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How David Bowie Made ‘Let’s Dance’: The Folk Song Nile Rodgers Turned Into His Biggest Hit
When David Bowie first played Let’s Dance for Nile Rodgers, it did not sound like a hit, and it certainly did not sound like a dance record. The two men were at Bowie’s home in Switzerland in late 1982, and Bowie sat down with a twelve-string guitar that had only six strings on it and…
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How Connie Francis Made ‘Stupid Cupid’: The Song Neil Sedaka Was Afraid to Play Her
In the spring of 1958, Connie Francis — born Concetta Franconero in Newark, New Jersey — had finally done the impossible, and it had bought her almost no safety at all. After nearly three years of failed singles for MGM — a run so discouraging that the label had nearly let her go — her…
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How Chic Made ‘I Want Your Love’: The Dream Melody That Nearly Belonged to Sister Sledge
In the winter of 1978, Chic were the most elegant hit machine in disco. Their second album, C’est Chic, contained Le Freak, the biggest-selling single in Atlantic Records’ history, and the world’s dancefloors had surrendered. Yet when musicians argue about the band’s finest record, many of them walk straight past the hit and choose the…
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How Commodores Made ‘Still’: The Divorce That Saved a Friendship
Most great breakup songs are written by the broken. Still was written by the best friend. Lionel Richie’s closest friend since childhood was a Tuskegee neighbour named William Smith — “Smitty” — and in the late 1970s Smitty’s marriage came apart. Richie was not a bystander to that collapse so much as its all-night witness:…
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How Christopher Cross Made ‘Think of Laura’: The Song He Wrote to Comfort a Grieving Friend
Every Christopher Cross hit has a story, but only one of them began with a telephone call nobody should ever have to receive. In April 1982, Cross was at the very summit of the business: little more than a year earlier he had swept the Grammys, winning the Big Four in a single night, and…
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How Cher Made ‘If I Could Turn Back Time’: The Battleship Video That Shocked the Navy
Every great comeback has a song its singer nearly refused to sing. In 1989, Cher was rebuilding her recording career on Geffen Records after conquering Hollywood — an Academy Award for Moonstruck sat on her shelf, and her self-titled 1987 album had returned her to the charts. For the follow-up, Heart of Stone, the most…
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How Chicago Made ‘Just You ’n’ Me’: The Fight That Became a Wedding Announcement
Some love songs are written at a piano in a quiet room, with a pot of coffee and a rhyming dictionary. Just You ‘n’ Me was written in the smoking aftermath of a lovers’ quarrel so fierce that James Pankow’s fiancée had locked herself in the bathroom to get away from him. Pankow, Chicago’s trombonist…
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How Chaka Khan Made ‘Ain’t Nobody’: The Synth Loop That Nearly Went to Michael Jackson
By 1983, Rufus and Chaka Khan were supposed to be winding down. The Chicago funk band and its volcanic young singer had ruled American R&B in the 1970s, but Khan’s solo career was pulling her away, and the group’s new release, Stompin’ at the Savoy, was a live double album — the kind of record…
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How Cat Stevens Made ‘Peace Train’: The Anthem He Wrote on a Train, Thinking of Hitchcock
In the autumn of 1971, Cat Stevens was the most introspective star in pop. Tea for the Tillerman had made him famous on both sides of the Atlantic, and its follow-up, Teaser and the Firecat, was about to confirm him as the folk troubadour of the age; together the two albums would eventually sell more…
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How Carole King Made ‘Jazzman’: The Saxophone Song That Put Her Back on Top
Most Carole King songs begin with her voice or her piano. Jazzman begins with a saxophone — and that is the whole point. Released as a single on August 22, 1974, ahead of her sixth album, Wrap Around Joy, the record is built as a duet between King and a horn: she sings a plea…