recordings are beloved too.

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The Beatles: Paul McCartney gives explanation on WHY he sued the band

THE BEATLES struggled towards the end of their career, as all four members of the band decided to go their separate ways. While their discrepancies with one another have become well-known, a few issues have not completely been aired out since their split,

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The White Stripes play the shortest ever live show

When The White Stripes played the shortest ever live show in 2007 and led to a bizarre dispute between Jack White and Guinness World Records.

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The story of DICK DALE! | Garage Files Ep. 4

If you've ever entered a tiki bar, watched Pulp Fiction, or ridden the epic Disney rollercoaster Space Mountain before 2006, you have been shook by the music...

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Penny Lane from The Beatles Song “in Danger of Being Renamed” over Possible Slavery Ties

Liverpool street Penny Lane, made famous by The Beatles' song, may have to be renamed if ties to slave trader James Penny are proven.

Music | Music

Who Was ‘She’ In The Zombies Hit, ‘She’s Not There?’

Th Zombies first hit was "She's Not There" in 1964. Keyboardist Rod Argent wrote the song as a teenager in just two weeks.

History | History

How The Surfaris Wrote Wipe Out

The interview was recorded at the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville, TN. Visit us at : https://www.musicianshalloffame.com/ View the whole interview here: ...

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1973: Soul clubs of Memphis and New York

These photographs, taken for The Sunday Times in 1973, are the work of photographer David Reed.

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Ginger Baker: a master and monster who split rock music apart

The drummer fought his bandmates, alienated his children and lived a life of turmoil – but had an utterly new vision for what rock music could be

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How the Beatles Took Recording Technology to a New Level in 'Abbey Road' | Smithsonian

An expert in sound recording details how the band deployed stereo and synthesizers to put a unique artistic stamp on this iconic album

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'This tape rewrites everything we knew about the Beatles'

Mark Lewisohn knows the Fab Four better than they knew themselves. The expert’s tapes of their tense final meetings shed new light on Abbey Road – and inspired a new stage show

Music | Music

Top 50 Best-Selling Artists of All Time | Mental Floss

Who are America’s all-time favorite musicians and bands? When it comes to the best-selling artists of all time, The Beatles still rule—yes, even a half-century after their breakup.

Music | Music

How Stevie Wonder Lost His Sight

Despite being blind since infancy, the “My Cherie Amour” and “Superstition” singer paved a career filled with 25 Grammy awards and social justice work.

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CRITICAL MASS: Gone for 50 years — The Rolling Stones was Brian Jones' band

You might dispute that. You might point out that little Keith Richards and Michael Jagger rode tricycles together until Jagger's family moved the five miles from Dartford to Wilmington, Kent in 1954.

Music | Music

The 35 Best-Selling Albums in American History

Given the tens of millions of copies each of these albums have sold, you're almost guaranteed to have at least one of them in your collection.

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12 Soulful Facts About Aretha Franklin | Mental Floss

The documentary of Queen of Soul's legendary gospel album, 'Amazing Grace,' has finally been released—nearly 50 years after it was recorded.

Music | Music

How we made Booker T and the MGs' Green Onions

‘It was originally called Funky Onions – but to laced-up, deep-south America, that sounded like a cuss word, so we had to retitle it’

Music | Music

A Thousand People In The Street: 'For What It's Worth' Captured Youth In Revolt

Though often associated with the Vietnam War, Buffalo Springfield's signature song was inspired by a confrontation back home, which erupted on a few famous blocks in Los Angeles.

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Rolling Stones' Keith Richards Fends Off Stage Invader with Telecaster in 1981

The Rolling Stones, awhile back, uploaded this video, which you can check out above, to their YouTube channel.It features a (very) jumpy 1981 performance of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" at Hampton Coliseum in Virginia. As the video's de

Music | Music

A Brief History of Rock Musicians Who Went Electronic

Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus recently announced that he’d be going electronic on his next solo record. It’s a weird move, but from Neil Young to Eric Clapton, it’s not without precedent.

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The Beatles’ White Album at 50: When They Was Fab

Dominic Green on a half-century of the marvelous, mixed-up mess that may be the Beatles’ greatest album.

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How Geoff Emerick Helped the Beatles Reinvent Music

The crucial collaborator in the Beatles’ glory years helped them find endless new ways to change the way music sounded

Music | Music

A Brief History of Willie Nelson and Frank Sinatra’s Bromance

Ahead of Nelson’s tribute LP to his favorite singer, watch a series of surreal space travel PSAs they recorded in the early Eighties

Entertainment | ENTERTAINMENT

The Secret Jewish History Of Aretha Franklin – The Forward

Aretha Franklin, who has died at 76, was known as the "Queen of Soul" — and many Jewish artists helped her get that royal title.

Music | Music

The Beatles‘ ‘Revolver’: The Most Ambitious Pop Music Committed To Vinyl

Upon its release in August 1966, The Beatles' 'Revolver' was the most ambitious pop music committed to vinyl and introduced us all to psychedelic music.

Music | Music News

How we made Steppenwolf's Born to Be Wild

It soundtracked the counterculture in Easy Rider – and ended up being played on the moon and Mars

Music | Music

Five myths about the Beatles - The Washington Post

Why did producer George Martin actually take on the band? As punishment.

Music | Vinyl Records!

First ever vinyl release being reissued for its 70th anniversary

.In 1948, a performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in e minor by the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of New York became the first album pressed to vinyl.

Music | Music

How David Bowie Invented Ziggy Stardust

An excerpt from the new book 'Strange Stars' explores how classic sci-fi and the works of William Burroughs fueled Bowie's iconic alter ego

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The Most Valuable Vinyl Records on Earth | Digital Trends

From rare Beatles originals to one-off test pressings, these are some of the most expensive vinyl records on earth — the kind of discs that make plaid-clad record collectors and average listeners alike green with envy, worth everything from a nice used

Music | Music

The Sad Story of Elvis Presley's Senior Prom | Mental Floss

Test your knowledge with amazing and interesting facts, trivia, quizzes, and brain teaser games on MentalFloss.com.

Entertainment | Entertainment

The Rise And Fall Of Tower Records |

“If you were cool, you were cool. If you were an asshole, then you got treated like an asshole.”

Music | Music

Sparkle Moore: The Mysterious Rockabilly Pioneer You've Never Heard Of | Mental Floss

Test your knowledge with amazing and interesting facts, trivia, quizzes, and brain teaser games on MentalFloss.com.

Music | Music News

The Beatles' accountant 50 years on: 'They were scruffy boys who didn't want to pay tax'

In The Beatles’ 1966 song Taxman, George Harrison berates Harold Wilson’s proposed 95pc “supertax” on the UK’s highest earners.

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Watch a Rare Video of Nirvana Rocking Out at Radio Shack in 1988

The band appeared at the Shack the day after they recorded their first studio demo.

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Prince's Epic 'Purple Rain' Tour: An Oral History - Rolling Stone

Members of the Revolution look back on Prince's massive, awe-inspiring 'Purple Rain' tour in our exclusive oral history.

Music | Music News

The Secret History Of Aretha Franklin's "Respect"

50 years ago today, "Respect" became Aretha Franklin's first chart-topper. But when the song was first written by Otis Redding, it was no feminist anthem.

Music | Music

The History - Monterey International Pop Festival

The Big Idea The impetus behind the staging of the Monterey International Pop Festival evolved one night in 1967, at Mama Cass Elliot’s house. Paul McCartney, J

Entertainment | Trailers, Videos & Clips

History of the Eagles Trailer

The music made them...then tore them apart. Learn the real History of the Eagles, Saturday at 8pm on CNN.

Entertainment | Entertainment News!

Nancy Sinatra Talks “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” on the Eve of Its Golden Anniversary

The hit song that inspired a generation of women to “start walkin’” turns 50 tomorrow.

Music | Music

A young Frank Sinatra, dapper and rebellious from birth

Back when Ol' Blue Eyes was just Blue Eyes. On Dec. 12, 1915, Francis Albert Sinatra was born in a tenement in New Jersey, the son of Italian immigrants Natalina Garaventa and Antonino Sinatra. His delivery was rough, leaving him with a perforated eardrum and scarring on his neck, cheek and ear.

Music | Music

Black-And-White Photos Chronicle The Early Days Of Rhythm And Blues

It's not easy, as an artist, to make your primary subject a certain sound. For example, the sound of deep pain mixed with a flame of hope. Photographer Benny Joseph, however, made a career of it. Throughout the 1950s, '60s and '70s, the photographer chronicled the bourgeoning roots of the movement known as rhythm and blues.

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Elvis Presley Artifacts Sold at Graceland Auction | Mental Floss

From handwritten notes to diamond rings to a jacket worn in the film 'Viva Las Vegas,' the items are part of royal rock and roll history.

Music | Music

Forever Changes is a stunning indictment of The Summer Of Love · Permanent Records · The A.V. Club

On a recent episode of the WTF podcast with Marc Maron, Paul Thomas Anderson mused on what he thought the central themes of Thomas Pynchon’s novel Inherent Vice were, and talked a bit about how he tried to translate them to the screen. Anderson can be evasive about the meaning behind his art—what artist isn’t, really?—but he touches on an intriguing idea

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Jack Bruce: five songs that chart his journey through the 60s to Cream

Here are five performances tracing the late Jack Bruce’s journey from 19-year-old upright bass player to part of rock’s first supergroup

Miscellaneous | Interesting Links

Onetime Elvis Presley home in Palm Springs to be auctioned - LA Times

A Palm Springs home once owned by Elvis Presley, currently being marketed at $2.59 million, will be sold at auction Oct. 25.

Music | Music

See 30 Years Of Music Industry Change In One Handy GIF

Track 30 years of music industry evolution in 30 seconds.

History | Historic Los Angeles

The Palomino: An Oral History - Los Angeles Magazine

The sign outside the squat rental hall reads Le Monge, an odd faux-French touch for a North Hollywood neighborhood that never had any pretensions, not even when music’s elite came cruising past the liquor stores and auto body shops lining this stretch of Lankershim Boulevard.

Music | Audio Equipment: SO Cool!

The history of the Walkman: 35 years of iconic music players

We take portable music for granted these days. Any commuter in any big city in the world is more likely than not to have a pair of earbuds or headphones on as they walk, bike, or ride to their...